College football week 9 thread

I've seen them twice and was impressed. Braxton Miller can make plays both running and throwing and the offensive line is first rate. Receivers are good enough to make a couple of big plays per game and keep the defense alert. OSU's defense seems pretty average --- Iowa marched up and down the field for a half --- but I got the feeling the offense wasn't going to be stopped.

I'd be curious to see how they'd play in a real high-scoring game. Not many teams in the Big Ten going to put up 40, so they don't need to score 40 to win. No knock on them for that. But I think they have the athletes at the skill positions to hang with an Alabama, Oregon or Florida State in a high-scoring game.

I had them No. 2 preseason and haven't seen a reason to move off that so far.

 

It's not a phobia rare to Columbus. Hell, when I think of football factories who load up on cupcakes, Florida, Virginia Tech and Kansas State come to mind.

But my point this: None of this year's unbeatens has a history of hiding out more than the Buckeyes. And when you combine that with a historically bad Big 10, you get what I predict: An unbeaten Ohio State not playing for a national title -- that will deserve little sympathy.

Rarely do you see Ohio State "put itself out there" and hit the road. Yeah they beat Texas in '06, and Cal this year. But they went to the L.A. Coliseum and got bulldozed by USC. Their '02 national title team played EIGHT home games out of 13, and another on a neutal field. They haven't lost to another team from Ohio since 1921, mostly because they only play them in Columbus (or Paul Brown Stadium that one time).

 

Well, there's the fact that no other team in Ohio is anywhere close to Ohio State's talent level. They could be playing on Mars and they wouldn't lose to any of those teams. The only one who even comes close is Cincinnati, and they've only had a handful of teams that even came within shouting distance of OSU's talent in my lifetime.

 

Florida plays FSU every year and Miami quite a bit too -- that's scheduling cupcakes?

Virginia Tech is well-known for aggressive scheduling -- every year they were title contenders, they played a team they didn't need to be playing and it knocked them out of the chase. They've played LSU and Alabama and were the rare team that would take on Boise State when Boise was rolling.

As for Ohio State ... they played Mack Brown's great Texas teams twice, they had a home-and-home with USC, they've played Miami. It will be interesting to see if that continues under Meyer, I have a feeling it won't, but their scheduling historically has been fine.

 

And, of course, I still wouldn't call home-and-homes with USC (#1 and #3 they years they played them), Texas (#2 both times they played them) and Miami (#12 and unranked) hiding out.

 

I recall Ohio State playing a home-and-home series with Notre Dame in the mid-1990s (I was at the game in South Bend).

Not only did the Buckeyes roll to relatively easy wins, but the amount of scarlet and grey in the stands at Notre Dame's stadium had to be truly embarrassing for the Fighting Irish.

There won't be another regular season meeting between these two teams anytime soon.

 

VT also has scheduled series with Ohio State (starting next year), Wisconsin (2019, 2020), Michigan (2020, 2021), Penn State (2022, 2023), and West Virginia (2021, 2022) as well as games against Tennessee and Notre Dame (ACC thing).

They definitely like to keep the Marshalls, Libertys, and Richmonds on the schedule, but they also man up with some big boys, too. Sure, they always lose the big ones.....goddammit.

 

When did Florida last play a non-conference road game? Who was president then?

As far as Ohio State and Va. Tech, okay, so I was a bit overreaching and didn't check my facts as well as I should.

But you can catch me, The Herd, each morning on the radio and simulcast on ESPU.

 

At Miami, about 6 weeks ago.

 

Sept. 7, 2013. Barack Obama.

 

And now we've opened the door to the inevitable, "Yeah, but when did they LEAVE THE STATE OF FLORIDA?" nonsense.

Like a 340-mile trip to Miami is somehow easier than a 340-mile trip to, say, Atlanta, because they never left the state.

 

Distance from Gainesville to Miami: 340 miles

Distance from Ann Arbor to South Bend: 180 miles

But it's in another state!