The Crack Staff

Wednesday, January 5, 2011

So Easy To Hate


I swore after i complained about them a little bit today, I would let it go. But I just can't. Today has made me realize, even more, why I hate Ohio State so f'ing much. I thought maybe this loathing may even be a little unnatural, but i was quickly reminded as to where the hate comes from. And let's make no bones about it, hate is without a doubt the proper word usage. Most of this hatred is seeded in their arrogant fans who feel they are entitled to be in a national title conversation every year, even though the best teams they beat in their "powerhouse" conference are 7-5. Guess what, the Big Ten sucks now. Sorry it's not the 80's anymore. Now I understand that every fan base as their share of assholes and idiots, but Ohio State's seem to consist of a much higher percentage of this type than any other team I can think of. I'd say a good 75% of Buckeye fans are perfectly regular people who can enjoy a sporting event without being a prick. Unfortunately the rest ruin an entire school's reputation. Hey did you win the National Championship in '02? I don't remember. You better remind me again. And you have officially proven that you can spell the name of your four-letter state over... and over... and over again. Nice work on perfecting that brain-buster. I mean I have never seen a pack of clowns who legitimately think they are the best, when in reality they have won one National Championship in the last 41 years, and it was a gift. In the others, I'm pretty sure they got routed. They are perennially the most overrated team in the country, thus just making these people feel even more entitled to be spoken of as an elite program. I spoke with my cousin, fellow blogger, and OSU alum during the Sugar Bowl last night. For the record, he falls in the 75% that aren't douchers. He joked a bit and gave me some ribbing as OSU built a big lead in the first half, but nothing ridiculous. He actually has the ability to enjoy the game. I use him as an example to then show you the other side. I have some actual quotes from one of Ohio State's 25 percent-ers which completely exemplify the moron-a-thon I had to go through when trying to discuss the Sugar Bowl. I merely said that Ohio State was lucky to escape with a win, because Arkansas' receivers dropped a ton of passes, three of which should have been touchdowns. Also, there was Pryor's fumble that turned into a TD among a few other things. This is what I get, "I need someone to explain how a receiver dropping a football is luck. It's lack of concentration on the receiver's part. Not luck for the opposing team." Basically he's saying, "Luck? Never heard of it, and we don't need it." Alright chief, allow me to explain. When your team blows coverage and a dude is streaking down the field ten yards behind the defenders, open like a 7-11, and drops the ball, sure it's his fault, but it's still lucky as hell for you. It's not like it was the game plan to let people run wide open and hope they dropped the ball. I call that luck, even though no Luckeye fan will ever admit it. Then came this gem, "So I guess everytime Tiger misses a putt, a puck hits the net, or Kobe misses a shot it's luck for the other guys?" Seriously, man? How do those even compare. These drops were the equivalent of Tiger missing a two inch putt or Kobe missing a break-away dunk. It doesn't happen, and if you are playing against him and it does, then yes you are damn lucky. For the life of me I don't understand why they are so afraid to say they were lucky. It's nothing to be ashamed of, they still won. Luck is part of every sport, and every team gets lucky. Their moment of luck happened to come in a bowl game. The difference is, most teams' fans can just suck it up and say "Damn, we got lucky." Instead we will hear them brag about being the second best team in their conference and beating the second best team in the SEC until next August, when they will undoubtedly be ranked way too high in the preseason.

You know what else I hate, Tressel. He's a jerk-off and he's overrated. Sorry, but its true. He's just not a very good coach, as his play calling late in the game last night showed. Yes, he can recruit good players, but he also pays them. That has been proven. For some reason he gets a pass from the NCAA. He also tends to recruit more than the typical amount of thugs. All schools have them, but OSU has more.

On this topic I come to the 5 players who shouldn't have played in the Sugar Bowl. Now obviously what they did is not criminal, but it's against the rules. We have rules for a reason, right? Since when is punishment not assigned immediately? Hell with the seniors. Tell them sorry, your teammates are dumbasses. Using the rest of the team as a reason would be like me telling the cops not to arrest me because it will disappoint my parents. Can't it wait until later? The NCAA wanted people to watch the game and they knew that wouldn't happen if Pryor, Herron, Posey, and Thomas didn't play. And all of them played huge roles in the outcome of a game in which they should have never been allowed to participate. Moreover, if the NCAA didn't punish them, the University should have, just as most other schools almost certainly would have. But not Ohio State, big surprise.

The mascot sucks, too. It's stupid. It's a nut that falls off of a tree. Might as well make necklaces out of them, proving even further that there is nothing to do in Ohio.

And the "THE" Ohio State University thing, totally unnecessary. There's only one. We know which one you mean. Putting "the" in front of something is to differentiate in case there is more than one, which, thank God, there isn't.

But for those who think the Sugar Bowl breaks your curse with the SEC or makes a statement for the Big Ten, then they are sadly mistaken. First of all, Ohio State failed to discipline their players... excuse me, stars, who broke the rules. And we all know if they were bums or back-ups they would have been in street clothes. Next came the lucky bounces that all seemed to go Ohio State's way, from Pryor's fumble into the end zone, to Arkansas' inability to catch the football. Ohio State basically played their best half of football all season while Arkansas played their worst, and still almost pulled the ol' OSU choke. Act like you weren't all scared when the momentum and score both started going the Hogs' way. And with it went all the Big Ten pride you that was built up in the first half. You would think with that potent offense of the Bucks could have picked up a couple first downs with under five minutes left and sealed the deal, but they couldn't. They gave the ball back to Arkansas, twice, in prime position to score and take home the win, twice. And a dominating first half, turned into a sweaty-palmed, nail-biter that ended up proving nothing. A team plays differently when it's playing not to lose instead of trying to win, and that's exactly what OSU ended up doing. Tressel and his play calling were as much, if not more, to blame as the players failure to execute. But fate dealt Arkansas just one more blow when Mallett threw an interception and Ohio State was simply able to take two knees and win (Tressel's best two play calls of the half). Ohio State won the game but didn't make the statement the Big Ten hoped they'd make. Were it not for a fumble recovered in the end zone or any number of other plays that could be either be counted as lucky or unlucky, Ohio State and the Big Ten leave with nothing but ridicule and scorn, and the same rep they went in with. Does the Big Ten co-champion barely beating a perennial "also-ran" SEC team that could arguably be the third or forth best team in their conference, with all these funny bounces and dropped balls, really save that much face?
Well a win is a win, but no statement was made as a 21 point lead faded into a five point win, that probably should have been a loss in all reality. Even though I know you Ohio State folk don't like dealing in reality. You can take the W, but little dignity was saved for the Bucks and the Big Ten.

3 comments:

  1. I had a few comments, as you might imagine (for everyone else, I'm the cousin in question).

    I agree with you about the luck part. Like you said, luck is a part of every sport, and it happens. But when it happens over and over and over, like it did in this game, when does it stop being luck? like they say, Once is luck, twice is a pattern, and thrice is a problem. They were obviously either unprepared or distracted or something to drop OVER THREE. #3 dropped THREE TD PASSES. You can't say OSU just got lucky.

    I take issue with what you're saying about Tressell. Not to put too fine a point on it, he's the best coach in College Football. Sorry, but it's true. If you had watched ANY OTHER GAME this season besides the bowl, which it sounds like you didn't (basing all this hate on one game and one scandal is a little over the top don't you think?) you would know that Tressell is the undisputed king of halftime adjustments. I want one piece of evidence that he deserves anything you just said about him.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I cant see how he can be mentioned with the best coaches in CFB. I hoensetly feel like he does the least of any coach with that much talent on their team. It's taken him two years to almost let Pryor be the plyer he really is. They were def. the most talented team in the Big Ten last year, but still choked one out to Purdue. This year they lost to Wisco, who then lost to TCU. And what halftime adjustments does he ever have to make? Aside from the loss to Wisconsin, the best team they played was Iowa, who in my opinion has the best coach in the Big Ten with Kirk Ferentz (There is a guy who does the most with the least). Most games OSU is up by 30 at halftime. I know whatever adjustments he made in the Arkansas game were ill-advised. I think with the talent OSU brings in, and how great everyone tells me that both the team and coach are, they would have a lot more to show for it. Give me Meyer, Saban, Stoops, etc. I understand Tressel has won five out of the last nine Big Ten championships and been to six BCS bowls. But I just don't see them any different now than in the past. They played Oregon last year in the Rose Bowl, who is playing for the 'Ship tonight. Chip Kelly got the Ducks over the hump, Tressell didn't do the same for OSU. This one isn't an OSU thing for me. I just feel that he's a bit of an underachiever for a team that starts every year in the top 5.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Of course I know you are on one end of the spectrum here and I am on the other... Somewhere in the middle probably lies the truth haha.

    ReplyDelete