We all have best friends in our lives, we all have many best friends. One of my best Friends, Josh Bauerle, a now resident of Denver, Colorado is a Financial Advisor/Accountant and an Alumni of Kent State University. He and I over the years have had many “battles” or “debates” when it comes to our love for our Cleveland Teams, whether its the Cavs, Browns or the Indians, we always seem to have different opinions on the topics at hand. I sometimes thing we both purposely refute each others opinions on our teams just so we can have an argument…I will be honest, he is never right…I sometimes allow him to feel that way….But this is not what this Blog Post is about…Josh had to give a speech to his toastmasters group introducing himself and he used the Cleveland Sports Fandom as his way to introduce himself and I thought it was worth sharing with many of our Cleveland fans…

Josh Bauerle and his Beautiful Wife Courtney(Who has NO Chance of ever becoming Fat and Ugly)

It has been a while since I have actually used this site to speak my mind, or hopefully entertain others. With the biggest news in all of Sports, the Penn State Sex Scandal is by far the biggest story right now. Many of us have expressed our feelings on this subject, one that is very hard to swallow. There are many people out there, mostly Penn State fans that don’t want to believe what happened, many don’t want to believe the the legend that is Joe Paterno had no hand in this disgusting act that occurred on campus. I would like to tell the apologists that it is ok to feel this way, I would be lying if I ever said I wasn’t one before….however, the facts have been revealed, the truth is out, Joe Paterno put Penn State and the Football Brand and his own Brand before anything or anyone else. As big as Joe Pa was, NO ONE is Bigger than Penn State. The poor children that had to live through that nightmare that is Jerry Sandusky and with people knowing and not saying a word to save them, that all just breaks my heart. This is going to be a long rebuild of an image for a school and a Football team and their fans need to really come to terms with that. 

In no way do I want to see the Football players suffer, because what did they do to deserve this? Yes, the Football program is under the microscope because their Defensive Coordinator was raping young men and their Head Football Coach was turning a blind eye, however, I have to feel the NCAA is going to look into this. They might not have broken the “Lack of Institutional Control” but they certainly broke the Lack of Morals in my book. I think that the “lack of institutional control” is going to be difficult for the NCAA to pursue, because the control related to a coach and higher ranking officials and didn’t deal with student-athletes and that is the primary function that involves them. However, I could see this changing the landscape of violations and fines for the Clery Act and the Dept of Education. 

Justice has been served to those innocent children but I am not sure there will ever be a justice for the fans of Penn State, justice for the Football Players of Penn State, this will all be something to keep an eye on over the course of time. 

I’d like to know what your thoughts are on this matter, how are you feeling about it? Should the Statue Come Down? I say YES, it should! Tweet me @HolyBuckeyeOSU and let me know what you think.

Well Buckeye fans we got ourselves another top prospect. Tommy Schutt, a 5 star recruit on some sites just ended his ties with Penn State University and flipped over to THE Ohio State University. This will be the first of what I will assume to be many recruited by Urban Meyer. 

Tommy Schutt is going to be a great addition to the Defensive line that earlier this year just added Adolphus Washington. If the Buckeyes can get Noah Spence to commit to Ohio State then we all better start praying for quarterbacks in the Big Ten. Tommy comes out of Illinois and is ranked #1 at his position in the state. He comes in at a stout 6’3” and a whopping 301 pounds. I just watched some video on this kid and you wouldn’t think a kid of his size could move, but man was I wrong. Schutt will excel as the nose tackle where his big body will just stuff the middle of the line and help the run defense in a major way. With the way this kid moves he will be disrupting offensive lines and getting the to quarterback as well. Going to be hard for teams to stop guys like Washington and Schutt and possibly Spence. 

Tommy By The Numbers:

2010:          67 Tackles

                 17 Tackles for loss

                 14 Sacks

2009:         67 Tackles

                 27 Tackles for loss

                 14 Sacks

                  3 Fumble Recoveries

Tommy has made comparisons to now DT for the Green Bay Packers, B.J. Raji. 

Strengths:

Explosion

Intensity/Effort

Strength

Weaknesses:

Techniques and Moves

Well the proper coaching this kid can be one of the very bests. Buckeye fans should get really excited about Tommy Schutt. This kid is going to be a monster and a nightmare for many. The kid is a great athlete who can get off the ball and show great ability in his pursuit of the football. Tommy is going to be a defensive play maker who can disrupt offensive lines and get up under linemen’s shoulder pads. In High School Tommy made a lot of plays and worked a lot of the defensive end but now in College I would expect him to be a true nose tackle who will tie up blockers more instead of making all the plays. Just by having this guy at nose tackle is going to allow Washington and others to come off the edges and make some big plays. Tommy Schutt will be a very important piece on our defensive side of the ball. I am so excited to see this guy put Michigan linemen on their faces!

Good morning Ohio! It is everyone’s favorite day of the week, Football Sunday! Browns kick off their tough 4 out of 5 games by hosting the Ravens today at 4:00 pm. These games to many are considered Colt McCoy’s Final Exam. I personally don’t think it should be. I am a believer that he should have at least two years in the new system, but that is for another time. I would really like to see Hillis get a bulk of the carries and get that run game established and get the Ravens defense to be honest. They will bring a lot of blitzing to the table so McCoy could be in for a long day. I want to see WR Greg Little bounce back from last week’s Braylon Edwardsesque performance.

Coming into today’s game the Cleveland Browns are 24th in the league in passing yards per game at 199.1 yards a game. They are a lousy 29th in the league in rushing yards per game at 96 yards and sometimes it takes our RB’s like 30 carries just to get that. ONE WORD: Pathetic. The bright spot in all of this is the Browns come into the game with the #1 opposing passing yards per game at 174.7 and don’t ask me how because I surely cannot figure it out. Where we will be in deep trouble will be with Ray Rice. Look for him to have a field day because our rush defense is atrocious, giving up 138 yards per game.

The Ravens are a team that seem to play down to their opponent’s talent level with losses to teams like the Seahawks and the Jaguars, both teams the Browns have defeated this season. Browns quarterback Colt McCoy is 0-6 with a 66.6 passer rating lifetime against the AFC North, and division co-leading Baltimore (8-3) has won six consecutive meetings. McCoy, who has passed for more than 300 yards only once this season, threw two interceptions to Ed Reed and three overall in the most recent meeting — a 20-10 Baltimore victory Dec. 26.

Scouting Report via ESPN.com

 The Ravens are best when they have a good mixture of run and pass on early downs. In 2011, Cleveland has been inconsistent defending the run (138.6 yards per game) but has been very good against the pass (174.7 yards per contest). Look for offensive coordinator Cam Cameron to continue to design a game plan that features dual threat Ray Rice, who will likely get 20 or more touches rushing the ball between the tackles while serving as a consistent chain mover on third downs in the passing game.

What’s going on Buckeye Nation? As we all know by now, THE Ohio State University has made possibly one of the biggest coaching hires in its history. Urban Meyer. The man is an offensive genius and should be a nice change from the likes of Jim Bollman and his vanilla offense. As I sit here and write this I start to get visions of Braxton Miller in an Urban Meyer offense. Excuse me while I pick my jaw up off the ground!!! 

The hiring of Urban led me to instant memory loss from the defeat we took from that team I will not mention. Urban certainly wasted ZERO time working the phones to put together one of the best coaching staff’s in the Nation and working on top rated recruits who are now considering Ohio State. It has become obvious that the dark cloud that loomed above Columbus has started to break up and move on to Pennsylvania, if you catch my drift. We have guys like Cyrus Jones, Eddie Goldman, Noah Spence taking a hard look at the Scarlet and Grey. I tweeted Noah Spence the night Urban was hired:

“ClevelandMike4 @NoahSpence Urban Meyer on line 1 bro, You would look amazing in the Scarlet and Grey!”

“NoahSpence @ClevelandMike4 just got off the phone with him, Ohio State definitely at the top of my list for now.”

I would like to think I played a small part in that recruitment action, but lets be honest…I didn’t, I just got lucky. I did see that the tweet between Mr. Spence and I was blowing up all over the Buckeye Boards and not once did they have my Twitter Name in there…come on Buckeye Nation, where is the credit? 

Urban Meyer is going to shake things up and I could not be more elated. I want to go to sleep and be woken up in August. I was instantly jacked when I read from another blogger, Nevada? I could be wrong but he reported this scene from the Player Meeting with Urban before he had his official press conference:

“Urban walked into the team meeting and said “I’m not f**King around, im not dealing with any bull****. I plan on putting up 100 points against every team and i don’t give a damn what any reporter or coach says about it ” he said it was an awesome team meeting.”

If that does not jack you up then you might want to check your fanhood and get back to me. With Urban at the helm I seriously think we will stomp that school up North like Ndomikung Suh on a Thursday afternoon meeting with the Green Bay Packer’s offensive lineman. So stand up Buckeye Nation, it is exciting times, as for next season….”Can’t Wait” (Bart Scott voice)

As a Browns fan I have seen my share of up’s and well, a crap load of downs and I don’t mean first downs. As Josh Cribbs stated earlier this week, “I am fed up with losing,” I kind of get what he means, as a life long fan that is all I have seen. The losses are stacked up higher than a game of Jenga. Being a Browns fan I have learned that many Browns fans are very impatient and I have to assume that losing, in the fasion that we do is the reason for the impatience. Every year it seems Browns fans want their coach fired and they want a new QB in there the first time something goes awry with the starting QB. I honestly think the Fans of Cleveland play a real part in all the decisions that the front office makes. I for one am on board with Colt Mccoy and many are not. But why? The kid has 13 TD’s to 8 INT’s this year. Not mind blowing, I know, but lets be honest guys. First year under Shurmur in a locked out season and first year in this offense. We have no legitimate deep threat and we have so many inconsistencies on the Offensive Line how could Colt possibly excel? 

I decided to go look at Drew Brees in his first two years in the league. Why did I choose Drew Brees you ask? Well, Colt coming in was drawing all the same negative attributes as Drew Brees when he broke into the league. 

Colt McCoy started 8 games last year:

He completed 60 percent of his passes and threw for 1,576 yards. He threw 6 TD’s to 9 INT’s. He was sacked 23 times for a loss of 132 yards. He also had a 74.5 Passer Rating

This year in 8 games so far:

He has completed 57 percent of his passes for 1,764 yards. He has thrown 10 TD’s and 6 INT’s. He has been sacked 20 times for a loss of 102 yards. His passer Rating is 76.5

Now Drew Bree’s in his first two seasons:

2002 is when he actually started full time.

In 16 games he 3,284 yards. Completing 60 percent of his passes. He threw for 17 TD’s and 16 INT’s. He was sacked 24 times and lost 180 yards. His passer rating was 76.9

In 2003: He threw for 2,108 yards. He completed 57 percent of his passes. He threw for 11 TD’s and 15 INT’s. He was sacked 21 times for a loss of 178 yards. His passer rating was 67.5

Colt McCoy is/was compared to Bree’s when he came out. Arm strength wise and by his size. Brees is a top tier QB right now in the NFL. I am not saying McCoy will be but my god…Cleveland fans just want something new every 5 seconds. Cleveland fans never want to give anyone a real chance. This is why we are the way we are because of constant change whether it is at QB, Coach, GM. We have no consistency. There is a reason why the Steelers are a top notch organization. They run a certain style of play and they always bring in those players to match those personalities. 

McCoy is on pace to throw 20 TD’s and 12 INT’s and throw for 3,528 yards now I don’t think it will go that way but still there is that chance.

The Browns need to stay consistent and stick to their guns on what they want to do. They need to address the Right side of the Offensive line. We are in dire need of a #1 WR. Right now we have a pretty good #3 WR in Cribbs and 2 decent #2’s in Mo Mass and Greg Little. If Peyton Hillis was not hurt and other off field issues who knows how much better Colt could be doing. We literally have no run game and no WR. We can’t figure out Colt’s arm strength because we don’t have a decent WR who can get off the line and past a defender for Colt to throw to. Everyone complains that Colt doesn’t throw it down field. Well, did it ever occur to you that our WR’s might not have run down field or they couldn’t get separation if they did go deep? Would you rather Colt just wing it down field in double coverage and get picked? Because it seems that way. 

I am not saying Colt is the sure answer or that he will even compare to Brees when all is said and done but we will never find out if we don’t give him a real chance with real talent and the right protection. 

Mike Holmgren is suppose to be this big QB guru, he needs to be working with Colt on reading defenses, etc, etc.