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"Maybe someday we'll see the first [exclusively] defensive player to win the Heisman."
- Rocco Casullo, Joey Bosa's high school coach, via David Briggs, The Blade
Ohio State sophomore defensive end Joey Bosa has lived up to his immense hype since committing to the Buckeyes two years ago and is just one sack away from setting the single-season sack record (currently held by former defensive end Vernon Gholston). Bosa's 13 and a half sacks have helped shape Ohio State's defense into a formidable one once more, but isn't satisfied with his accomplishments just yet.
According to his father, Bosa hasn't settled and won't be after this season, either. He plans on working to make himself even better during the offseason to help Ohio State contend for back-to-back visits to the College Football Playoff. This season, Bosa led the Big Ten in sacks, tackles for a loss (20), and forced fumbles (four), and he was named the league's defensive player of the year. Already, despite facing frequent double teams, Bosa's 21 career sacks place him seventh on the school's all-time list.
"First, as we expected, Tom Herman will continue to call the offense through Ohio State's playoff run; We anticipate Urban promoting co-offensive coordinator Ed Warinner to offensive coordinator."
- Scott Roussel, Football Scoop
Scott Roussel and the staff at Football Scoop have done some more digging and have given their latest updates on Ohio State's plans to replace offensive coordinator Tom Herman, who accepted the head coaching job at Houston earlier this week. Football Scoop is reporting that the Buckeyes will likely promote co-offensive coordinator and offensive line coach Ed Warinner to offensive coordinator. As was reported earlier, Herman will stay through the Buckeyes' run in the College Football Playoff and everything will function normally until after the season is over.
Football Scoop also mentions that despite some rumors of wide receivers coach Zach Smith potentially moving to quarterbacks coach, that the Buckeyes will likely keep Smith with the receivers and they expect Ohio State to hire a new quarterbacks coach outside of the current staff. No names were given, but we will certainly keep you updated on any happenings with the staff.
#OhioState MLB Curtis Grant has accepted an invitation to play in the East-West Shrine Game on Jan. 17 in St. Petersburg, Fla.
— Bill Rabinowitz (@brdispatch) December 17, 2014
Ohio State senior linebacker Curtis Grant will be playing in the East-West Shrine Game on Jan. 17 after accepting the invitation to play with fellow senior classmates across the country in what will be his final showing playing as a college player. In his final year thus far, Grant has racked up 53 tackles, five of them going for loss, one sack, one interception, and a fumble recovery.
Grant entered the season with much to prove after starting his collegiate career as a five-star prospect and falling behind in the depth chart for the first couple of seasons. After showing some improvement last year, Grant succeeded in finishing his stint with Ohio State strong with a solid performance throughout the year and could add to that with a big game against Alabama.
"One thing I've learned is teaching through winning. I like to build our guys up (early). You go into the Big Ten and you don't know what's going to happen."
- Ohio State basketball head coach Thad Matta, via Bob Baptist, The Columbus Dispatch
Bob Baptist at The Columbus Dispatch did a nice story on why Ohio State's basketball team is considered to play such a weak non-conference schedule. The basic reasoning is that the Buckeyes have to allow for 18-20 home games during the season to help draw money in as the second-largest contributor to the university (the first being football). Playing the smaller teams allows for Ohio State not to be asked from those schools to play them on their court, unlike big names such as North Carolina or Duke, who would want something similar to a home-and-home like in football.
While those matchups are much more entertaining, the home games needed are not just a once in awhile kind of thing. This is a yearly requirement for Ohio State and that helps to explain some of the cupcakes the Buckeyes devour each season. Thad Matta's quote above is another reason as well. The Big Ten is one of the best, if not the best, conferences in college basketball. Building up confidence can be important for the team too and when you consider the amount of freshmen on this team, it's a good way to go about it. With Matta's track record at Ohio State for getting into the NCAA tournament (and doing well), I'm not sure there's much room for argument.
STICK TO SPORTS:
- The basics of the major new US-Cuba deal.
- Wendy's might be giving breakfast another try. Just stick to the nuggets and you can't go wrong, in my opinion.
- Columbus is ranked 36th in the top 40 biggest US cities ranked by foods.
- Blackberry has released the 'Classic,' a smartphone for yesterday.