SPORTS PAGE FANS FOR MICHIGAN GAME

Click on the above pictures to enlarge them.

The pictures above were taken by Juan Rivera, a fantastic Buckeye fan, of our group of Buckeye fans watching the Ohio State vs. Michigan football game on Saturday November 21st, 2009 at the Sports Page Bar and Grill in Kihei, Maui, Hawaii. The top picture is of Laura and Joe Speakman from Pickerington, Ohio now residing in LA and Juan"s wife Gwen. Next picture is of Laura and Joe again, third picture down is of Buckeye Bob in front with Buckeye fans behind him. Fourth picture down is of Juan Rivera and family doing O H I O (Joe, Gwen, Laura and Juan). Fifth picture down is The special GIFT Juan brought us all to feast on (Buckeye Nut candy). Last picture is of the Buckeye group picture (Buckeye Bob in Middle back row). Thanks Juan for the pictures and the candy!!!

OHIO STATE BIG TEN CHAMPIONS

After our trip to Penn State and attending the Iowa game together Buckeye Kelly is back. He is not exactly happy with the Buckeyes play making abilities or style of play, but none-the-less he is eager to attend the Rose Bowl with me and see what the Buckeyes have left and will they become the team he believes they can be. Below are Buckeye Kelly's deepest and most heart felt thoughts concerning our beloved Buckeyes.


"I still hold fast to the theories of my last ranting. Even though we did beat Iowa and Michigan we sure didn't deserve to do so. If it had not been for all the Michigan turn overs they would have won that game. Between Pryor's inability to move the ball and the O line just breaking down its amazing we pulled off a Rose Bowl Trip. Iowa in my mind was a better team. Had they not missed the field goal early on they would be headed to Pasadena. I believe our trip to Pasadena is yet another opportunity to drown on the national stage. Given that, if we do some how pull off a victory with what looks like a game with Oregon it will be amazing. I believe the PAC this year is much stronger then most have given them credit for. Maybe even as strong as the SEC as there are only two really good teams in the SEC maybe three. Tressel said in his interview after the Michigan game that if we have a chance to win out there we have to get much better passing the ball. Uh, No shit Coach! You don't say! Seems like Coach Tressell finally had the light come on up stairs. Gosh coach. Do you think you might have worked on this a little more seeing how your O Line stinks? And this crap about our goal is to win the big ten title. Hell coach, shouldn't your goal every year be winning the national championship? I know we as Buckeye's aren't going to get that. We expect it but won't get it. So with that said, shouldn't we maybe try to recruit players that can compete better against non conference players. Put some teams on the beginning of the year other then Youngstown or Akron. Play Cincy for God Sake. Oh wait, they are good now and we don't want to schedule a tough game early in the season.

As Buckeye's, next year will be Pryor's Junior season. If he plans on a career past College I sure hope he develops well in the off season. He better take the summer off and go work on his foot work and brain skills.

As for the Penn State game, either Penn State is not that good or we somehow managed to get it together. Either way we came off with a win. Iowa we got lucky. Michigan even more Lucky.

I hope this year will be a year of growing for the Buck's. I know I joke about being "almost former Buckeye Kelly" but I am very passionate and love the game. I would be happy if I just saw Tressell make some changes that moved him from being so conservative. I can take the losses when we take the chances. You never know what could have been if you don't try. And as far as the Purdue game goes. That one is hard to take. They deserved what they got there.

Buckeye Kelly"

Thanks Buckeye Kelly for your thoughts.

In my forthcoming blogs I will tell about our Penn State adventure and show pictures at Penn State.

I will also be featuring a blog with pictures taken by Mr. Buckeye Juan Rivera at the Sports Page during the Ohio State vs. Michigan game. Juan also did a short video of me (without my knowing it) high fiving other Buckeyes after the last touchdown of the regular season (third quarter against Michigan). I need help in getting all these photos and video to my blog. Love you all, Buckeye Bob. GO BUCKS, put it together team and lets win the ROSE BOWL, which I will be attending.

CRUNCH TIME FOR THE BUCKEYES

Current gathering at the Sports Page, picture above of newly weds from Columbus and Buckeye Bob and Buckeye Brett.

Ohio State takes on Penn State this Saturday and I will be their with my niece Mindi and almost former Buckeye Kelly (however with a few more OSU victories it will be back to Buckeye Kelly).

"God Willing and The Creeks Don't Rise", the Buckeyes will win their last three games against Penn State, Iowa and Michigan and be on their Merry way to the Rose Bowl against USC or Oregon. That is the very best scenario we can hope for this year.

A lot of fans believe we will be lucky to win one of the last three remaining games. We are all just going to watch one play and one game at a time and see what kind of strength and determination is in this group of Buckeye players and their coaches. It is a TEAM effort!! They have the ingredients to get the job done, if the COOK shows up.

Love all you Buckeye fans. I will be their for the Buckeyes in person to witness our fate for the Penn State game and the Iowa game. It has been a dream of mine for twenty years to attend an Ohio State football game at Penn State. It has been the only place in the Big Ten that I have not attended a game.

Aloha and Thank you all, Buckeye Bob....GO BUCKS!!!

BUCKEYE FANS STILL PEEVED WITH FOOTBALL TEAM

After a pathetical weak showing of the Ohio State football offense beginning with the last half of the Indiana game through the Wisconsin, Purdue and the first two quarters of the Minnesota game (a total of three games worth of football) many fans are still understandably very upset and some are going forth with their venom and emotions about Terrelle Pryor and the offensive line and some of the coaches. My good friend (almost former Ohio State Buckeye Kelly) had the following to say. One may agree or disagree, but the fact of the matter is, many Buckeye faithful have similar feelings.

"Buckeye Bob,

Brother the one thing I would like to point out is that Pryor seems so stupid at times. You would think that a quarter back with intelligence would have a far more humble approach. Just like his footwork, defensive reads he just doesn't have what I call "football smarts". Seems to me just like John McCain in our last election that Ohio state would have "vetted" their quarterbacks intelligence level a little better. Maybe with all the huge losses on the national stage the "football smarts:" needs to start with the coaching staff and who they recruit and how they develop them. Ohio State has the most under achieving offensive line in the country. Just two seasons ago incoming J.B Shugarts, Mike Adams and Michael Brewster were suppose to be the best offensive line in the country. Here we are two seasons later and they stink. How is it that a coaching staff can take 5 star players and make them worse then when they played pee wee football? Its amazing to me how the personalities on the field just don't seem to mesh. I think Ohio State has much bigger problems then just Terrelle Pryor. Ohio State has major coaching issues that need addressed first. I guarantee you if Mack Brown or Nick Saban had our group of guys with their staff, OSU would not be where it is today. The liiberal nancy's at OSU starting with Gene Smith, let Tressel go, fire Bollman first. You might keep Heacock but what the hell, fire them all. We as Buckeyes deserve much better.

Almost Former Buckeye Kelly"

Buckeye Bob until next week. New Mexico State should be an easy scrimmage game.

OHIO STATE PURE POSITIVE ENERGY

Think about what it is you want and believe what you think--this type of philosophy will result in manifesting what one wants. This seems to be the strategy of the Ohio State football program and friends of Terrelle Pryor.

This week all the coaches have come out in support of Pryor, as though he had never played a bad play in his life (although they admitted he was not playing up to par). Coach Tressel being interviewed by ESPN today Friday stated that the public and the fans do not see Pryor working in practice and becoming a better player all the time. Tressel stated that Pryor will be a great quarterback!! Co Defensive Coordinator coach Luke Fickell called Terrelle and told him to relax and not to try to make anything happen.

LeBron James called Pryor and told him to relax. He said he understood the hype that surrounds Pryor and told him to go with the flow. Marcus Forston the 2nd year defensive tackle for Miami introduced Terrelle to Miami quarterback Jacory Harris and this week Jacory told Pryor about his game against Oklahoma and how he tried to do things he was not able to do and how he settled down and just took what the Oklahoma defense gave him. Pryor even talked to Jimmy Clausen, the Notre Dame quarterback this week. They talk on a regular basis and he gave Terrelle confidence that he would excel.

From all this advice, philosophy and support from his friends, team mates and coaches this is what Pryor's conclusion was for his strategy for the Minnesota game tomorrow. "I will just take what they give me. It will lead to big plays and make some drives and get this thing exciting again. I love Columbus and I love the Ohio State football fans and I want to make them happy".

It is a shame that Minnesota has a worst ranked offense than Ohio State. They are 105th ranked in rushing offense, 103.4 yards per game. They are 88th in passing offense. Adam Weber is the passing quarterback. The freshman quarterback who comes in occasionally, MarQueis Gray has had ten carries for 55 yards rushing. Minnesota is 4 wins and 3 losses with the terrible team they have. The teams brightest star so far is receiver Eric Decker who has 104 yards per game in receptions and leads the Big Ten and can catch everything thrown close to him.

Aaron Pettrey will be the 4th Ohio State Captain for the Minnesota game.

In case you're wondering, Brutus the Buckeye has been to every game since 1965. I'm sure he will show up for the remaining games of 2009, just like the rest of us Buckeye fanatics!!!

Buckeye Bob....until next week.

PRYOR HYPES OFFENSE CAN HE DELIVER??

Going back to the second half of the Indiana game, I felt something terrible was wrong with Terrelle Pryor. First I might add something was wrong with Jim Tressel. With the game well under control, why did he leave Pryor in the game? It would have been a good time to give Bauserman some work. Instead Pryor makes a fool of himself, passing wildly to Posey two times low short passes and another wild pass to Sanzenbacher three yards over his head!!! He looked worse than a high school quarterback. That is obviously why the quarterbacks coach says that Pryors greatness right now is his ability to run. What a joke, he only does an average job of doing that.

During the Wisconsin game Pryor showed zero improvement, having only two drives of more than twelve yards and five times going three and out. Pryor made Wisconsin's pass rusher O'Brien Schofield appear freakishly athletic and tremendously effective.

Further speaking if anyone is interested, the Big Ten is lousy. The only bright spot is Ohio State's defense that ranks fairly well nationally. Also Place-kicker Aaron Pettrey leads the Big Ten is scoring averaging 8.7 points per game (this is an indicator of how bad the offense is in the Red Zone). Our punter Jon Thoma is currently tenth in the Big Ten.

Now Pryor is saying wait until we see the offense perform in the remaining six games. Well they have always had the potential, it is only very poor coaching and very poor execution that has held this bunch of great athletes back. I understand, the coaches have now settled on plays they feel will work for the Purdue game. They have worked and looked very well in practice. Can that effort carry over to improvement in the actual game. Purdue should be like a scrimmage game, since they are a very weak opponent. But do not believe it until we actually show that we do have an offense and our defense continues to shine.

I almost feel like the Illinois coach who benched Juice Williams for his lack of performance. If I was the coach I would have benched Pryor and gave Bauserman a chance, he could not do a worse job. Look at the Michigan coach who blasted his main quarterback Tate Forcier and humiliated him after some poor plays. He replaced him with Denard Robinson who looked great in a scoring drive and the next drive he threw an interception that caused Michigan to lose to Iowa. I do not approve of the Michigan coach's behavior. However, Illinois and Michigan do not have a PRIMA DONNA whom the coaches cannot criticize or try someone else out. When there was Troy Smith and Justin Zwick, at least if one did not do well they would put the other quarter back in. However, with Pryor, it is like he is our future and regardless of how badly he performs, we are not giving anyone else a chance. In my opinion, if Pryor does not perform in the next couple games and show signs that he is improving (albeit against very weak opponents), I do not know what to think about our beloved Ohio State football team.

Our Defense may be able to carry us to winning out our remaining games including a bowl game, but it would be very pleasing if we had a little offense also.

All of us Buckeye football fans will have to refresh our memories and go back to when Tressel won the whole Enchilada in 2002, Jan 2003 with quarterback Craig Krenzel running a sputtering offense, we had fantastic defense, sterling special teams play and a strong combination of good karma mixed with serendipity!!! Tressel's philosophy than was 1.No bad or sloppy decisions. 2. Don't lose the game on offense. 3. Control the clock. 4. Win with defense and special teams.

GO BUCKS!!! LETS WIN REGARDLESS OF HOW IT LOOKS, BEAT PURDUE AND CONTINUE WINNING!!! BUCKEYE BOB

MAUI BUCKEYE MEETS PRESIDENT GEE

The above picture is of Brett Davis and Ohio State President Gordon Gee. Click on picture to enlarge.

Brett Davis has been part of our Buckeye family here on Maui for the past four years. Not only has Brett been a fantastic Ohio State football fan, but he has recently investigated the possibility of Maui having its own Ohio State University alumni club along with another inspired fan Katie Cook.

Brett was recently back in Ohio on vacation and had the honor and pleasure to attend the Ohio State vs. Toledo football game at Cleveland, Ohio.

He never planned or dreamed that he would meet the President of The Ohio State University. Brett was caught up in the pre-game football hype before the game when his Dad and Mother called for him to come to where they were. Brett went over to them, and there was President Gee with his security entourage. Somehow Brett's father grabbed the opportunity for a photo shoot, and they all had their picture taken with the President. As you can see in the above photo, Brett is so happy he is just short of levitating. What an opportunity and what a great picture!!! A rare opportunity indeed. Way to go Buckeye Brett!

Brett has a very good job on Maui, working as a Land Use Planner for Chris Hart and Partners, Inc..

ILLINOIS DOWN AS EXPECTED, INDIANA NEXT

Top picture, my lady Ashleea and I after a 2 mile beach walk and swim in the ocean, having breakfast at Fred's in Kihei. Middle picture, Ashleea ready for a party the same night. Last picture, Buckeye Bob, Ohio State from top to bottom, shoes, socks shorts, shirt and hat (that is a Buckeye fan for you)!!

Last week against Illinois, they were without their top defensive player and Juice Williams was all padded up on his thigh and did not have the mobility he had back in 2007. Considering it was a torrential downpour the first half, our offense played pretty good (no yards passing the first half is unusual for any team). The second half our offense played pretty good, but either Pryor is not nearly as good as advertised or our coaches keep calling plays that the players do not resonate with. Although we won, I was not impressed or pleased with our offensive play.

The defense again did a great job, making big plays and I might say lucky plays when needed to keep Illinois from scoring. Kurt Coleman being suspended is really NO surprise to me. The last couple games I have noticed him being a little more aggressive than needed. He is a good player that could be a great player (but keep it clean) and earn your honors by exemplifying accepatable behavior on the field of play.

Indiana is now 3 - 1 having lost their first game at Michigan last week (a game they could have won). They out gained Michigan 467 yards to 372. If one of their four field goals was a touchdown, they would have won by a point. Darius Willis had an 85 yard touchdown run and 152 yards for the game. That was the longest run from scrimmage against Michigan since 1987. It was the most points and yards by an Indiana team against a Michigan team ever. Tanden Doss their best receiver had 197 al-purpose yards, including 5 catches for 104 yards. Their head football coach Bill Lynch was very proud of his QB Ben Chappell who is coming along strong and improving every week. The only turnover by Indiana was the last play when Chappell was picked off, otherwise, he played a masterful game. On Defense Matt Mayberry led with 10 tackles. Nick Freeland tied an Indiana record with 4 field goals in one game (he was 4 out of 5).

Buckeye Bob until next week, GO BUCKS, beat Indiana!!!