I had sushi for lunch, not real sushi but the fake sushi kind you get at Kroger. I’m not ashamed to admit that I enjoy Kroger fake sushi when I bring my lunch to work.
My kid works at Kroger and he loves working on Wednesdays for $5 sushi. Nothing wrong with it, at all.
The pandemic wiped out almost every mom and pop sandwich place downtown. I used to have four deli style sandwich shops and a good Asian fusion place with a decent buffet within a block radius of my building. Now it’s only the chain stores that survived.
AP is out, and it’s now officially official, top 5 matchup. Ohio State (2) v Notre Dame (5) It is currently the only nonconference matchup between two top 10 teams scheduled for September.
That's a shame. One of my favorite aspects when I worked downtown was the variety of independent restaurants with different styles. I'd always push back when people wanted to go to lunch at chains where I could go any time I wanted with my family in virtually every suburban part of town.
The Banks is still across the bridge, but that extra one to two blocks is a mental barrier I don’t cross. It’s like me living in the NE suburbs and finding out a restaurant is west of I-75.
By all reports, it looks like our defense is the best ever and is completely dominant now. Sorry, ND!
Well, multiple beat reporters are saying today our walk on punt returner can potentially be servicable in situations as a 4th or 5th WR, so suck on that
But, to be fair, that means 4th or 5th on the ND WR scale, so....still a walk on punt returner (backup) everywhere else.
This game will be won or lost on the matchup when our third string kicker cornerback guards your walk on punt returner WR.
If there's a God with a sense of humor he'll be matched up with our third string kicker/7th string corner at some point
That’s accurate but he should be back by the game. Probably doesn’t matter though, reports are he was way behind the “starters”.
Just to level set on the skill positions for ND (since I think that could be the critical piece of this game), here's my thoughts and others can chime in. For the WRs, our starting three will probably be: -Lo Styles, SO: Impressive freshman year last year but probably not a #1 receiver on a top 5 team. A lot of talk that he's gotten even better -Braden Lenzy, SR: Former track guy who is fast as hell but is made of glass and has never put it together. He's had a disappointing career but a lot of talk that he 'figured it out' this spring. All he needs is one jet sweep or deep bomb and he'll make himself useful -Jayden Thomas, RS FR: Didn't play last year and was recruited below Colzie but supposedly has been great at camp and should be a player quickly. He's probably the 'X' factor here Others who could/should get targets: -Tobias Meriwhether, FR: Another 'X Factor' true freshman EE getting a ton of hype. Frankly, I'm not sure if he'll be ready to make big contributions in Columbus but he's a big body (6'3"+) and super smooth so if he's at all ready, we've gotta deploy him and OSU CBs need to take him seriously. Would be surprised if he isn't one of our 3 best WRs by November -Jo Wilkins, SR: Essentially "Lenzy Junior." Another fast guy people have been waiting to put it together who keeps getting injured and disappointing when he's healthy. He was supposed to be out for this game but is tracking to be healthy as of last week -Deion Colzie, SO: Top 100 recruit everybody thought was going to come in and be a game changer but seems to have struggled since he got to campus, work ethic concerns, etc. PCL strain but should be healthy for the game, would just be surprised if he sees much PT. Starting to get transfer/bust potential but we need him to be good/stay for long-term health of position -Matt Salerno, SR: Was kinda joking about it, but if Wilkins or Colzie don't track to get back, I don't know how he doesn't get a few snaps. Pretty mediocre former walk-on who might not start in the MAC What we lack at the WR position, we make up elsewhere. At RB, it looks like probably our best RB, SO Logan Diggs, should be back to at least suit up (he's coming off a spring game injury). Even if we just throw him in the slot, he will be a big distraction. A major surprise of camp has been SO Audric Estime at RB who is a monster (235+), which could free up SR Chris Tyree (another super fast guy) to line up in the slot. At TE, we are insanely loaded with Mayer, but probably 3-4 other massive bodies who can present matchup issues (true Freshmen Raridon & Staes are monsters and the "next guys up" after Mayer goes pro this year, but even 1-2 other TEs would probably start at 90% of the country)
CTown is pretty spot on, though Merriweather was not EE. All of his hype began after showing up for workouts in the summer. If we're talking X factors among backs and receivers, Tyler Buchner kind of has to be included. As a QB, he supposedly has the arm to make most throws and a high football IQ. Still, in his time last year, he worked with a limited playbook and had a couple moments where he made some bad reads leading to bad throws. (Some we later realized were the fault of the WRs). One thing we're pretty sure of, however, is that he should bring a running element at the position that will make him especially dangerous and force defenses to account for him more than a typical mobile QB, hopefully freeing other backs and receivers. None of that will matter, though, when your WRs split 4-5 receiving touchdowns between them, in addition to whatever else your Heisman candidate QB and RB can rack up.
No one really knows what our defense is going to look like until we see it on 9/3. It’s been a complete liability the last two years. We’re in the part of the cycle where everything coming from our camp is awesome, so it’s difficult to separate fact and fiction. Notre Dame is going to have to score 30+ to win.
It feels like our dream game is pretty much what Oregon did last year. They dominated the run game and ran for 269 yards including their QB going for 65, and they did just enough in the passing game (50% completion %, nobody caught more than 3 balls) to score 35. Similarly, we need Buchner to probably have a good day running and our OL to dominate for the ground game while Mayer / Styles and a couple plays by Lenzy / Thomas is enough to cross 30. Stroud threw for like a billion yards, and he will against us, but they controlled the game just enough (won turnover battle by 1, 50/50 ToP) that they only needed to score 29.
We struggled when the field got short in quite a few games last year. That’s where I see our weakness. FGs instead of TDs, trips inside the 35 without points.
Freeman expects Patterson to be able to play through pain against Ohio State, so that’s decent news at least
Guys let’s all make a huge deal about a fairly innocuous comment because we’re butthurt homers!! Gene Smith is dead to us!!!
Happy Hour Friday somewhere in German village Friday night dinner at The Sycamore Watching UGa/Oregon at Out-R-Inn Getting to stadium early for script Ohio
Gene Smith responding to a question about Notre Dame isn’t the same as MF randomly taking shots at Ohio State out of the blue.
If you clutch at this harder, your inevitable 3 TD win might increase by a point or two. You’re doing God’s work here, and should be proud of your efforts.