The team started preseason practice today. Sure, there’s plenty more of The Unpleasantness to come, but we’re at the point of the year when we can finally — FINALLY — start talking about football.
I would say I started getting excited about football today, but that wouldn’t be true.
I’ve been ready for football for a few weeks now.
But before we get to the games, we have to do a proper pregame, right?
There’s this:
And this:
And no pregame would be complete without this:
How’s that for pregame?
If this doesn’t look familiar to you, it probably should: That building over there on the left is sitting squarely on the spot we’ve used for tailgating for the last 87 years.
It also rules out the possibility of squeezing one more season out of our old spot. We sort of knew that already, but the presence of a building there makes it seem pretty official.
So we’re sort of left where we were at this point a year ago — that is, with a bunch of questions about where we might end up for the tailgating portion of the 2011 season. As you may recall, we started the year in the South Lincoln lot — a destination that we had been told would not be available in 2010 — and ended up back where we had been since time began — also a lot that we had been told would be off-limits because of construction.
The other thing we found about football parking a year ago — It might just be best to show up somewhere we like, because it doesn’t seem like many people know what we can or can’t do with a 12th and Cannon parking pass. In that spirit, Bud and I set out for campus during our visit last week to check things out. And if stuff works out as it did a year ago — as in, we show up and act like we belong there — we might not be in for a huge change at all.
This should look a little familiar, right? That’s the Parks Hall loading dock on the right, and the entrance to, ahem, our bathrooms right there in the middle. And look — a bunch of parking spaces! Many, if not most, of the spaces in this area are reserved for handicapped parking, which we are, of course, qualified to use. The spaces we’re looking at here aren’t ideal — there’s no real grass to back up to, and not a ton of room between the rows — but we could make it work. Or, even better, we could do this:
Now we’re over by the loading dock, looking back at Cannon and the newly constructed extension of John Herrick Drive. And: More parking! Sure, the construction trailer doesn’t provide the best view, but check out that last marked space and all that territory next to it. That, boys and girls, could be ours. In fact, the plan as it stands now is to just show up there on the morning of Sept. 3 and see what happens. We’re betting that even if we’re not permitted to stay there all season, they’re not going to make us move once we’re set up. And if no one minds, we’re there for the whole year.
And if someone does mind, we have other options.
If you joined us for last season’s first time — the Thursday night one against Marshall — you’ll recall that we ended up in the construction-shrunken South Lincoln lot. It’s still small, but it’s been reorganized a bit — fresh blacktop, fewer spaces, a little grass nearby, a little more room to spread out. Last year we secured a special tag that allowed us to use that lot in conjunction with the 12th and Cannon pass; we’re not sure if we can get that again this year, but we’re certainly going to look into it.
And then there’s this, the lot north of St. John Arena. This would be a huge change, yes, but one I think we could manage. This is the designated handicapped accessible lot for Football Saturdays. We don’t need a pass to get in this one; we just need to get there early (it’s first-come, first-served), we need Bud’s handicapped hang-tag (and Bud, since the tag is issued to him) and we need $15. There’s lots of room here, and the space alongside the French Field House (that’s the building on the right) even have some grass between the lot and the building. There’s a shuttle that, in theory, could get my folks to and from the stadium easily, and it would be a shorter walk for the rest of us.
A shorter walk, that is, from the tailgating spot. This would obviously require some adjustment from those who park at the hospital (ahem, Coochie Doctor and Matlock) or in the Cannon lots (ahem, everyone else). But there are plenty of day-of-game parking lots (the ones, marked in red on the university’s handy parking map, that you don’t need a pass to use) nearby, at Fawcett Center, across Lane, on the other side of the Olentangy between Lane and Woody Hayes, etc. Yep, that would be a hike for you guys, and that’s why I’m thinking this one is a decent option, but not the best one.
(There is, of course, one other possibility that we know we can do — the Cannon lots. But they’re big, they’re sloppy and crowded and they’re a long freaking way from the stadium — and I’d rather not).
When Dad and I left campus last week, we both felt oddly optimistic about being able to park fairly close to where we’ve always been. Sure, it won’t be quite the same — but there’s an awful lot about this season that will be, uh, different, and it won’t hurt a thing if tailgating is a little different as well.
It seems to happen every year. A picture of Nike’s planned alternate uniform for Ohio State leaks, and I freak out.
While I am happy to have something to write about besides the unpleasantness, I am so not happy about this year’s apparent choice. As has been the case in the past, this is a leaked photo, and there are no guarantees that this is how Nike will actually dress the team.
(But I should also point out — in both of the previous years, the leaked pix were accurate.)
With that background, boys and girls, I give you this, the 2011 Ohio State Football Nike Pro Combat Uniform (as posted on No Two-Minute Warning, via my friend Kelly):
OK. Let’s take a second and point out a couple things:
1) The uniforms are black.
2) They will be worn for the Oct. 29 game, when Ohio State hosts Wisconsin. At night.
3) Someone at Nike thinks it’s a good idea to wear all-black uniforms during a night game.
4) That person needs to be smacked in the head with something heavy. Like maybe one of those black helmets.
I’m at the point where I know this is going to happen every year. Fine. Nike shows off the latest in football uniform design and technology, and Ohio State makes a shit-ton of money selling replica jerseys. Woo, everyone’s happy.
If this is in fact OSU’s design for 2011, it will be the first time, though, that the Pro Combat unis might be a detriment to the team when it’s on the field. And I’m not OK with that.
But no matter what our friends in Michigan say, the streak is still alive. The vacated games don’t count as wins or losses — they just disappear.
Sports Illustrated’s Andy Staples has some thoughts about the correct ways to break NCAA rules. It’s a funny column, but Ohio State fans will also notice some advice that Jim Tressel apparently forgot (see rules 2 and 5).
There’s been a lot about this off-season that’s bothered me, but the departure of the head coach and the starting quarterback honestly aren’t among them.
Sure the resignation of Tressel and the announcement a day ago by his attorney — it’s not a good sign when college football players need attorneys — that Pryor would skip his senior season are short-term setbacks. And, more importantly, they’re symptoms of a larger problem that the NCAA will make sure is hanging over Ohio State football for at least a couple of years.
This is the start. This is how Ohio State gets its football program back. There will be a new coach. There will be a new quarterback. Because of the Tat Five suspensions, there will be a bunch of new faces on the field this fall.
And no matter what the NCAA does, no matter if the 2010 season is wiped from memory and Ohio State has sanctions hanging over its head for a couple years, this season is going to be a fun one.
I am happily watching the replay of Ohio State’s spring game, happy because I finally have some actual football to sink my teeth into.
Of course, it’s impossible to separate this afternoon’s game from the shitstorm my football team has been involved with for the past few months, and much of the discussion during the broadcast — and many of the thoughts I have about what transpired today — touch on the suspensions and how the Buckeyes deal with them in September.
As I’ve stopped dwelling on the whys of the suspensions and started thinking about actual football, and I’m feeling better about September. The road game at Miami isn’t as scary as it might sound — new coach, and a half-full stadium — which means we may not see a really tough test until the fifth game, against Michigan State. I think Miller’s going to be starting at quarterback by the second game, and if the O-line is OK, the team will be OK as well.
Killer Nuts Tailgating will make no statements until later tonight.
Other than to say Killer Nuts Tailgating is, um, concerned.
* One of Ohio State’s Tatgate guys made the play that won us the Sugar Bowl.
* All of the Tatgate guys made good on their promise to come back next season. And for some reason, I’m feeling oddly optimistic about 2011.
* At the moment, anyway.
* We will start paying attention to basketball; you may have noticed that Matta’s team is off to a decent start.
* When they beat Iowa the other night wearing the gray unis, I swear I could hear my father grumbling about them from 200 miles away.
I’m happy to have basketball — and, yes, the NHL — to help me cope with the realization that college football is done for a while. But that hasn’t kept me from having a minor existential crisis based on the damn Sunday football. You can read about that over here; I’d be happy to hear whatever thoughts you might have.
And in the meantime: National Signing Day is just a few weeks away.
Killer Nuts Tailgating 