It’s the norm for a lot of college football teams, and the new norm in the Big Ten, but the Buckeyes will be eating turkey before the Michigan game today for the first time since 2001
View full sizeJoAnn Hiscox was an overachiever this year when making a scarecrow for the family business, the Hiscox Agency of Nationwide Insurance in Burton Commons in Burton. Every year, businesses place a scarecrow out front for Halloween. This year, Hiscox put out four, Buckeye fan scarecrows spelling out O-H-I-O. It took Hiscox two weeks and not a penny to construct the straw-filled dummies. She says her father went to Michigan State and her children go to Otterbein, just north of Columbus, so they keep the north-south rivalry going. If weather permits and the scarecrows don't blow down, they will be up through the OSU/ Michigan game Saturday. COLUMBUS -- Practice, then turkey.
Ohio State’s season should be over. Instead, for the first time since 2001 and just the fifth time in the last 31 years, Thanksgiving is part of Michigan week for the Buckeyes, as it will be from now on. The Buckeyes are practicing this morning, will eat a team turkey dinner around noon, and then be dismissed to spend the afternoons with their families before returning Friday.
“It’s hard to make a practice day special, but we’ll do the best we can,“ OSU coach Jim Tressel said. “It will be good turkey.“
While Thanksgiving week games are commonplace, and even traditional, at a lot of schools, this is a new world for the Big Ten. This is the first season of the conference’s 13-week schedule, which includes a bye week for every team during the conference season, much to the consternation of Tressel. He always liked sending his players home for this holiday, which was the norm, save for the rare season, like in Tressel’s first year in 2001, when the calendar happened to work out with Thanksgiving during the season.
Since Thanksgiving was firmly established in 1941 as the fourth Thursday in November, this is the 18th time in 70 years that the holiday has fallen before the Ohio State-Michigan game.
Players within a few hours of campus can drive home, but many are having their families come to them. The parents of offensive lineman Justin Boren and fullback Zach Boren have invited to dinner any players who don’t have elsewhere to go. OSU director of football performance Eric Lichter said he’s not worried about any of his guys over-indulging and falling into a food coma two days before the most important game of the year. “It feels crazy that it’s Thanksgiving week, but it’s fun playing Thanksgiving week,“ OSU senior linebacker Brian Rolle, who is having his parents come to town while missing his usual 60-person family dinner in Florida. “Being here with my Mom and Dad, that’s all I need.“
On a weekend of Alabama-Auburn, Boise State-Nevada, Oregon-Arizona, Oklahoma-Oklahoma State, Florida-Florida State, Missouri-Kansas, Mississippi State-Ole Miss and Virginia Tech-Virginia, the Big Ten and the greatest rivalry in college football is at least still in the conversation. “We’ll probably get more fans watching us and we’ll be able to have a bigger stage to play on,“ senior defensive tackle Dexter Larimore said, “which is always fun.“
</rup>Sanzenbacher can joke around:OSU senior receiver Dane Sanzenbacher said junior receiver DeVier Posey will have no problem bouncing back from his big drop of a touchdown pass in the endzone at Iowa last week, one that caused Brutus Buckeye to come and pat Posey on the shoulder.
“It’s definitely one of those things that is serious at the time, but everybody will laugh about later,“ Sanzenbacher said. “Maybe we’ll be able to laugh about it later because we ended up winning the game. Obviously, it might have been a different story.“
Sanzenbacher provided some other laughs this week in a video that was released promoting organ and tissue donation. In it, Sanzenbacher plays the role of LeBron James while spoofing the “What Should I DO?“ James Nike commercial. Tressel, linebacker Ross Homan and basketball guard Jon Diebler have cameos.
You can watch the video at cleveland.com/osu.