Another Rick Nash goal. Another Steve Mason shutout. It looks like the last-minute acquisition was a smart one, and Torres, The Umbergler, et al are playing like men on a mission. The Jackets have been winning like a playoff team, that’s for sure.

For the first three months of the season, some dude from the ticket office was calling me twice a week trying to talk me into a bundle of tickets… bet they’re not so desperate for sales any more! It’s great to have a young team putting things together so very, very well, and I hope it translates into more widespread, long-term support for our team. (Side rant: lower bowl tickets for less than the price of two dinners and three movies would also mean more dedicated fans. Call me crazy, but selling out the bottom deck of Nationwide at ~$40 for the non-box, non-club tickets seems like it’d be better than leaving half the $56 seats empty! Maybe it’s a moot point now that the guys are taking names and kicking the corresponding asses.)

This brief entry is meant entirely to shame Coffing into writing a regular feature about the Blue Jackets.

…Again. I will admit, much as I love the Buckeyes I was not optimistic for tonight. Tressel is a great coach who for whatever reason has trouble putting it together in big non-conference games. So in a way it was good to see a close game against a great, heavily favored Texas team; but it’s still a bummer to end another season on a sour note.

Stifling run defense, but over 400 yards passing allowed. Beanie continues to rock everyone’s world, until he’s hurt again. Dumb offside, holding, and roughing the passer penalties lengthened Texas drives and crippled our own. And late in the 4th when the offense really got firing, it was just in time to blow through a drive that should have managed the clock. I was afraid the D couldn’t buckle down for one last Texas possession. Crappy time to be right.

It’s disappointing, especially, for the seniors who have worked so hard to improve themselves and be a winning team.  For those who stayed in Columbus when they could have been millionaires by now, thanks again, and God bless…

Good for the Buckeyes’ seniors – they’ve been a fun group to watch. It’s encouraging to have a team of great athletes who also get good grades, aren’t constantly talking trash, and generally stay out of trouble. It’s disappointing that we’ve struggled a bit when so many guys came back for a national championship, but I look forward to watching many of them in the NFL and hope they’re enjoying the extra year in Columbus, whatever happens in whatever bowl game we get. God bless ‘em.

I still don’t know – and don’t much care – what Ray Small has been doing besides skipping classes that pissed off Coach Tressel. He had a great kick return today, but after the way Ray’s dad has behaved in interviews I was kind of happy it didn’t go for a touchdown. I was also happy to see Todd Boeckman make a couple great plays. I’ve never been any kind of Boeckman promoter but Coffing’s always said he is a good guy. I was at the Troy game where Boeckman came in for a play, threw a bad pass, and was immediately booed… super lame on the crowd’s part.

At the same time, I could do without the announcers and analysts nit-picking Pryor. The people who say he’s inaccurate seem to forget how the same complaints were levied on Troy Smith in his early games. It’s clear Tressel wanted him to play as much as possible this season so he’s even better the next couple years, which makes sense although it’s a raw deal for Boeckman. Do I wish Pryor hadn’t lost that fumble against Penn State? Sure. But he’s a spectacular athlete and as I’ve mentioned before, beyond a point the ESPN guys are talking for the sake of talking. That said, I’ll resist complaining too much about how rarely Brandon Saine gets the ball, and when he does it’s for clock-wasters up the middle at the end of the game.

Let’s see how the rest of today’s match-ups pan out. It’s hard to root for Penn State after they beat the Bucks and then choked, so I’ll definitely be pulling for the Spartans and another outright OSU Big Ten title. I’m planning to cheer for Texas Tech in the evening game – the whole pirate thing is overdone, but Crabtree, Harrell, and the rest make for entertaining football.

USF, the nation’s #10 college football team, lost last night to unranked Pitt.  Just another wrench thrown into this season which I susupect will be interesting throughout.  Great year to be a college football fan!

It’s been a great weekend for football fans. Especially for me – I’ve always rooted for Ohio State, followed by the Big Ten, followed by The Underdog. So it’s fun to watch a few days straight of upsets, strong Big Ten teams, and another win for the Bucks. Even when one of the upsets is Meeechigan.

Watching the second half of the Penn State – Illinois game reminded me of being in high school at the end of the Cooper years. The Big Ten was tough and Ohio State won more than they lost, and that was all the more thought I put into it. To be honest, I like football season better that way. I cannot and wouldn’t much care to memorize facts and statistics; ESPN has a sharp slope of diminishing returns for me. I don’t need to hear seven different analysts all say the same things over and over, ad infinitum.

I’m glad, too, that I’ve gotten used to Musberger being “the guy” announcing most of the games I watch. He’s no Keith Jackson – whose voice I’ll always associate with my favorite time of year – but the man’s a good announcer. Especially with Kirk Herbstreit, who all of my female friends (and several of the guys) openly admit to being in love with, next to him in the booth.

….Since when have the Penn State fans chanted the bass line to “Seven Nation Army” when the team is doing well? That is really annoying.

The newest version of espn.com’s college football preseason poll is out, and the Bucks are back on top.  I’m not too sure how I feel about this development.  I suppose it is something that the Buckeyes likely deserve due to returning talent, history of winning seasons, etc…  One thing that I don’t want to hear about all season is how Ohio State is overrated, can’t beat SEC teams, blah blah blah.  Ohio State is primed to be the first team in the Big Ten’s rich history to win the Big Ten title three years in a row.  It should be a fun and interesting season, we’ll see how it all turns out.

Not too much to update everyone with today.  I’ll leave the politics to my partner, he knows much more about those sorts of things.  Our comic idea is coming along, even though there have been several unforseen issues with certain aspects of its creation.  We are hoping to have a finished product sooner or later.

Bad news today on the HD DVD front.  Toshiba has officially called it quits, making the evil Sony Blu-ray the only format available for high definition DVD media.  It is good for the consumer in the long run I suppose, but I just can’t ever picture myself purchasing a DVD player over $200.  Hopefully the prices will reduce soon – not that I have plans to buy a player – but it would be nice for everyone to be able to experience HD movies at a reasonable price.

College football teams are beginning spring practices , which is good news for fans.  Having been involved in these practices before, I can say that it is not good news for certain people involved with the team.  Spring practices make for some long days, but I suppose that is the nature of the sport – practice, film, team meal, meetings, practice and repeat.  The Buckeyes are ranked #3 in the most recent preseason poll at ESPN.com.  We’ll see how spring practice goes, but I am hopeful for what looks to be another successful season.

Enough rambling for now, I should get back to cartooning.

My past few days have been marked by a series of miniature disasters. Last week I bought another 50 shares of Intel stock to go with the 50 shares I purchased a month or so ago.

Late last week, Warner Bros. announced they would discontinue their HD-DVD offerings this spring. Great news for Sony, whose crappy overpriced game console makes for a great, affordable Blu-Ray player. Bad news for… well, Intel, for one, but also for anybody annoyed with Sony’s storied history of seeing how many ways you can put “expensive” and “proprietary” in the same sentence.

And then the Buckeyes got smoked in the national championship game. Again. As it turns out, the analysts saying the Big Ten’s down and the SEC is up are still right. At least Brandon Saine got to see the ball sometime other than the last 2:00 of the 4th quarter, and Chris Wells threw about the most brutal stiff-arm in history.

Finally, I got a friendly email this morning from Chase cardmember services. “Your payment is due” is lender-ese for “Your payment was due three weeks ago, but this automated email doesn’t go out until you’ve incurred a late fee and some finance charges.” Thanks, guys. Sorry I’ve been trying to starve your children by always paying my statement in full.

Next spring you’ll have a big NFL contract, but today you are a loser.

Thanks for sticking around, Cap’n Attitude.