Week Two: No. 1 Ohio State vs. Hawaii—Week One Quick Recap, History Lesson, Trends, and Prediction

By HD Handshoe — BlockONation.com Founder

The No. 1 Buckeyes look to improve to 2-0 on the young season against the Rainbow Warriors during this extremely short week after their 42-24 primetime "revenge" win on Monday night at Virginia Tech.

Late in the third quarter,the #Braxspin became a BIG thing, and the Buckeyes never looked back, enroute to their 18-point victory.

There are very few questions surrounding the Buckeyes outside of Cardale Jones and J.T. Barrett being listed as co-starters on this weeks depth chart. Also this week the depth chart gets deeper as Joey Bosa, Jalin Marshall, Dontre Wilson, and Corey Smith all return from their one game suspensions.

Both the offense and defense already looked solid and very capable in the tough Lane Stadium environment against assumingly a better opponent than Hawaii and the old adage says the biggest leap for a team is from game one to game two, That's a potentially horrible nightmare and lopsided blowout awaiting Hawaii.

The top three things I can say about the Rainbow Warriors are one, they have former USC QB Max Wittek as their starting quarterback (there are a few reasons why Wittek is a former USC QB, so don't be too overly concerned), two, they'll be sporting these sweet throwback jerseys (pictured below) in The Shoe, and three, their pregame ritual dance known as "The Hata" definitely gives "Quick Cals" a run for the money.


Here are this weeks historical-data-tidbits and a few recent and/or ongoing trends for your consideration that might be of interest.

Ohio State—Hawaii History Lesson And Recent Trends

• Urban Meyer coached teams are 100-17 when ranked in the Top 25.

• Ohio State is 81-8 at Ohio Stadium since the start of the 2002 season.

• Ohio State is an astounding 296-1-1 all-time when scoring 35+ points.

• Head coach Urban Meyer is 52-5 in his career in games played in August/September.

• Ohio State's defense has held opponents to 10 points or less 42 times since 2006.

• Ohio State looks to extend the nation's longest FBS winning streak, currently 14 games.

• Ohio State has held 85 opponents to 21 points or less since the start of the 2005 season.

• Ohio State is 67-1 in the last 68 regular-season non-conference home games against unranked opponents.

• Ohio State is 8-1 all-time vs. current Mountain West Conference teams, but this is the first meeting vs. Hawaii.

Final Thoughts and Score Prediction

I don't intend or view the following statement as underestimating or disrespecting Hawaii in any way, but the Buckeyes should be able to play their second team the entire game and get a comfortable win here. Since the starters are going to go ahead and play, I'll offer up this semi-conservative game prediction.

Ohio State 62
Hawaii 17

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"It takes a little something special to be a great player. We don't have enough great players. TO HELL WITH THAT! We don't want to coach average! I don't wanna be around ya, why be around average?! Did you push yourself to be great today?" - Urban Meyer

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Week Two: No. 3 Ohio State vs. San Diego State—History Lesson, Trends, Thoughts and Score Prediction

By HD Handshoe — BlockONation.com Founder

The No. 3 Buckeyes look to improve to 2-0 on the young season this week as they host the San Diego State Aztecs.

The Buckeyes came out the gate fast last week against Buffalo before turnovers and the youthful inexperience of their defense allowed Buffalo to keep the game closer than was expected by myself and most college football analysts.

The Aztecs were among a handful of FBS teams that fell to FCS opponents last week, suffering a 40-19 defeat at home to Eastern Illinois.

On paper, this game should translate to an easy victory for tOSU, but only if the Buckeyes protect the ball better and improve defensively from last weeks performance.


Here are this weeks historical-data-tidbits and a few recent and/or ongoing trends for your consideration that might be of interest.

Ohio State—Buffalo History Lesson And Recent Trends

• Urban Meyer coached teams are 74-14 when ranked in the Top 25.

• Ohio State is 67-7 at Ohio Stadium since the start of the 2002 season.

• Ohio State is an astounding 276-0-1 all-time when scoring 35+ points.

• Head coach Urban Meyer is 43-4 in his career in games played in August/September.

• Ohio State's defense has only allowed 13 100-yard rushers in their last 62 games.

• Ohio State's defense has held opponents to 10 points or less 37 times since 2006.

• Ohio State looks to preserve the nation's longest winning streak, currently 13 games.

• Ohio State has held 74 opponents to 21 points or less since the start of the 2005 season.

• Ohio State has won 62 consecutive regular-season non-conference home games against unranked opponents.

• Ohio State is 3-0 all-time vs. San Diego St. and 7-1 all-time vs. current members of the Mountain West Conference.

A Couple Thoughts and Score Prediction

Last week, I, like many others, underestimated Buffalo. They had 17 or 18 returning starters from 2012 and as far as individual players, Bulls outside linebacker Khalil Mack might be as good of a pro prospect, though very much less heralded than, South Carolina's Jadeveon Clowney.

After a lightning fast start in the first quarter, the Buckeyes jumped out to a 23-0 lead. That lead was cut to 10 twice after turnovers put the inexperienced Buckeye defense against the wall.

The good news is they say the biggest improvement all year comes in game two — AND — the Buckeyes are the big fish in the pond compared to the minnow that is San Diego State football.

Also, let's not forget that Ann Arbor's current coach was the SD State coach just a couple years back, so that's worth at least 2-3 extra "running it up" TDs in my book.

For the sake of bookies and/or betting men everywhere, hopefully the trends hold true for favored Ohio State this week.

Ohio State 66
San Diego State 10

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"It takes a little something special to be a great player. We don't have enough great players. TO HELL WITH THAT! We don't want to coach average! I don't wanna be around ya, why be around average?! Did you push yourself to be great today?" - Urban Meyer

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@BlockONation


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Finishing Touches: Highlights of BlockONation's Top 6 Ohio State 2013 Recruits

By HD Handshoe — BlockONation.com Founder

It's The Final Countdown.....bah-bah bah bah,......bah-bah bah bah bah,.......

Just be glad you're only reading this and not actually listening to me sing!

With signing day just one day away, and the the 2013 class more or less at capacity, it seemed like the appropriate time to shine the spotlight on the best of the best from this loaded class.

Words alone cannot express the ridiculous infusion of talent the top recruits that have committed to play football for Ohio State beginning this fall possess.

Thankfully, video can create a much more vivid picture than I or my words. Here are highlights of my personal top 6 recruits in the Buckeyes 2013 class.

No. 6 — Marcus Baugh / Tight End / Riverside, CA



No. 5 — Dontre Wilson / RB/WR / Desoto, TX



No. 4 — Ezekiel Elliott / RB / St. Louis, MO



No. 3 — Joey Bosa / DE / Fort Lauderdale, FL



No. 2 — Mike Mitchell / LB / Plano, TX



No. 1 — Jalin Marshall / WR / Middletown, OH



NSD Wishlist Bonus Video — Vonn Bell / S / Rossville, GA



Be sure to visit BlockONation.com for all your Ohio State football news, recruiting info and updates.

— HD

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Around The Block: BlockONation's Buckeye Bits, Volume 1 — May 11, 2012

Today I'm introducing a new series here on BlockONation, called Around The Block: BlockONation's Buckeye Bits.

It's a chance for me to share any pertinent Buckeye news and/or links with the fans and my followers without having to spend several hours researching, writing, editing, and posting a full article, as time spent at work and with my family have made that seem a daunting and nearly impossible task recently.

So, without further ado, let's kick this baby off!

— Defensive backs coach Kerry Coombs, has been busy this week on the recruiting trail as evidenced by this recent Twitter update.

— Ohio State wants one more RB in their 2013 recruiting class, and that spot appears to belong to either Derrick Green, or Dontre Wilson. Most believe the Buckeyes would prefer Green, but it could come down to who verbals first. Green just received an offer from Alabama and plans to visit there over the summer. Regardless of who Ohio State wants more, the bottom line is they believe they must land one of them.

— In a recent ranking of the best backup QBs in the Big Ten, Buckeye QB Kenny Guiton was ranked No. 5 out of 12 in the B1G by BTN's Tom Dienhart.

— Sporting News released their list of the top coaches in college football. Urban Meyer is listed at No. 3, behind Alabama's Nick Saban, and Boise State's Chris Petersen.

— Former Buckeye and current Oakland Raiders QB Terrelle Pryor opened up about selling awards at Ohio State to "help his Mom pay her rent and other bills" in a recent Sports Illustrated article. He even referred to that act as, "doing God's work." Maybe he should have sold the 350Z to help her out and driven a used car instead.

— Former Buckeye and Minnesota Viking Cris Carter admitted that he offered bounties against certain defensive players that he felt targeted him during his NFL career. Carter said he did it as a form of protection for himself from players who were targeting him. Carter specifically noted putting a bounty out on former-Bronco, Bill Romanowski.

— Lastly, pretty much everyone knows by now that there was a sexual deviant contacting Ohio State players, coaches, and recruits using Facebook and/or Twitter by messaging them with "inspirational quotes", and while he may have had innocent intentions, his past and status as a registered sex offender makes us all cringe just a bit — understandably so.

Former Ohio State verbal commit Alex Anzalone retracted his commitment to the Buckeyes after a picture of him with Eric Charles Waugh, aka @BDubsTriviaGuru on Twitter, went viral.

Joey Bosa, who was also in the same photograph with Anzalone and Waugh, reaffirmed his commitment to the Buckeyes, despite rumors that he might follow in Anzalone's footsteps.

Waugh has since been arrested for violation of his parole, his Twitter account has been suspended, and Anzalone's father, Sal — after initially lashing out at Ohio State for not, in essence, babysitting Alex duing his unofficial Spring game visit, has backed off of his negative comments and said Alex is still considering OSU.

Thankfully, the situation was monitored and resolved quickly, and without incident.

Nobody needs Internet creepers submitting hundreds of inspirational or motivational messages to them on Twitter or Facebook, or anywhere else for that matter.

Instead, I'd recommend listening to Reach by Eve To Adam, if you're seeking out motivation. It's about reaching your goals and dreams, and it's one of my favorites — check it out!



See you next time, around the Block — HD

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