Theoretically, Ohio State should crush Michigan State on Saturday|Ohio State Hot Topics|Team BattleGround|College BattleGround

“Each team is 7-2 and has one loss in Big Ten play. It would be easy to act like this game’s a toss-up. But it’s a lot likelier that Ohio State wins because the Buckeyes are better at football overall.”

–Alex Kirshner, SB Nation

Despite what the record books say about the past six times Ohio State and Michigan State have squared off, there’s reason to believe that this year’s matchup will break with tradition. Typically, whichever team is on the road leaves with the win, but coming off a big loss to Iowa last week, the Buckeyes will be filled with all sorts of anger when they take the field in Columbus.

Kirshner argues in the article above that Ohio State’s talent simply overrides that of the Mark Dantonio-led team — and Urban Meyer doesn’t lose back-to-back games. It’s rare for Meyer to lose two games in a season (not including the bowl game), but now that we’ve crossed that bridge, here’s hoping his record coming off a loss doesn’t take a hit too.

After a complete shock to the system last week in Iowa, it’s no wonder that fans and pundits are hedging their bet on what opened as a 15.5 point matchup tilting in favor of the Buckeyes. A blowout would be great, but it’d also be silly to doubt Michigan State’s potential — especially with the momentum coming off a big win over Penn State. The Spartans might not be Ohio State’s bitter rival, but as we say — we don’t give a damn for the whole state of Michigan.

“Urban Meyer freaks out on the sideline and that’s probably not the best way to go about it when dealing with 20 year old kids.”

–James W Snyder, Off Tackle Empire

There have been a lot of comparisons between Jim Tressel and Urban Meyer, but one of the rarer hot takes I’ve come across this season is the comparison between their sideline demeanor. Granted, neither of the two ever really compared to the Brian Kelly’s of the world, but Meyer certainly is more colorful than Tressel was.

That’s not to say that’s a problem though. Meyer isn’t just screaming to scream. He isn’t throwing players under the bus. And sometimes you do need to yell at 19- and 20-year olds to get them to start paying attention.

More so than yelling out of anger, Meyer has to be disappointed in the wasted potential of this year’s Buckeye squad. What started out questionable, turned into a run with serious potential for the College Football Playoff, only for the team to see it squandered by a completely out of sync game with only three weeks to play.

There are a lot of very valid arguments and comparisons to be made between Ohio State teams under Tressel and under Meyer, but their sideline demeanor is not really one of them.

“This particular class represents seven states and some of the very best high school programs in the country. We look forward to getting these men in the Scarlet and Gray next year and following them all this spring as they compete for championships.”

–Ohio State men’s lacrosse head coach Nick Myers, via Ohio State

College basketball’s early signing day may have been earlier this week, but there was another Buckeye squad who picked up a lot of future talent. The Ohio State men’s lacrosse team saw 12 future Buckeyes sign their National Letters of Intent to continue their careers in Columbus.

Of the 12 incoming players, they’ve added four midfielders, three attackmen, two goalies, two defensemen and one face off specialist. Three of the 12 hail from Ohio, Anthony Ameo of Painesville, and Skylar Wahlund and Johnny Wiseman both from Powell. The rest of the class includes: Alec Cerasoli, Matt Clibanoff, Mike Clibanoff, Buchanan Dunavant, Brandon Fisher, T.J. Hendricks, Zach Ludd, George Walsh, and Scott White.

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