Ohio State thunders past Marshall 49-14

     The Ohio State Buckeye defense finally gave up a touchdown and allowed another one beyond that but still cruised past the visiting Marshall Thundering Herd 49-14 in Columbus.

Quinshon Judkins rushed for one hundred seventy-six yards and two scores while TreVeyon Henderson ran for seventy-six yards and two scores to lead the Buckeyes.

Will Howard threw two touchdowns and two hundred seventy-dive yards with an interception as Ohio State finished their non-conference schedule.

Ohio State will leave Columbus for the first time next week as they travel to East Lansing to battle the Michigan State Spartans.

Olentangy Offerings

1) Quinshon Judkins's day was aided by an eighty-six-yard touchdown run and anyone who thinks that Judkins lacked breakaway speed is certainly in error.

It's hard to believe that the Buckeyes have two backs as talented as Judkins and TreVeyon Henderson in the same backfield.

2) Henderson's day was solid with his seventy-six yards coming on only six carries.

Could Ohio State have the top two running backs selected in next year's NFL draft?

3) Will Howard threw one interception on a long pass to Jeremiah Smith that was slightly underthrown with Smith losing a tug of war for the football with Marshall's Josh Moten.

4) One thing that Howard hopefully learned from the throw?

If you are throwing to Jeremiah Smith, let it fly, and don't worry about an overthrow.

5) Will Howard's two touchdown passes were long ones to Jeremiah Smith (fifty-three) and Emeka Egbuka (sixty-eight) yards but it's amazing the speed that the Ohio State receiving room possesses to take a short pass and run to the house.

6) Give Marshall credit as they weren't afraid of the Buckeyes and played to win, going for it on fourth downs and their opening drive, where the Herd drove seventy-five yards for a touchdown.

7) I'm surprised someone in the Power Four hasn't come after Marshall's Charles Huff as their head coach.

Huff is on his way to one of those jobs shortly.

8) This is shorter than usual and I'll tell you why.

When Ohio State plays Noon or Three-Thirty games, I'm working and while I'm watching the game and know what's going on, it would be a lie to say I watch as closely as I do the Browns, where this season I'll be watching at home (other than the two Thursday games).

So I am considering doing things differently in the future, where I may do a recap on Monday after I can re-watch the game and detail it as I'd like.

Let me know anyone that reads this if you think that's a good idea.

Cleaning out the Inbox

   Time for the latest version of Cleaning out the inbox with a few interesting articles that I have read recently.

The Kansas City Star writes of the famous "Scout" statue that overlooks the downtown area of Kansas City.

The statue was dedicated in 1922 and the article writes of why the Scout is missing its quiver as well as other notes of the famous statue.

The short-lived hockey team for two years in the 1970s was named after the statue, but as I learned from the recent book by Troy Treasure on the Scouts-  "Icing on the Plains"- Scouts was not intended to be the team's original name as the plan was to name the team the "Mohawks" as a way to honor Missouri and Kansas fans for the new franchise, but it was squashed by the Chicago Blackhawks for being too similar to their name.

The Athletic writes about the star pass rusher of the Chicago Bears, Khalil Mack, and his time with the Buffalo Bulls in the MAC days before being becoming an impact player in the NFL.

I've always enjoyed the stories of players from smaller schools that become massive professional stars and how they were overlooked by the power five schools.

I wondered how I wrote about Mack, his 2013 encounter with Ohio State and see how I evaluated Mack's future.

The Athletic with another note on the town that loves its high school football in Massillon, Ohio.

There is such a professional look to the Tigers, who have a television network, a stadium, scoreboard, etc that could easily house a Group of Five school and have their facilities immediately upgraded.

It's another great piece that looks at the good and occasional bad that comes with having so much local pride and interest in a high school program.

One more from The Athletic, as they take a look back at the 50th anniversary of the tragic Marshall football plane crash.

The author talks to Craig Greenlee, a player that could have been on the plane, had he not left the team after the previous season.

He tells more of the other lives affected, but a note that I found interesting came in the comments.

I'm not sure if this is true or not, but the timeline does match as it's mentioned that in 1969 Ken Griffey Sr. was ready to commit to Marshall to play wide receiver for the Herd, but his girlfriend told him that she was pregnant (with Ken Jr.)  and Griffey decided to make money with the Reds rather than go to college.

We wrap up with the news of a reappearance of an Earth rocket booster that took Surveyor 2 to the moon in 1966.

The booster dropped off the capsule and sped past the moon and into a solar orbit to occasionally return to Earth.

The booster's orbit around the sun made its orbit similar to that of Earth and to the astronomers, it began to fall into place that this was an Earth object, not a random asteroid as originally thought.

The booster was the second NASA relic to return to Earth after a Saturn V stage returned to Earth orbit in 2002.  

Cleaning out the inbox

The inbox cleaning begins with a great article from the Athletic on the original 2000 coaching staff with the always interesting Mike Leach at Texas Tech.
That squad between the players and the coaching staff includes eight coaches that would be head coaches, eight more that would be coordinators at the D-I level and seven besides that would become coaches at various smaller levels.
It is really a fascinating look into the world of Leach at Tech and how his influence on those coaches affects the college football world 19 years later.

ESPN writes of the story of the network's first live event and why their broadcast library had no such record of the broadcast.
The slow-pitch softball game between the Kentucky Bourbons and the Milwaukee Schlitz was the first game telecast from ESPN in September of 1979 and the tape from that game had been missing for years.
The article has a companion piece from the E 60 program, which I'm sure you can find with a short Google search.

Back to the Athletic with the story of the first game between Boise State and Marshall from 1994.
That game was the 1-AA national semi-final with the winner playing for the national championship and Marshall was the more established of the two, making trips to the previous three title games, winning one of the three games, all against Youngstown State.
Youngstown was waiting for the winner of this one as well and while being more of a Boise State story, there is plenty of 1-AA history and Marshall as well.
Hard to believe twenty-five years later that Boise State is the national brand and the football power of the Mountain West, while Marshall is probably the choice for the traditional kingpin of Conference USA, which didn't even exist in 1994!

Politico writes of the "culture of fear and self-dealing" at Liberty University in Lynchburg Va.
Liberty is the university that seems to run and own the area and is now led by Jerry Falwell, Jr, who you may have heard his name in the news of late.
The article covers many problems with the school and the Falwell family and what I was surprised about was the sources that were spoken to that seemed to have a real love for the university and even the family, but feel that something needed to be done in order to 'save' it.
I found that quite interesting and having been to Lynchburg, the power that the Falwell's possess, I can completely understand the sources reluctance to go against the family.

Finally, Ramon Malpica invited me to guest on his new venture and I was happy to do so.
Ramon asked me questions about myself, favorite things, opinions on gun laws, the USFL and at the end of course-Boxing.
Please give it a listen and rate and subscribe on the podcast platform of your choice.

15 College Football Games that should be Happening! 6-10

We now move to the middle point of our series of college football games that should be happening, but aren't.
The first part of the series can be found here.

6) West Virginia vs Marshall
This is one that almost made into our top five.
Marshall has only been D-I for twenty years, but being the only other D-I school in the state, they should be playing the flagship school in the Mountaineers.
The Thundering Herd has never beaten WVU in their eight modern meetings and went zero for seven in their series that ran from 2006-20012, but still, it makes sense for this series to be played.
The issue appears to be that Marshall wants the series to alternate between Huntington and Morgantown, while the Mountaineers want two home games for them for every trip to Marshall.
It's too bad that the state capital in Charleston doesn't have a suitable stadium to hold the game or that would be the perfect compromise for the third game.
Those that say there is no rivalry between the schools, well my response to that is-Wait until Marshall wins one ( and they will) and then watch it thrive.

7) Notre Dame vs Michigan
Longtime readers may be surprised since I don't like either of these teams and usually try to avoid this September game like the plague.
However, that game was usually a close affair, exciting and with two schools with deep tradition, this game needs to be played every year.
Like the Notre Dame-Purdue series, this series was one that was stopped by the Irish light affiliation with the ACC, which means that the Irish will play five ACC opponents a year.
Notre Dame being an independent meant they could have a lot of rivals with games with Michigan, Michigan State, Purdue, Navy, USC, Stanford etc and something had to give with their ACC agreement.
The two teams will play home and home in 2018 and 2019 and hopefully there can be a way to bring this back to every year status.

8) Texas vs Arkansas
This rivalry dating back to the days of the old SWC with Darryl Royal (Texas) and Frank Broyles (Arkansas) battling for SWC titles and occasionally even national championships.
The 1969 "Game of the Century" (Just watched this today on Longhorn Network,- BOOM, TV upgrade today) saw number one Texas nip number two Arkansas 15-14 and is still remembered to this day.
It just wasn't an SWC game in those days of one or two games a week without it involving one of these teams and their encounter usually had a national television audience
The teams have played five times since the Razorbacks left for the SEC (two of those bowl games), but not since 2008 in the regular season and have no future games scheduled.

9) Kentucky vs Indiana
The former battle for the Bourbon Barrel (both schools eliminated the trophy after an alcohol-related death in 1999, although they could have changed the name to Bronze Barrel, I guess) saw the Wildcats and Hoosiers play almost every year (a few gaps in the early 80's) from 1979 to 2005, but haven't played since.
Neighboring states with a big rivalry in basketball along with both usually being among the weaker football programs in their respective conferences make this a series that would be worth renewing.

10) Maryland vs Virginia
The Terrapins and Cavaliers were longtime conference rivals as the two most northern teams in the ACC (until expansion), they were the closest to each other and battled often for the same recruits.
A trophy was never involved between these schools and despite teams having other rivals (Maryland had various rivalries with other ACC schools, depending on who was strong during in a particular era while Virginia played Virginia Tech every year before VT joined the ACC), their conference rival was consistently each other.
The conference changes saw each add a "rival" in conference (Maryland with Penn State, who doesn't look at them as such and Virginia with Virginia Tech) and could use a non-conference rival currently.
The two will play home and home in 2023 and 2024, so maybe there is hope for reviving this rivalry.

Look for the top five sometime soon!

Road Trip:West Virginia

After the hustle of a Browns draft weekend (still will do a recap), the great Joshua-Klitschko fight, and the beginning of a week of graphing, I wanted to squeeze our first road trip of the year into the TRS week.

A quick two-day/one-night trip to Charleston, West Virginia kicked off the road trip season with two games for the West Virginia Power with one against the Lakewood Blue Claws and the other against the Charleston River Dogs.

The trip down with Doug Hopkins with Fred and Mike Landucci featured a stop at Tudor's Biscuit World, which is a very West Virginia thing.
It is very biscuit-oriented (hence the name) and for breakfast, if you don't like biscuits-you are out of luck.
Mine was the "Thundering Herd" as recommended by the cashier, which had a hash brown, egg, and sausage pattie on the biscuit.
I got about halfway through it pitched the biscuit and ate the rest sans breading.

Arriving in Charleston, the previous day's game had been rained out, so it was a doubleheader spent with rain off and on all day.
The Power's employees are very well-versed and kind and make you feel welcome at their home ballpark, which isn't always the case in my own home park.
Customer service goes so far in the minor league baseball business and I remember last season's trip when employees of the team showed us where the best place to autograph was and gave us terrific seats as well.
I was able to mainly work on the Power as most of the BlueClaws had been finished either last year in Williamsport or this year in Hagerstown.

I was able to add another signed card of number one overall pick Mickey Moniak of Lakewood among some Power players.
Other than Stephen Alemais (3rd rounder from Tulane), the Power weren't loaded with high picks, so most of their players had just their West Virginia Black Bears cards, which kept the totals down.

We made it through game one and a little of game two, but with everyone tired from an early start and the rain dampening (see, what I did there) the mood and the coats, we decided to go back to the hotel.
On our way to the parking lot, I saw a white flash go by me and I realized that it was a home run ball (hit by the Power's Carlos Munoz) and flagged it down untouched by the Family Dollar.
Doug and I shared a room and I watched the end of the Cavaliers-Pacers game, which was quickly followed by a nap.
I also saw a favorite from Cleveland TV, Amanda Barren has found a home in Charleston local television.
I always like to "scout" talent on local television when I go on trips and I remember seeing Barren on WKYC in Cleveland thinking she had a big future in that business!
Good to see her on television again.
The phone rang not too long after for dinner.

Black Sheep Burritos and Brews was a short walk from our hotel, although not as short as the desk person at the hotel told Fred!!
I'm not a huge fan of Mexican food and likely wouldn't have chosen this place on my own, but in an attempt to try new things, I jumped in.
It was more of a trendier spot than a Mexican place, but most of the offerings were Mexican-based mixed with interesting items.

I had three tacos, one with smoked trout, one with tempura battered fish, and the final with asparagus.
All were good, but pricey (13.00 for the three), I think I liked the tempura fish battered the best.
I'm not sure I ever have to go back, but if so, I'd be OK with it.
We went back to the hotel and made a quick evening by hitting the bed!

Up early for breakfast (with dinner being at six the evening before, everyone was starved), Shoney's was close and a personal favorite for breakfast.
When Shoney's was in Hagerstown, Shoney's was my breakfast stop (keep in mind, I might eat breakfast five times a year).
Doug and Michael took some pictures of neighboring Captain D's for their good friend David Sloan before we ate.
We returned and checked out of the hotel and had a big day planned.
With checkout being early and time to kill until the opening of the gates for the evening game between the Power and Charleston (how odd to be in Charleston and have the visiting team with the Charleston name), we traveled a bit.

The first stop was Huntington WV, home of the Marshall Thundering Herd and the site of the tragic airplane crash of their 1970 football team and the basis for the film "We are Marshall".- West Virginia should play Marshall every year in football, and basketball, by the way!
Doug wanted to see the memorial to the team and it was easier to find than I expected.

Many times when you go to a college campus, memorials can be hard to find, but this was very centrally located.
After some pictures and a stop at the bookstore, where Fred bought a Marshall hat and I bought the girls two shirts, we were off to our next stop.

This was the one that was the most kitschy, but in many ways, the stop that I was looking forward to the most- The Mothman.
Since being tipped off by Ryan, a few years back about the Mothman, I had been interested in an offhanded way of seeing a huge statue of a mythical creature near the middle of a small town and how seriously they took it.
Point Pleasant was another hour away from Huntington and through some pretty country as well.
Upon arrival, we found the statue and the Mothman Museum easily, but the museum wasn't open yet.
Doug, Fred, and I were taking pictures beside the statue and a lady pulled off the street to ask if we wanted her to take all of our pictures together.
That was very nice and unexpected and goes to show how different the pace and people are away from the more populated areas.

We were starting to get hungry after walking around a neighboring antique store and with Fred wanting Mothman souvenirs, we wanted to eat lunch while the time rolled off the clock.
We asked what was a good place to select and were told that there were more places to choose from across the Ohio River in Gallipolis, Ohio than in Point Pleasant.

The recommended restaurant was Tuscany Cucchini, an Italian setting and the daily special was spaghetti with meat sauce.
That was good, but the best part was Doug and I serenading Michael with "O H I O" all the way across the bridge!

It was time to drive back to Charleston for Michael to meet up with Yankees prospect Blake Rutherford, who signed four balls for Michael, two for Fred, and 2 cards for me (1 for Derreck Chupak), but badly smeared mine of course!
It's all good and the ride home was pretty quiet with a bunch of tired people.
Thanks to everyone for a great time and I think Charleston will have a pretty steady date on our yearly calendar.
Good graphing, some things to do in the area, and nice people as well make it an easy (if not short) and fun trip!

I still have the Browns draft recap, a cleaning of the inbox, and another piece coming this week, so plenty to come!!

Cleaning out the inbox

Time to clean out the inbox with a few notes from the world..

Most of you should know that Jim Bouton's Ball Four ranks with my favorite books of all time.
I've mentioned it (and Bouton) here many times and my fondness for the book goes back to childhood through current day.
I have the book,the audiobook and the first book that I bought for my Kindle on Christmas Day was Ball Four,so I'm a big fan.

The soon to be 78 year old Bouton has suffered a stroke in recent years and isn't as strong as he used to be,so interviews with him of late are somewhat rare,but the family has decided to auction off the original notes and cassettes that Bouton used to compile Ball Four.
The best part of this collection is that there is so much that didn't make it into the book!
Think of it as the Director's Cut!!
Now,these will fetch a large amount,but I'm hoping someone will buy and donate to an organization that will make them available to the baseball public or even somewhere that allows baseball researchers access to them.
The New York Times talks about the sale and items here,while the Los Angeles Daily News takes a swing at things here.

Former Devil David Clarkson was always one of my favorite Devils and I never held it against him that he left the Devils via free agency after his career year (and a half) that saw Clarkson score 45 goals in that span.
A player has the right to cash in,especially when the numbers appear to be an aberration and the team that signs him is the player's hometown team,so I had no problems with Clarkson leaving.
Clarkson never even approached those Devils numbers after leaving and has been inactive with back problems that likely have ended his career.
A sad ending for a hard nosed player that loved the game as the Columbus Dispatch writes....

Here is my favorite Clarky commercial from his Devils days!


Politico writes about South Carolina congressman Mark Sanford and his political future,which surprisingly is still around.
Sanford is most remembered by non-residents of the Palmetto State for being their Governor and disappearing for a bit while he cheated on his wife outside the country.
Sanford was elected after that to congress and looks to be one of the main members of the GOP to be willing to take on Donald Trump,which considering the baggage of Sanford might not be the easiest water-carrier inside the party..

Why do Americans refrigerate their eggs?
The New York Times writes about why the Europeans prohibit washing eggs,while here in the U.S.washing eggs are mandatory.
Turns out the reason is that eggs have a natural cuticle that protect the inside of the egg from bacteria that gets washed away when they are washed.
The Europeans think the cuticle is more important and the Americans think the washing away is better.
In any event,once the egg is washed,it then needs to be refrigerated...

Five Thirty Eight discusses the Marshall basketball program under coach Dan D'Antoni,the older brother of the more famous Mike and a former NBA assistant.
D'Antoni is bringing the fire up the three offense to the mid-major circuit and this article takes a look at the analytical side of the game with values for where each shot is taken and how many should be taken.
I'm not sure how much that I agree with some of this,but it's a very interesting read on basketball...