Monday, February 1, 2010

Looking ahead


Over the past thirteen years or so that I’ve watched Ohio State football, I can’t remember the Buckeyes playing on any day other than Saturday. It’s been a tradition for many years that Ohio State always plays their football games on a Saturday. Well to open the 2010 Ohio State football season (September 2nd), the Bucks will host Marshal on a Thursday night in the Shoe! The Buckeyes playing on a Thursday night!? Yep that's right. “Why a Thursday night?” many Ohio State fans have asked. In my opinion the decision to play on this Thursday was very strategic benefitting the Buckeyes.


September 2nd marks the opening day for college football, meaning excited football fans all over the country will tune in on this day to watch the opening games of the 2010 college football season. However, in the past, big name colleges (Ohio State, USC, Alabama, Texas, etc.) almost never open their season on this Thursday, leaving the smaller college games on television to bore people. Not this season. The Ohio State Marshal game will, most likely, be the most viewed football game on September 2nd. With the Bucks in the top five preseason rankings, this Thursday night game gives Ohio State the stage to themselves to, hopefully, win big and look excellent over the Marshal Thundering Herd bumping them up in the polls.


Let’s look forward a week to Ohio State’s second game of the 2010 season. Miami of Florida! Any Buckeye fan can tell you the last time these two football teams met up. With a 13-0 record, during the 2002 season, the Buckeyes entered the National Championship game underdogs to the powerhouse, undefeated Miami Hurricanes. In double overtime the Bucks’ were able to pick off Ken Dorsey’s last pass of his college career sending the ‘Canes home with an L and the Buckeyes home with a crystal ball. September 11th, 2010 will be the first meeting between these two college football teams since the National Championship game in 2003. Miami won’t forget the upset and will come to Ohio Stadium looking for redemption. Luckily the Buckeyes will have two extra days to prepare for the ‘Canes due to their Thursday night game the week before!


Although playing on a Thursday night is not an Ohio State norm, the decision was in the best interest of the football team. The extra practice time and attention Ohio State will receive because of the September 2nd game will, hopefully, improve their chances for a win over the bitter ‘Canes and a run at the crystal ball once again.


2 comments:

  1. I love tha use of semantics here! Wow we'll b playing on Thursday's more often eh? I guess I can c tha strategy in it. And Miami is on our schedule?! Can't wait for that one!! How good is this Marshall team? From wat u say, their lightweight. haha

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  2. Wow!? Rivals has The Bucks at #2, huh? Not bad. One thing that I have come to appreciate about OSU, is that they are always scheduling a non-conference game against a power house. The last few years it was a home-ad-hoke series with Texas and USC, next up is Miami and then (I think) Virginia Tech. Most schools (*cough* I'm looking at you, SEC teams! *cough*) avoid tough contests that could knock them down the polls early on.

    I'm glad that the Thursday game is before classes start, as I'm sure that there would be many absent students the next day.

    I love that Deon dropped the "s-bomb" (semantics).

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