Dave Sterling and Brian Spaeth talk into microphones – WFNY Podcast – 2014-11-19
November 19, 2014Heroes, old coats, and what it means to be a Browns fan
November 19, 2014
Hey there, WFNY. It’s Wednesday, and I’m not TD. Yes, much like Mike Aviles, I have no regular WWW position, but I’m pitching in wherever needed. So, from when you last heard from me in the WWW space, it was Thursday, and plenty has happened since then. In fact, all five of the teams that I follow have relevant news going on, so let’s not waste any time.
Last night was my first chance to catch the Ohio State Buckeyes men’s basketball team in action this year. In only their second game, the Buckeyes beat Marquette at home 74-63. Redshirt freshman Kam Williams led them with 15 points as four Buckeyes were in double figures and Shannon Scott handed out 14 assists. The Bucks shot 65% from the field to overcome 19 turnovers and went a legitimate ten deep in their rotation with the addition of their three highly-touted freshman. This team is a very interesting mix of young and old with the quartet of D’Angelo Russell, Keita Bates-Diop, Jae’Sean Tate, and the redshirt Williams along with the four-man senior class of Scott, Amir Williams, Sam Thompson, Trey McDonald to go with graduate transfer Anthony Lee from Temple. In fact, Marc Loving is the only player in sophomore or junior eligibility on the roster.
I haven’t quite decided what my contribution to coverage of the Ohio State basketball team is going to be yet this year. Without getting into specifics, the eyeballs on those articles aren’t quite the same as with many Cleveland teams articles. But, I did have a very small loyal following that did read them, comment on them, and share them on Twitter. I reckon that I’ll eventually settle on a compromise, perhaps a weekly update on the team rather than game-by-game recaps. I’d be interested to hear some feedback from those interested (or not interested). All I ask is that you keep it civil (i.e. Ohio State sucks, why would you cover them, they’re not in Cleveland, etc. are not constructive comments). Thanks in advance, guys.
You can read more about last night’s Buckeye win at Land Grant Holy Land.
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Sticking right with Ohio State, the Silver Bullets moved up the College Football playoff charts to No. 6 this week in the rankings released last night, leap-frogging one-loss Baylor and remaining within striking distance of a top-four spot. I was very hesitant to even entertain the thought of the playoff for Ohio State before the Michigan State game, because I didn’t think OSU would win. Once they did, I started to listen, and with all of the help they’ve received in the last few weeks, they’ve jumped eight spots. Now, if they take care of their business, which would include wins at home against Indiana and Michigan followed by a Big Ten championship matchup with Wisconsin at the moment, it’s more and more likely to me that things will work out.
Sure, there’s a chance OSU could get frozen out if everyone wins out, but with college football, we know that’s just not very likely at all. What it really boils down to for me is this: is the committee really going to take 11-1 Baylor or TCU that doesn’t have to play an extra game over a 12-1 Ohio State which will then have three ranked wins in a conference with five ranked teams at the moment? There’s also Mississippi State, which everyone assumes will get by Ole Miss for some reason, who has the same dilemma in that they will not be making it to the SEC Championship game unless Alabama loses. There should be some punitive damage for not making your conference’s title game or not playing that extra game, but how much is reasonable?
Just keep winning (and winning big in the first two of those games), and the committee will have to look quite thoroughly before it leaves a school that travels as well as Ohio State out of the four-team playoff if it’s close.
If you want some film breakdown of the Minnesota game, look no further than Ross Fulton and the always-on-point Eleven Warriors.
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Ben Tate got cut yesterday. It was a little surprising when it came across my timeline, but it was obvious that his role was going to be minimal for the rest of the year. The Browns have a dynamic pair of rookie running backs in Crowell and West, and there’s no reason not to give them the carries, especially when they’ve outperformed Tate behind this modified (read: much worse without Alex Mack) offensive line. Tate is just another classic example of NFL Free Agency needing to be used in moderation rather than the key part of team building. I know I was expecting much more out of Tate, and sure, injuries derailed him, but running back is a young man’s position, and the Browns have two that will hopefully serve them well for the next few years.
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On Tuesday, Ken Rosenthal tweeted that the Indians were looking to deal Nick Swisher for another hefty contract in return. Philadelphia’s Ryan Howard, Baltimore’s Ubaldo Jimenez, and Atlanta’s B.J. Upton were among those mentioned as potential contract matches. Yes, I know Nick Swisher was terrible last year, and the popular thing is to poke fun at him for his often-goofy outgoing antics. I also know that I’m a Buckeye and my take will seem overly-defensive. But, here we go.
I think you keep Swisher and hope he can return to his pre-2014 contributions. Last year was incredibly fluky, including the fact that I believe Swisher played injured for a long time before finally relenting and having surgery on both of his knees. In 2013, was Swisher the reason we got to the playoffs? Heck no, but he was a key clubhouse guy and he was serviceable. He hit 22 homers in 145 games and OPS’d at a respectable .763 clip. He also played a much-better first base in ’13, with 8 errors all season as opposed to the 9 he had in just 52 games there last season. He was a 3.8 WAR guy in ’13, which was tied for his second-best career mark. Is he EVER going to be the 30-homer, 85 RBI, middle of the lineup threat again at age 34 next year? No, he certainly won’t, but I think when healthy, he can be a working, contributing piece to the puzzle that helps the Indians win.
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Hold on, Cavaliers. Maybe the Milwaukee Bucks will make it three teams out of the Central Division heading to the playoffs? Our own Jacob Rosen created a Storify to capture some of the great NBA minds’ reactions to the 6-5 start for Milwaukee. They’ve got a lot of young, athletic talent that has no reason not to try compete at the bottom of the East playoff picture. It is wide open.
Be sure to check out my first look at the David Blatt offense when things are going good later this week in the Cavalier film room.
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Finally, an NFL Shop commercial has been a huge point of frustration for me over the past few weeks. Anybody who has seen it knows exactly what I’m talking about, the “Vikings family” that loses its allegiance to the team because of life events and becomes a Vikings-Eagles-Bengals-Cowboys-Steelers family. Ugh, this thing is just the worst example of transient fandom there is out there. Don Delco took it to task beautifully, and I applaud him for his contribution to mankind with this.
And that, my friends, is five teams in one article. I hope you all have a tremendous day. I’ll be filling and stacking boxes as I’m moving for the seventh time since I went off to school at OSU in 2006. Yikes!
105 Comments
which the current system today (not yesteryear) is doing.
No. Absolutely false. Only four teams get to play it out on the field, based on subjectivity and “eye tests.” And this doesn’t even capture your “power 5.” Indeed, it may only capture a “power 3.”
every team gets to play on the field and build a resume. year1 is a learning year and it’ll take some time for the big boys to properly adjust their schedules (just ask Baylor and Miss-State if they would like to go back and schedule a mediocre power-5 team instead of one of their cupcakes). I believe we’ll see less MAC and Sun Belt teams on the power-5 schedules and more games between themselves.
even this year though, the entire season is on display and being dissected. it may not be Ohio State’s fault that the rest of the Big10 has faltered in recent years, but it is their fault that they lost to VaTech. even so, if they win out, then I think they will get in.
regardless, I don’t have an issue with the process this year and hope that teams learn and continue to make the game better moving forward. even better, get rid of the little schools that make the college game pretty unwatchable for much of the year and let them play each other for their own championship.
I see we’ve reached an impasse. Nothing I can do to get you to take that red pill? You really like the taste of that steak, even though you know it isn’t real? Oh well. Can’t say I didn’t try.
But it’s sad, because I just know that if I could get the great mgbode on my side, we could change the world. Guess I’ll just have to find another Neo. (Yeah, right.)
sure, if you could get the great mgbode on your side, but you would just be stuck with this version of mgbode here.
as an aside, the third option is to walk away without taking a pill, which he never seemed to consider. a fourth, both pills. and, a fifth (my personal favorite) is to take them and attempt to shove both pills back down Morpheus’ throat.
I always found it humorous that the guy who was supposedly ultimately responsible for taking down the system was so readily willing to agree to a systematic approach in the first place.