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Home > Blogs > Buckeyes Beat > Archives > 2008 > September > 10
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
No, your momma. No! Your Momma!
We begin this post — a highlight of the insult-riddled and disrespect-driven undercurrent to this weekend’s Ohio State-USC football game — with our friend Ray Small, the Buckeyes receiver who apparently was good enough at Cleveland’s Glenville High School to be recruited by USC. Asked about USC recently by ESPN.com, Small offered a few thoughts. Among them, he said:
“I took my visit to USC, I’m like, ‘How are they successful? They’re not even serious about the game,’ ” Small said. “Before the game, they’re all going crazy. Me and [defensive end] Rob Rose was on the visit and I’m looking like, ‘Wow.’
“And then the coach said, ‘You better get out of here. It’s ‘bout to get hectic.’ “
There’s more.
It’s “a class thing. Here at Ohio State, they teach you to be a better man. There, it’s just all about football.”
(Wince.) Jim Tressel, it’s time to freak out. Not only are the USC Trojans the best college football team in this country, one of your players (who, we might add, has been in and out of Tressel’s dog house since he got to the campus anyway) has just told them that they’re crappy people. Folks in Hollywoodland think the same about the Buckeyes.
No one at USC has said that. But the view from L.A. is clear in this column from Bill Plaschke of the Los Angeles Times (I’ll give Mr. Plaschke a good amount of space on this one):
Don’t get me started.
I’m still furious at the Buckeyes for ruining the last two national championship games by failing to show up in either.
I’m sick of annually watching them awkwardly slog their way to the top of the polls by winning a conference that has become college football’s version of the International League.
And, yeah, at the end of that 2002 national championship game against Miami? Bad call. That was not pass interference. Period.
It’s not that slow, boring, overrated football bothers me. Hey, during the Pete Carroll era, I’ve sat through entire bowl games featuring Iowa, Michigan and Illinois.
Deep breath.
It’s as if Ohio State folks believe they invented the game, while USC has only exploited it.
Ohio State plays football, USC entertains with it. Ohio State teaches football, USC taunts with it.
Blah, blah, blah.
This is why a lot off folks around the Ohio State program feel like the rest of the country is against them. The rest of the country would say the Buckeyes bring it on themselves.
(Rubbing hands together.)
This is getting interesting.
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What role will Pryor play against USC?
Heard a short Jim Tressel interview on ESPN Radio today. Tressel talked with Colin Cowherd, one of the most deep-thinking guys on the dial.
Reading between the lines, it sounds like Ohio State will unveil freshman QB Terrelle Pryor on the national stage Saturday night against USC. He won’t start, of course, but he’ll have to pitch in. That might come as a mild surprise, considering how Pryor was pretty much Super-Glued to the sideline last week against Ohio U.
“We won’t hesitate at all if the situation is right,” Tressel said when asked about using Pryor. “He’ll find the speed he’ll see will be faster. It will be much different that training camp, but he’ll adjust.”
I think Ohio State has to use a few tricks to win. I recall Nebraska’s trip to USC a couple years ago. The Huskers had no chance, but went deep into the playbook and used a fake punt and other assorted hi-jinks. They got killed, but stayed in it early and made things interesting.
Cowherd asked Tressel if it was fair to label the OSU offense as conservative.
“It probably is,” Tressel said. “I’ve never felt being conservative is a negative. … I’d rather be called conservative than reckless.”
Asked if he were a little concerned about the Buckeyes’ lackluster performance last week, Tressel answered, “I was a lot concerned.”
I think that qualifies as a joke for OSU’s coach.
