Willyville Guy

He's the best when his team is playing good football: great on the field, great in the locker room, hilarious and likable in the public eye. BMarsh is a talented guy who can be productive and full of personality. He's also the worst when his team is playing bad football: on-field effort appears to wane out of frustration, cancer in the locker room, talks smack about teammates and coaches in the media. This is Buffalo so things will not always go well. Pass.

This past week has been insane. I'm exhausted by all the activity at the WHAC. I needed a little pick me up yesterday, so I went and counted the seven (7) five stars coming in. Go Bucks.

Kids go play football at OSU because they want to get to the NFL. Can't blame them for taking their shot when they can. Note though that lots of players graduate, too. Bummer about Samuel and Gibson. I can see Samuel doing well in the NFL. As for Gibson, I wonder if he'll try to play QB somewhere. Hope they find what they'r'e looking for. Meanwhile, Demario McCall and Bin Victor, come on down!

Noah Brown, who by my count had two good games as a Buckeye, has declared for the NFL draft. I wish him the best but am really surprised by that decision. Meanwhile, Gibson tweeted out this morning that he'll be back in Ohio on Monday. Is he coming back? Hope so. Strange days in the WR room.

I'm unsure about the QB situation, too. I expect that Urban will decide early rather than get into another morass like 2015.

JT is the all-time QB TD leader in the history of Ohio State football. Martell will be in a high school science class tomorrow morning. I just don't see how you can open it up like that. The kid from USC forces the question, but I can't see Urban handing the keys to anyone other than JT. He already graduated - I kind of wish some booster would give JT a car dealership in Worthington already and be done with it. Meanwhile, how come the Wilson deal isn't done yet? And aren't you a little salty to see Drayton go to Texas? I am.

JT announced today that he's coming back for his senior year. Lots of unhappy Buckeye fans out there who were excited about Haskins or Burrow. Here's to hoping that a new staff can help JT round back into form.

Pretty cool to see all this activity on the very first business day after getting KO'd.

Big day. It looks like this is trending toward Wilson as OC and Warriner heading back to OL. I've been asking for this result and I'd be psyched with it. I have to admit though that the QB coach from the 49ers coming on board is making me daydream about Chip Kelly. They also should excuse Zach Smith, I think, and find someone new for the receivers. Riveting stuff!

Kelly is an interesting thought, and it would be pretty incredible to have two former NFL head coaches as the coordinators, but it feels like a long shot and I'd be very happy with Wilson.

Lol. I've been in a dark place ever since the first quarter of that train wreck. There were issues on offense all year long with few exceptions, and Buckeye fans mostly just hoped that with a month to prepare Urban and JT would somehow make those issues go away. But instead there was no magic and the playcalling didn't help either. Oh well - the defense deserved better. Always heartbreaking to see Carmen Ohio after a loss, but I'm glad they do it.

Lots of excitement about Haskins playing the Watson role during practice lately. Apparently the kid looks great.

So it looks like Torrence Gibson is moving on, although it's not clear where. That's too bad. All year long we bitched about how none of the receivers could get separation - and he was supposed to be the guy to get that done. Frustrating, especially in light of Urban's unusually public objection to the suspension earlier this year. I wish Gibson well. Meanwhile, with all of the D1 head coach vacancies now filled, it looks like this year's coaching drain is done. Keeping Schiano and Coombs is a big win. Looking forward to a good hire to coach LBs. Still hope to see some changes on the offensive side of the ball.

He gives the greatest introductory press conferences of all time. I'll give him that.

Following the day-to-day operations of a competent program like Ohio State makes being a Bills fan even more painful. The contrast is like a daily punch in the gut.

I'm fine with this. Fickell will likely be back someday.

I'd like to see Urban pick up Kevin Wilson to run the offense, move Warriner back to OL duty, and I guess let Beck go back to full time QB coach. Urban loves the way Wilson calls games and has always heaped praise on the guy. He runs the same offense Urban wants to run, and he had success with far less talent than he would have at Ohio State. Yeah, sounds like he was rough with the players during practice at IU - but maybe that can be managed.

Looks like Fickell, Coombs, and Schiano are all interviewing for head coach or coordinator positions at other programs. I wish those guys nothing but the best, but it would be a shame if the Bucks experience at big setback at key coaching positions just as the kids come of age. And more immediately, I hope none of this distracts from Clemson.

F it I am with you. C'mon, Bills -- go win a football game!

I think I'm placing greater emphasis on the talent around them during the years in questions. Cutler should have done better in that offense, and instead he threw way too many picks... many at the worst possible time. I'm okay with agreeing to disagree about Brees versus Cutler.

Cutler threw a league-leading 18 picks that year with arguably the best group of receivers in the NFL and a perfectly serviceable line. He's no Drew Brees.

In 2014 he had Forte, Marshall, Jeffrey, and Martellus Bennett -- and his team went 5-11. Pass.

Embrace the chaos. There are 128 schools in the FBS, and jokes aside these kids are students. There is no practical way to truly settle it all on the field. The Pardon My Take podcast had a funny idea the other day about a one-weekend elimination tournament where you a run a bunch of teams through an overtime-style situation with each team getting the ball on the 30 and a chance to score. That would be pretty wild. Short of that, the coaches, media, and now this playoff committee, will continue to do what they have done for more than a century: look at the teams, look at the wins and losses, and try to figure out who's who in the zoo. It's subjective, political, and profoundly imperfect-- but all that B.S. is also part of the intrigue for fans. Expanding the playoff field to eight teams wouldn't fix anything; we'd still be arguing over who should be in and who should be out based on rankings made in a conference room.

Bob in Michigan - thanks. It really was a great game. The way things are going, we might see a rematch this year! I saw the linked video earlier today. I understand the instinct to complain about the refs. What I don't like about the video is that it singles out the individual refs and accuses them of purposefully manipulating the game because supposedly they are Buckeye fans. I think that's where this "controversy" crosses the line from ordinary grumbling to a loony-toons conspiracy theory. I'm not saying that's you--you've been nothing but civil--but it's an unfortunate message that I believe started with Harbaugh and has caught fire within the Michigan community. Ohio State outgained Michigan 235-61 after the Wolverines went up 17-7. That should bother Michigan fans far more than the refs' hometowns, in my opinion.

Just thrilled to see the Bucks win a great game against their biggest rival. It was a very emotional game with big ups and downs, and all of those kids just playing their hearts out for their teams. Hugely entertaining. Incredible way to end the season. I love college football for days like that. The rivalry is back to a boiling point. For Michigan, it sort of looked like the 2015 MSU game where they took a crushing loss but showed that they were ready to play a dominating rival evenly again. What a defensive effort for the Bucks on Saturday and all year long. Meyer tells them to "swing! swing! swing!" as hard as they can until the final whistle, and that is exactly what they did. The D willed the team to victory through turnovers, huge stops, and -- perhaps most importantly -- holding Michigan to five yards of offense in the fourth quarter while the visitors tried to hold the lead. As for the offense, ugh. The three-headed rushing monster of Barrett/Weber/Samuel again caused problems for a great defense. Each of them stepped up and made a play when needed to keep putting points on the board when everything was on the line. The passing, though, man -- it's completely off the rails. The guy with a broken collar bone outplayed our guy. I'm having a tough time imagining trophies and confetti without a competent passing game. We'll see if they get a chance to try to fix it this year. We'll also have to discuss Barrett, his regression, and next year at a later time in this thread. As for Harbaugh, I think it was a terrible look for him to spend an eight-minute press conference complaining about the refs. It was a great and physical game--the last rivalry game for his many seniors--and he chose not to even acknowledge any of that. The spot was a very close, very tough call. There is no good angle. You can say he looked short, and I can say it looked like forward progress carried the ball to the 15 yard line -- the truth is nobody knows. The ref called a tie in favor of the runner at home, which is perfectly normal. There was no evidence to overturn the spot. I don't understand the outrage as anything other than sour grapes. Maybe it's because I'm from Buffalo: I've seen a clear-as-day overhead photo of Brett Hull with his skate in the crease on the front page of the paper; I've seen the replay of Wycheck throwing that forward pass; I watched that puck go in through the side of the net against the Penguins; I've seen evidence of the refs deciding to "just give it to" the Patriots. I know what it's like to see my team get absolutely effed by the refs with evidence to prove it. The spot on fourth down is far more subjective and does not qualify. Michigan fans howling otherwise are just pouring out their salty tears for Buckeye fans to drink. I know there were other calls that could have been made or should not have been made, but that's pretty much every game. I note that there were no offensive holding calls against Michigan either, as they aggressively tried to protect their injured QB, and a Buckeye got a penalty for not having his friggin' mouth guard. Bottom line is that Michigan blew a lead and lost the game because of turnovers and a disappearing offense. It happens. As for the playoffs, I have a feeling the Bucks will get in, but there can’t be any realistic expectations with a QB who can’t throw a five-yard slant. The only thing we can hope for is that his intangibles will show up when needed again, which doesn’t seem sustainable. Just keep feeding Samuel, keep playing defense, and keep swinging swinging swinging. Go Bucks!