Willyville Guy

Totally. It's almost as if you're doing the couple a favor by watching the games!

Well Urban's undefeated season ('12) and his natty ('14) came primarily with Tressel's recruits, so it's fair to make that argument. But since then, Urban's recruiting classes have graded out at levels that Tressel never achieved, and the team has been historically successful during his entire tenure so far. As for this year, it's tough to tell. New QB, questions at OL, LB, and even the D-backs make it hard to predict how the season will play out. The team appears to be really stacked though, particularly at RB and DL. Several beat reports are predicting that the offense will break school scoring records this year. Can't wait to see how it plays out.

Almost forgot how much I love game trailers.

One of my college buddies from OSU describes this as the proudest moment of his life: Buddy: Dad, I want you to know that I proposed to Cindy and we’re getting married in the fall. Buddy’s Dad: That’s great - your mom and I love Cindy. What weekend are you getting married? Buddy: The bye week, Dad! Dad: I’m proud of you, son! “The bye week, Dad!” has become a rallying cry among my friends ?

Day and Wilson to share play calling duties. The more things change, the more they stay the same.

GAME WEEK!!

FWIW, I’m fine with the suspension for the same basic reason stated repeatedly here and in the Go Bucks thread: Urban let a loose cannon and bad coach hang around the program for too long out of loyalty to Coach Bruce and he got burned for it. Zach Smith is a clown and a jackass and a terrible example for student athletes. Urban knew it and should have fired him sooner, so the suspension is justified in my opinion. Since the investigation concluded that no legal or contractual obligations were broken, the trustees were correct in deciding that Urban shouldn’t be fired. Sorry for your loss, haters. But that’s pretty much it. I still don’t know what to think about Courtney Smith and her claims of abuse. I tend to accept the conclusions of the police investigations as well as Courtney’s own mother who said that Courtney is lying. However, I was particularly dismayed to learn that the OSU investigation confirmed the disputed report that Coach Bruce himself went to Florida in 2009 to dissuade Courtney Smith from coming forward. That’s a sad and disturbing addition to his legacy. Courtney deserves a process that is concerned with her story (and maybe that already happened, but it’s worth double-checking) without the irrelevant sideshow of who within OSU’s or Texas’s athletic departments knew or should have known. Finally, the narrative that OSU cares more about winning than domestic violence is completely bogus. Keeping Smith on staff was never about winning. He’s not a good coach and provided no competitive advantage. To the contrary, the investigation concluded that Smith’s job performance was a problem in the past few years. This is about nepotism and letting someone hang around because he was in the Ohio State football family. And again, the truth of Courtney’s claims are far from clear under the circumstances. I am sensitive to the issues of victim shaming and the difficulties of proving allegations of abuse that by their nature occur in private and are hard to prove with extrinsic evidence. Still, anyone who jumps to conclusions based on the convoluted and conflicting information available in this scenario must be results-driven and not concerned with the truth.

I’m not really a fan of Smith so if this is a step toward replacing him then I’m fine with it.

Gene Smith also suspended without pay during the same time period.

This guy clearly doesn’t care about facts.

He may end up getting sued for slander or libel by the time this is over.

Heh - Friday news dump. Just like the pros in politics.

Apparently the big announcement was on the football side. I wish the last line said Welcome Back Urban!

It’s Demario’s time.

I’m told there may be an official announcement this afternoon. Fingers crossed.

Seems like you got burned pretty bad. Sorry, man. As for Courtney Smith, there is a lot of information out there already and new facts break every day. So at this point I'm going to continue to watch this drama unfold and withhold judgment in the meantime. I will say though that the more complicated this gets, the less clear it becomes what Urban Meyer was supposed to do about any of it.

EDIT: I’m removing this report containing quotes from Courtney Smith’s mother in order to avoid raising the temp on a sensitive issue. Man, this situation is a mess.

I'm pumped! Gameday made the right call to go to an early-season rivalry game in South Bend.

Yes please.

One thing that jumps out to me about the independent working group and the investigative team is that they are full of former federal prosecutors. I would expect that a team like this will follow the evidence and make objective conclusions no matter the ramifications. I'm not sure how they know that the investigation will take 14 days, however, unless almost all of the documents have been gathered and reviewed and all they need to do is interview witnesses.

I sense the finger pointing is about to turn to Gene Smith. What a mess.

Not to make light of the ugly parts of this situation, but I have a dream that UFM walks into camp, gives this speech, and the team wins all its games 100-0.

Now I definitely expect fewer QB runs in 2018.