Buckeyes Add #7 for '09

Painsville Harvey WR Chris Fields grew up an Ohio State fan and was waiting for an offer from his homestate Buckeyes. Fans had been clamoring for the smooth, sure-handed receiver to get an offer, assuming that he would eventually join the '09 class. But Fields set the bar pretty high with his insta-call commitment yesterday. News broke a littl before noon that Fields had been offered by Coach Tressel, and less than half an hour later he was reportedly a commit.

Fields is 6'0" and runs a 4.43 forty and had a great camp at the national High School All-Star Combine earlier this month. He had offers from Illinois and Penn State, and was receiving interest from Florida and Michigan. Thankfully, the Wolverines didn't have to use any precious recruiting resources on Ohio's #1 receiver this year. There are unconfirmed reports though that The Rod is scouting midgets in the Dayton/Trotwood-Madison area.

More on the Fields commitment here...

(photo by Rivals.com)

Notable Quotable

Saw two interesting quotes today...starting off with Mike Ferrell's Rivals.com article on Terrelle Pryor (subscription required).

"Pryor admits he was set to sign with Ohio State the day before Feb. 6, but a conversation with his father, Craig, made him think twice. His father wanted him to take another look at Penn State and take an official visit."

Huh. This sounds a whole lot like what the OSU insiders were saying all along. And they were verbally disparaged by the classy Michigan fans all over the internet. So what say you, unassailable Michigan Man? What happened to all of the delusional rumors that Pryor was going to Ann Arbor to get the snot knocked out of him as a freshman? Was it because Ohio State's booster paid too much? Surely a public retraction is in order.

The second quote has been flying around the Big Ten message boards, though I haven't been able to find a verified link yet. It's from the newly minted Michigan head coach, aka The Rod. To be clear, I don't a darn about mediocre slot receivers, no matter which school they attend. But this a pretty amusing case of hypocrisy...

"Every coach has his own philosophies. I'm going to tell you what my philosophy is," Rodriguez said. "You always hope that a young man is committed to your school when he says he is committed to your school. When a coach decides to leave, and that player is committed to one school, that coach shouldn't recruit that guy. If you're recruiting a guy who is not committed to West Virginia, that players is still out there, and you go ahead and recruit him. Otherwise you don't," Rod said.

“The hard part about it is when a young man is committed to you and you're committed to him, that's a spot on the roster that's taken. So maybe there are some guys who are out there that you quit recruiting because you're locked into him. Then three or four days before signing day, he switches on you, and you're like, 'Golly, I wish I would have known that three or four months ago so I could have signed someone else." - Then West Virginia HC Rich Rodriuez, 2007

Butler, Terwilliger Fail in Bid for Sweep

Michigan's, which earlier this year lost to Harvard (in men's basketball, not debate) today beat Ohio State 80-70 in Ann Arbor. It marked their first win against OSU coach Thad Matta, and the first time any Michigan team beat Ohio State since February 2004. Ouch.

So that stings a bit, as Ohio State now has a pretty ugly blemish on their NCAA resume. Conventional wisdom was that Buckeyes needed to beat Michigan and Minnesota, along with one of their four games against the top league teams. With a loss to the Wolverines, OSU may need to split their four marquee games, and definitely needs to win its first round game in the Big Ten tournament.

The signs were sort of out there -Michigan played Ohio State tough at home, they recently beat Iowa on the road, and OSU was pretty listless at Northwestern this week. Still, it would have been quite an accomplish for the seniors to run the table and go 8-0 in their careers against Michigan.

Of little note was The Rod's halftime appearance, a much hyped first address to a Michigan crowd. Fans wondered whether he would make a psuedo-promise like Jim Tressel did in his first year, which led to a big upset in the 2001 game. But The Rod didn't say jack. Basically, the promised that Michigan would play hard and play physical. I'm terrified now...