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February 2009
Diebler, again, larger than life
No. 2 on SportsCenter’s Top 10 plays this morning feature Ohio State guard Jon Diebler in pre-game warm ups before Tuesday’s game against Penn State. After draining a half-court shot, the show cut to Diebler making another, swishing from the mid-court OSU logo.
He might as well make half-court shots. To many, Diebler maintains a mythical quality.
No matter what his numbers at Ohio State have been (slow start, but improving), Diebler spent his high school career putting up points at a rate that earned him Paul Bunyan status. Many of us followed his reports from short sentences of statewide coverage that made him sound invincible. It was 40-some points one night, then 50-some the next and 60-some in several cases.
But because he came from a smaller Division II school, Upper Sandusky, not much was known about Diebler. Many folks, frankly, didn’t know his position, height or any other information.
They knew he scored a lot of points.
It was a interesting characteristic we addressed in a 2007 story about Diebler during his senior season in high school:
Despite his success, though, he is more Rick Mount than O.J. Mayo — a player whose exploits have become coffee shop talk, not ESPN fodder. In this rural town of 6,455 residents about 40 miles east of Interstate 75 on U.S. 30, they know him because there are no secrets at Woody’s, the Pour House or the Steer Barn.
But outside of Upper Sandusky, he is mostly known through one-sentence passages in newspapers, which tell readers he has scored 60 points or 47 points or 69 points in leading 10th-ranked Upper Sandusky to its second Northern Ohio League title in 42 years (both have come in the past three seasons, since father Keith took the head coaching job).
In many places, he is more myth than the smiling, friendly, 18-year-old who was so worried when he earned his first speeding ticket a year ago (68 in a 55) that he telephoned Ohio State basketball coach Thad Matta to express his concern.
He still has a scholarship waiting in Columbus, where beginning next season many will see him for the first time and take in a player whose basketball accomplishments have been the stuff of blue oxen in central Ohio.
“Before the Internet and television and cable, the players were mostly unknown,” said Jay Burson, whose 22-year-old record of 2,958 career points Diebler broke on Feb. 23 (Diebler currently stands at 3,036). “Not everyone saw Bob Cousy play, just heard about what he did. You still have that at the high school level, at least for now.
“And Jon, I think, is the best example of a high school hero.”
Now at Ohio State, Diebler is no longer so unknown. But that doesn’t mean he can’t still be larger-than-life at times.
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TweetWill Kenyon College swimming help OSU football?
Jim Steen is a guy you might want to listen to if you have an interest in winning. He’s a swimming coach, but a swimming coach who has won 29 consecutive NCAA Division III men’s national championships and 22 women’s titles in 33 years at Kenyon College.
That’s why Ohio State football coach Jim Tressel has reached out to Steen, per The New York Times:
One day last spring Ohio State’s football coach, Jim Tressel, made the hourlong trek from Columbus to learn from Steen, whose swimmers have won 47 N.C.A.A. Division III men’s and women’s team titles for Kenyon College.
Tressel, who has guided the Buckeyes to five Big Ten titles and three Bowl Championship Series title games in eight seasons, sat in Steen’s office and scribbled pages of notes one afternoon as Steen shared his philosophies.
“Jim is one of the most intriguing people I’ve ever met,” Tressel said recently by telephone.
Steen is one of the most interesting, least known successful coaches in the country. Consider this anecdote from reporter Karen Crouse:
Many of the 33 women and 29 men on this year’s teams speak of Steen as if he were the Stroke Whisperer. They say he can finish their sentences, articulate their unspoken fears, read their minds. Kellyn Caldwell, a freshman, recalled a story told by her mother, Kris Kennard Caldwell, a former Kenyon swimmer who spent one season as Steen’s assistant. Steen, her mother said, studied one of his relay swimmers as she stood behind the blocks, then said: “She’s going to false start. I can tell.” Sure enough, she did.
Tressel remains, rightfully so, the best-known coach in Ohio. It’s long been said the most powerful person in the state, bar none, is the football coach at Ohio State, whoever it might be that day. Tressel has carried that responsibility with class and respect.
Despite the grief Tressel receives for some big-game losses the Buckeyes have suffered, his record remains above argument. But there’s one man in the state who dwarfs Tressel in championships, which is why Tressel has reached out to tiny Gambier, Ohio, and Jim Steen.
The investment that Steen makes in each of his athletes impressed Tressel.
“One of the things that jumped out at me was Jim’s passion for working to be certain that his young people reach their potential,” Tressel said. “It’s even agonizing for him the thought of that not occurring.”
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TweetMore kid QBs coming at Michigan
The quarterback situation was difficult at Michigan last season.
Mark Snyder of the Detroit Free Press wants you to know that 2009 could be even worse.
When Steven Threet announced he was transferring away from Michigan after one season of splitting time as the starter, the Wolverines were sent back to the QB drawing board. Except this time, the cupboard of experience is even more bare.
From Snyder:
But with Sheridan the only returning QB with significant experience — and his early-season decision making did not inspire confidence — Rodriguez and quarterbacks coach Rod Smith basically will have to start over, making last year a major loss.
And it’s not like last year was considered a major victory in the first place.
Nick Sheridan battled Threet for the starting job last year, but he was a walk-on, and he doesn’t fit well into coach Rich Rodriguez’ spread offense. So the question becomes, what does Michigan have in its two incoming QB recruits, Tate Forcier and Denard Robinson?
Good news: They’re respected recruits. Bad news: They’re still freshmen.
Forcier is a 6-foot-1, 185-pounder from San Diego and Scripps Ranch High School. If you want to know more about him, you can check out his very own Web site, which includes an entertaining section with scanned copies of his scholarship offer letters, including the letter from Rodriguez.
Robinson is a 6-foot, 180-pounder from Deerfield Beach, Fla. And, he was highly recruited, to the point that he could delay his decision until signing day.
Rodriguez himself made quite a pitch during a line of coaching visits leading up to signing day:
Just look at last week, when a parade of coaches came through Robinson’s living room. On Tuesday, Meyer showed up to make his pitch. Tennessee coach Lane Kiffin also was there on Tuesday.
From Wednesday through Thursday, Georgia coach Mark Richt, Auburn coach Gene Chizik and Central Florida coach George O’Leary visited. On Saturday, the entire Michigan offensive coaching staff showed up.
Rodriguez has told Robinson he can be the next White, a speedy, all-purpose quarterback who starred for Rodriguez at West Virginia. Rodriguez has no one like White at Michigan, and he has made it clear that Robinson could start as a freshman.
Indeed, he might have to.
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TweetMontana being wooed in Columbus
A few weeks after nervously reaching the recruiting finish line finally with a quarterback in hand, the Ohio State football team is working heavily on one of the country’s top juniors.
As we’ve known for a few days now, California quarterback Nick Montana, son of legend Joe Montana, is visiting Columbus today and tomorrow after already collecting several top Division I scholarship offers. This past year, with Terrelle Pryor entrenched as the starter, the Buckeyes had trouble finding a quarterback for the recruiting class, finally settling on Houston-area QB Kenny Guiton.
From Montana’s public comments, OSU is working him heavily:
“Coach Tressel said I am their guy (at quarterback),” Montana said. “He said until I make a decision they are only recruiting me.”
For a glimpse at Montana’s star-studded Oaks Christian high school team, check out this summer feature from Yahoo! Sports. Montana is the quarterback, and the sons of Wayne Gretzky and Will Smith are both on the team.
Is he any good? Here’s a slice:
But it was the recent arrival of Joe Montana’s son that generated red-carpet buzz - after Oaks Christian realized who had arrived.
“The admissions office called and said, ‘Do you know a Joe Montana?’” Redell said. “And I said, ‘Yeah, I’ve heard of the guy.’”
A week later, having had only 20 minutes to familiarize himself with the team’s offense, Nick Montana threw two fades passes and a 50-yard bomb for touchdowns during one of the weekly summer scrimmages.
By the end of the year, Oaks Christian was 14-0.
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TweetSix months to go. Buckeyes ranked No. 7 (or something like that)
What, no ranking for 2012?
Since we can’t look that far ahead, let’s turn to 2009, when Ohio State will have perhaps the most exciting (and now experienced) quarterback in the country. If only there were some way to judge how the Buckeyes stack up.
Wait, there is! ESPN.com’s Mark Schlabach has Ohio State ranked No. 7 behind Florida, Oklahoma, Texas, Alabama, Virginia Tech and USC in the pre-pre-preseason poll. His thoughts:
The Buckeyes suffered heavy personnel losses from the team that lost to Texas 24-21 in the Fiesta Bowl. Linebackers James Laurinaitis and Marcus Freeman, receiver Brian Robiskie and cornerback Malcolm Jenkins were seniors last season. Then tailback Chris “Beanie” Wells and receiver Brian Hartline decided to skip their senior seasons and enter the NFL draft. Terrelle Pryor should improve in his second season as a starting quarterback, and the Ohio State coaches feel confident about tailback Dan Herron, who filled in well when Wells was hurt in 2008. Pryor must become a better passer during the offseason, and the receiver corps will have to be rebuilt. There won’t be much time for the Buckeyes to jell, however, as USC will play in the Horseshoe on Sept. 12.
I know some of you out there think the Buckeyes should be No. 1. Fess up.
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TweetCould former Buckeye dollars boost UD football?
This is old news. But, to reiterate:
Ohio State athletic director Gene Smith confirmed Sunday the Buckeyes’ athletic department will lose money during the fiscal year ending June 30.
Smith says revenues are down between $300,000 and $500,000 this year for the winning men’s basketball team. He did not know how much the department is expected to lose in total.
Now, what do we make of this? The Ohio State athletic department, and its football arm in particular, are seen as such massive entities that their decrease in strength will no doubt have some repercussions.
Could one of those be a boost in other college football programs around the state?
The idea came during a recent conversation with Andrew Zimbalist, a professor of economics at Smith College in Massachusetts and probably the most respected sports economist in the country. The topic was effect of a difficult economy on sports.
“As a general rule, people are more attached to professional teams,” Zimbalist said.
I think most would agree Ohio State football is considered on par with the professional teams in this state, if not on top of them, in interest and support. So, people are attached. However…
“One force causes people to save their money,” Zimbalist said. “The other force causes them to look for cheaper versions of the same category.”
So here comes college football in Ohio, from the Mid-American Conference to other divisions. Locally, that could be the University of Dayton, Central State, Wittenberg University and Wilmington College. It is, after all, still college football. It’s a tree-lined campus on a Saturday, even if the stadium doesn’t seat 100,000 people. Technically.
Based on what Zimbalist said, it could be asked: Will these schools see greater interest and attendance for football and other sports because the tough economy has folks more closely watching their sporting dollars?
Which goes first, the cable, home telephone or Buckeyes tickets and paraphernalia?
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TweetBuckeyes, Trojans to clash in primetime on ESPN
No surprise here: Ohio State and Southern Cal will play in prime time when the Trojans visit the Shoe on Sept. 12, OSU announced this morning.
But the rematch is not on ABC. The 8 p.m. game will be televised on ESPN. Of course, if ABC had its way we couldn’t tell the difference. You know, that “ESPN on ABC” nonsense.
Anyway, if you don’t have cable you’ll have to mooch off a friend or head to the bar. But if you can afford to head to the bar, you should have cable.
Ohio State is 6-2 in night games at Ohio Stadium and 32-15 overall when games kickoff after 5 p.m. ET (local time).
Ohio State night games at Ohio Stadium:
2008 — Penn State 13, OSU 6 2005 — Texas 25, OSU 22 2003 — OSU 28, Washington 9 2001 — OSU 38, Northwestern 20 1999 — OSU 42, UCLA 20 1997 — OSU 24, Wyoming 10 1993 — OSU 21, Washington 12 1985 — OSU 10, Pitt 7
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TweetThe mysterious Kenny Guiton
Having the nation’s former top-rated recruit and a former minor-league baseball player making up your quarterback depth chart wasn’t enough for Ohio State. As the Buckeyes’ recruiting class filled with major successes, coaches continued to search for a quarterback to join the group, more as a safety net than a program savior.
The first choice went elsewhere, and second choice Austin Boucher of Alter High School stuck with Miami University. That made Kenny Guiton of Houston’s Eisenhower High School the quarterback signed Wednesday by the Buckeyes.
When fans learned Guiton had committed, they began their frantic search for information on the man who could someday be their starting quarterback.
Let’s start with what’s easy to see. Guiton was the quarterback of a high school team that will send at least 19 signees to college programs, including receiver Greg Timmons to Texas, receiver Jaz Reynolds to Oklahoma and defensive back Craig Loston to LSU.
You’d think the signal-caller for such a team would get more attention, but until the Buckeyes visited his school last week and offered him a scholarship a day later, Guiton’s reported top choices were Houston and Wyoming.
He’s a proven athlete, as one could see by his credentials as the basketball team’s point guard and a hurdler in track.
While Guiton might be an unknown character in Ohio State recruiting, his choice has caused many fans to remember Troy Smith, who was, legend has it, the last member to commit to hsi recruiting class.
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TweetThe best position at Ohio State
Jordan Hall. Sounds like one of the New Kids on the Block, right?
Instead, he’s one of the Ohio State football team’s 25 recuits who signed national letters of intent today to play for the Buckeyes. Of course, if you’re a hardcore OSU fan, you already knew that.
You knew that Hall is from Jeannette, Pa., the same school as quarterback Terrelle Pryor. You might even know he averaged 8.5 yards per carry as a senior, one year behind Pryor. You might know still that he was also a 1,000-point scorer in basketball.
Many people who don’t follow recruiting at a consistent level, though, look at the list of today’s signees and notice Kenny Guiton because he’s a quarterback or Sam Longo (Bellbrook), C.J. Barnett (Northmont) and Adam Homan (Coldwater) because they’re from the Miami Valley.
But Hall might be in the best position of all of them, as far as pressure goes. Along with being a very good high school player, Hall remains in Pryor’s shadow. The Jeannette attention is exhausted, used up on the quarterback.
Hall is by no means a throw in. He was one of the first commitments to join the recruiting class, not a package deal to take Pryor. Pryor is carrying the Jeannette banner, not Hall. In many fans’ minds, whatever Hall does is icing.
One of the biggest problems major-college football players have is adjusting to the pressure. Hall has faced his share, no doubt, but in Columbus he’ll be asked about Pryor four times for every time he’s asked about himself. At least in the first year.
That will make his transition to Ohio State easier, and it could help him be a better player earlier for the Buckeyes.
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TweetBig Ben: Could’ve been Buckeyes best?
Why didn’t Ben Roethlisberger go to Ohio State? Perhaps because the recruiters called at the wrong times and couldn’t pronounce his name:
“We had a lot of bad experiences with Ohio State,” Roethlisberger’s father, Ken, told The Times’ Sam Farmer. “If we got any phone calls at night, after 10, the latest one would be from Ohio State. He’s got school the next day, the phone is ringing after 10, and we’re saying, ‘There’s Ohio State calling.’ ”
According to Roethlisberger’s mother, Brenda, the Ohio State recruiters also had trouble pronouncing the family’s last name.
Now, the question is this: Would it have made a difference? Some are wondering this week following Roethlisberger’s second Super Bowl victory with the Pittsburgh Steelers what he could have done if he had played for Ohio State. In a Buckeyes uniform, some say, he might’ve elbowed his way to mention among the best to play for the Buckeyes. Or, of course, he might’ve slumped into obscurity without a chance to play.
Roethlisberger knew that chance would come at Miami, which is reportedly another reason he chose the RedHawks. Last week, Jane Hoeppner, widow of former Miami coach Terry Hoeppner, called unsolicited into the Rush Limbaugh radio show to discuss Roethlisberger and praise him for his friendliness and work ethic.
Among her thoughts:
And when he came for his recruiting weekend, he wanted to make sure that I knew how to pronounce his name and spell his name, because (garbled). You know, even as an 18-year-old, he had such promise, and not only talent on the field which obviously we all can appreciate that, but he had that special something that has brought him to where he is, you know, as a player.
It’s all guess work, but what if Roethlisberger had indeed headed to Columbus? It’s a question to debate as long as his success runs in the NFL.
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TweetThe unfortunate tale of Alex Boone
Alex Boone, the Ohio State offensive lineman, once told the Dayton Daily News’ Doug Harris that he drank 30 to 40 beers per day. It was a staggering admission at the time, but Boone continued to say he turned his life around and was under control.
That might not be the case any more.
Boone was arrested and tased over the weekend during an “alleged drunken tirade,” according to reports.
This from the Associated Press:
Orange County sheriff’s spokesman Jim Amormino says the 6-foot-8, 312-pound tackle was jumping on car hoods, yanking on a tow truck cable and trying to break a window when he was arrested late Sunday.
Amormino says the 21-year-old, who appeared intoxicated, was combative and uncooperative with sheriff’s deputies and had to be taken down with a Taser. He was taken to a hospital and then to a jail medical ward, where he remains.
Boone was beloved by reporters for his personality during his time with the Buckeyes. He was mostly a good player, too, although he drew some ire for poor performances during OSU’s two losses in national championship games against Florida and LSU.
Still, he gained some supporters in 2006 when he admitted his drinking and said he was struggling to regain control. If true, the weekend’s events would be another black mark for Boone, a skilled player whose passion might have been difficult to control off the field.
Luckily for Boone, such an arrest doesn’t generate the same scrutiny with NFL teams who could potentially draft him. Players have done much worse and still gained NFL contracts.
The worry is the pattern of behavior, which seems to be returning with the latest incident.
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