Collegiate Stadiums

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Tag Archives: Ohio State

Daily Huddle 4-22-12

Today’s daily huddle will be all photos and videos since I worked 18 hours yesterday and 14 hours today.

A photo of the 2011 Michigan State team ring

A photo of the 2011 Michigan State team ring

 

Georgia Tech showing of their beat up field before the spring game

Paul "Bear" Bryant at General Robert Neyland's funeral

2012 Penn State spring game crowd

2012 Arkansas spring game crowd

2012 Kentucky spring game crowd

2012 NC State spring game crowd

2012 Ohio State spring game crowd

2012 Ole Miss spring game crowd

2012 Syracuse spring game crowd

2012 Washington State spring game crowd

Not much to say here, it's Trooper Taylor in a fireman's hat

A photo of Bryant-Denny Stadium from an Army helicopter

And finally, Brandon Weeden destroying clay pigeons with a football. Personally, I can’t do that with a shotgun, let alone a football!

[ring photos via @MSU_Football]

[Grant Field photo via @GeorgiaTech]

[Bear Bryant photo via @LinkVol]

[Penn State photo via @KevinOnCFB]

[all other crowd photos via @SPORTSbyBROOKS]

[Weeden video via @pistolsguy]

[Bryant-Denny photo via @marctorrence]

Daily Huddle 4-16-12

College football stories, links and photos from around the web.

A group of Ohio State players trolling Florida by tebowing at the 2012 Gator Bowl

I didn’t have a photo for today, then I found this photo I took at this years Gator Bowl and realized that the Ohio State players were “tebowing.”

A great story by Andy Staples on how Jessica Dorrell just hurt all women in collegiate athletics.

ESPN has acquired the rights to broadcast USC games nationally on the radio. Expect a full on media blitz to make USC the #1 team in the country from ESPN.

The Ohio Bobcats are looking for season ticket holders and are willing to sell tickets for just $4.50 each!

Boise State head coach Chris Petersen just got a raise, to $11.75 million over the next 5 years. The deal includes more money for the school from Nike.

Kevin McGuire (@KevinOnCFB) just wrote a great article outlining why Northwestern’s Pat Fitzgerald is such a “breath of fresh air.”

More on the Texas A&M Kyle Field renovation plans that may involve building an entirely new stadium.

Colorado State is hosting a public input session for a new on-campus stadium.

My Eddie Robinson Coach of the Year Award Ballot

On December 15th, the Football Writers Association of America will announce the winner of the Eddie Robinson Coach of the Year Award. Since I am a member of the FWAA, I have a vote in this award. I thought I would post my ballot and explain why I put ranked the candidates in the order that I did.

 

Now I know no matter what order I put these five coaches in, I am bound to attract all sorts of comments, but I tried to put decent rationalization behind by vote, along with some help from @CFBZ and @sportingpuma.

Bill Snyder: Snyder got #1 on my ballot because he managed to win consistently with inferior talent. To go 10-2 in the Big 12 is a tough accomplishment with a loaded team. To do it with a lack of talent is just incredible.

 

Les Miles: I went back and forth between Miles and Mike Gundy for second on my ballot before making a final decision. The deciding factor here was how Miles was able to handle multiple issues from losing is offensive coordinator right before the season, to losing key players due to bar stompings and smoking weed (allegedly).

 

Mike Gundy: Now that isn’t to say Gundy didn’t have to get his team to handle adversity, but the one major issue that faced Oklahoma State did not directly involve the football team. While much more of a travesty versus anything LSU faced, I couldn’t overlook the fact that Oklahoma State blew a 24-7 lead against Iowa State. Iowa State is a team that I saw play in person and well, the Cyclones just were not a good football team.

 

Brady Hoke: Fourth on my ballot was Hoke. A good coach who seems to have quickly turned the culture at Michigan back to its traditional roots, but the overall body of work this season just wasn’t as impressive as some of the other candidates. The major wins by Hoke, over Ohio State and Notre Dame came during down years for those programs and just were not as impressive as they would be most years.

 

Dabo Swinney: Last on my ballot was Swinney. Clemson had a great year, but they also had a few consecutive games where they just flat were out-coached and outplayed, particularly against North Carolina State. To me, that is not the hallmark of a team coached by the national coach of the year, so I put Swinney fifth.

How a Bigger Divisional Lead for Penn State is Bad

While most of the country was focusing on Clemson getting worked by Georgia Tech and USC battling Stanford despite some terrible officiating, I noticed quite a few Penn State fans openly cheering for Ohio State to beat Wisconsin.

 

The reasoning seemed simple, if Ohio State beat Wisconsin, Penn State would have a two game lead in the Leaders division of the Big Ten. However, I’m going to explain why a two game lead makes Penn State’s path to the Big Ten Championship game harder.

 

I know, you are probably wondering how a one game lead can be better than a two game lead but I am going to do my best to explain how it is possible.

First, let’s look at the current standings after Ohio State did in fact beat Wisconsin:

 

Now, let’s look at Penn State’s remaining schedule:

 

Also, let’s look at the Big Ten tie-breaker situation if there is a three team tie:

So for this exercise we will make an assumption that Ohio State and Wisconsin win all of their remaining games except for their respective games against Penn State.

 

If you are not aware of which teams Ohio State and Wisconsin have left to play outside of Penn State, well here you go:

Ohio State:

Wisconsin:

Looking at those schedules I think that it is a very reasonable guess that Wisconsin will win out till the Penn State game and the only other real test for Ohio State will be its game against Michigan.

 

Alright, now that we have the background knowledge out of the way, let’s get to the fun part:

 

If Wisconsin had beaten Ohio State:

This one is easy. Penn State would have had a one game lead on Wisconsin and a three game lead on Ohio State. This would have meant that all Penn State had to do was beat Wisconsin. They could have lost to both Nebraska and Ohio State, which would make them 5-2 in the Big Ten leading to the Wisconsin game, who would have been 6-1. By beating Wisconsin, the two teams would tie for the division and Penn State would win the tie-breaker and the division.

 

That’s it, simple as that, all that would have mattered was the game against Wisconsin.

 

Now, on to the actual situation at hand and the possible outcomes:

 

Penn State beats Nebraska, loses to Ohio State and Wisconsin:

In this situation, Penn State would finish third in the division, Wisconsin second and Ohio State would play in the title game. While all three teams would have the Big Ten record, Penn State is the first to be eliminated by tie-breaker b1 because they would have lost to both Ohio State and Wisconsin. Then it reverts to the head-to-head matchup between Ohio State and Wisconsin, which Ohio State won, giving the Buckeyes the division.

 

Penn State beats Ohio State, loses to Nebraska and Wisconsin:

Here Ohio State would be eliminated by having a third Big Ten loss. Unfortunately for Penn State they would finish tied with Wisconsin with two Big Ten losses and they would lose the tie-breaker do to losing head-to-head.

 

Penn State beats Wisconsin, loses to Nebraska and Ohio State:

Basically the same as the above situation just with Ohio State and Wisconsin reversed. Wisconsin is eliminated with what would be their third conference loss and Ohio State wins the tie-breaker over Penn State by winning head-to-head.

 

Conclusion:

That’s right, by having a larger division lead, Penn State is now in a situation where the only way to win the division now is to win two of the three remaining games instead of just one game without that one win being against Ohio State and getting some help from Michigan.

 

Next time I hope fans take a moment to look at the whole standings and schedule situation before worrying about how big a division lead is half way through the conference race.

Breaking Down the Urban Meyer to Penn State Rumor

Last Saturday, I had to work 5:30am till 11am so I could make it to Morgantown in time to photograph the game. Early next week I will be posting my story on my WVU trip but what is important here is a piece of information I was given right before I left town.

 

A friend of mine came in to the store right as I was walking out the door and said

 

“I was talking to someone who works in the athletic department yesterday and he told me that Urban Meyer recently met with Tim Curley and Graham Spanier. He also said that Meyer was looking at, and may have even bought, a house in the area and that Meyer’s daughter wanted to transfer to Penn State to finish out her volleyball career.”

 

Naturally I dismissed what he told me and passed it off as crazy messageboard type BS until today’s story from Jeff Rapp. Since I was already late getting out the door to WVU I didn’t discuss too much of it with him except the part of Meyer meeting Spanier, since that seemed like an odd meeting. So, while I still think the entire story seems fishy, I am going to break down what I was told MythBuster’s style and deem each part true, false or probable.

 

1) Urban Meyer was recently in State College: True

Meyer was in town to do an ESPN piece on LB Michael Mauti

 

2) Meyer met with Tim Curley and Graham Spanier while in town: Probable

I have no way to confirm or deny, but to see it in both the Rapp article and to hear it from a person I trust, I find is possible.

 

3) Meyer was looking at housing and may have bought a house: False

Based on the way coaching searches work, there is no way that Meyer would buy a house in State College without already having the job locked up. If talks were serious, it is possible that he looked at what housing costs, but that is about as far as that would go at this point. Also, Real Estate transactions show up in the local paper, it would be all over the news by now.

 

4) Meyer’s daughter wants to transfer here to finish out her volleyball career: likely False

Meyer has two daughter’s, Nikki and Gigi. Nikki plays at Georgia Tech as a libero and is already a Junior. It would make little sense to transfer at this point of her career to a team that has 3 defensive specialists on the roster who are younger (1 sophomore and 2 freshman). Gigi is just a freshman at Florida Gulf Coast University, but she is a setter and Penn State is already playing a freshman setter who was one of the top recruits in the country.

 

Conclusion:

I think that this year or next will be Joe Paterno’s last year here at Penn State. I also think that Ohio State will be getting rid of Luke Fickell at the end of this year. I just don’t see how Penn State can possibly get into a bidding war with Ohio State for Urban Meyer to come in for 2-5 years. Based on Meyer’s past history, he doesn’t stay at any job for the long term and Penn State only looks to make long-term hires. I just don’t see this happening, and I have a feeling it had more to do with getting a feeler for how coaches in the profession are going to view the idea of replacing Joe Paterno when the time comes.

Now, maybe someone will break this story open and maybe there is truth to what I was told. Maybe there is a reason for the reports the ESPN is restricting Meyer’s media availability this weekend while he is in State College to call the Iowa at Penn State game. But, I hope you all understand why I remain skeptical about the story.