My wife and I made the one-hour, 20-minute trip to Athens, home of Ohio University, for the annual Green and White spring football game. The main purpose of the trip was to attend the annual Ohio athletics surplus sale, which precedes the football game.
The surplus sale was to open at noon, and we arrived at 11:45 a.m. I anticipated being about 30th in line, but parked and found myself at more like 100th or 125th. Years ago, I found a great deal on an Ohio windbreaker at the sale. This year, I couldn't even find room for my shoulders in the jam-packed sale area.
I had hoped to buy an Ohio football helmet, maybe a football or men's basketball jersey, a cool jacket or cool anything. I found nothing. If you were a Ohio volleyball nut, it was paradise. They had all kinds of old volleyball jerseys. It was so uncomfortable as a couple hundred people shuffled through the tightest of areas underneath Peden Stadium, everyone looking for shirts, shorts and other gear in their sizes, but finding only size XXL or size 13+ shoes. It was disappointing to say the least.
Instead of purchasing the few OK items we found, my wife suggested we go to the bookstore and just buy something nice with the money I had saved for the surplus sale.
So, we went uptown and did our usual -- visit O'Betty's for lunch and grab a drink at Pigskin. In that time, we decided instead of visiting the bookstore, let's buy season tickets.
When we went back to Peden, we found the season ticket booth and purchased the Family Pack. With the Family Pack, we got two adult and two youth season tickets for all seven home games. Obviously, we don't have a use for the youth tickets, but we have extra room by purchasing the Family Pack lol. And, at the price, we only have to go to two games to make our tickets pay off. As our annual tradition, we definitely plan to attend the Ohio-Marshall game, this year in Athens -- my wife is a Marshall grad as I am an Ohio grad. With tickets for that game at $35/each, we nearly make the season tickets worth it by attending just that game.
We selected Section 114, Row 3, Seats 11-14, for our season tickets. The view is great and we cannot wait for the first game: Saturday, Sept. 7 vs. North Texas. The rest of the home schedule features: Marshall (Battle for the Bell), Austin Peay, Central Michigan (Homecoming), Miami (Halloween Weekend), Kent State (Bobcat Blackout) and UMass (Black Friday).
Here's the view from our newly purchased tickets.
In addition to finding some cool stuff at the surplus sale, my main mission in attending the spring game was to have Independence Bowl Co-MVPs Tyler Tettleton and Beau Blankenship each sign a pair of Independence Bowl ticket stubs I collected. I knew the spring game would be a good opportunity to get the autographs, but didn't know exactly when or how I would be able to do it. From following Ohio spring football news, I knew Tettleton would not play in the game, so I looked for him on the sideline. Blankenship left the spring game after two plays, too, when he was tackled via a horse collar. With my Indy Bowl tickets and Sharpie in hand, I spotted both players on the bench right in front of the O-Zone section and made my way in their direction.
As the game continued on the field, I walked to the front row of the O-Zone, right behind Blankenship. I merely leaned over and asked if he would sign my ticket stub. I explained to him I wanted the Co-MVPs to sign my tickets. Instead of saying something like "Cool. Good Luck," Beau responded with, "You want me to go get Tyler?" Blankenship snagged Tettleton from the sideline and had him sign my other stub. I thanked both players and wished them good luck this season.
Below is the end result of my effort.
I can't say I was surprised how nice they were to do that, because the Ohio athletes I've met have always seemed to be nice, but just the whole ease of the situation was awesome. Where else can you just walk right behind the bench, strike up a conversation during the spring game with the team's standout players and get them to autograph some memorabilia?
After securing the autographs, we made one last pass through the surplus sale and I discovered the one item I ultimately purchased. Hidden in the hundreds of pieces of clothing, my wife found an awesome Ohio football sideline collared shirt. We purchased it for $2.
Indeed, it was another great day in Athens.
As for the game itself, there wasn't much to write home.
Approximately 30 players -- mostly first- and second-stringers -- were held out for either injuries or as a precaution to prevent injury. Among those was Tettleton, who only participated in non-contact 7-on-7 passing drills at "halftime."
Because of the low numbers, coach Frank Solich opted to run 40 live contact plays, without taking score, rather than a true game format.
Blankenship looked sharp, but left after two plays. Blankenship caught a 9-yard pass and rushed once for 13 yards. On his second touch of the game, Blankenship was tackled via a horse-collar type tackle and left the game. When I approached Blankenship, after he was removed from the game, I noticed a large scrape or rash on the underneath of his arms. I noted the "rough rash" as we spoked, but Blankenship just said "Oh, it's not a big deal." The scrape looked like the underneath of his forearm skidded along the field's turf as he was tackled.
During the game, no Ohio players found the endzone as the defense shined.
From the Ohio athletics release on the game:
"Offensively for the Bobcats, sophomore Kyle Hammonds (Solon, Ohio) led the way on the ground, rushing for 33 yards on 10 carries. Freshman Paul Wilks was not far behind as he ran for 31 yards on eight carries as Ohio finished with 94 total yards rushing.
Freshmen Greg Windham (Tampa, Fla.), JD Sprague (Cincinnati, Ohio) and sophomore Derrius Vick (Lincoln, Neb.) went a combined 7-for-10 for 74 yards.
Seven different receivers had at least one catch. Senior Matt Waters (Council Bluff, Iowa) led all receivers with a catch for 33 yards.
Ohio's defense held the offense without a touchdown on the day. Freshman cornerback Dyquan Stewart (Stafford, Va.) forced a fumble and had a fumble recovery to highlight the day for the defense.
Freshmen Tarrell Bashum (Rocky Mount, Va.), William Johnson (Compton, Calif.) and sophomore Kurt Laseak (Mentor, Ohio) also chipped in defensively as each recorded a sack"
What didn't make the release was the inefficiency in the kicking department as four players battle to replace the graduated Matt Weller, Ohio all-time best kicker.
At the end of the first offensive drive of the game, the four kickers each kicked a 30-yard field goal attempt. Matt Green and Matt Amicone each made their attempts, while Josiah Yazani and Matt Ringle missed.
I've read the two who made their kicks are the front-runners for the job. It concerns me, though, when any kicker misses from 30 yards. This was a glorified scrimmage. There was no defensive pressure/rush, no urgency as a clock winding down, no wind and hardly a crowd to intimidate the kicker. Essentially, there was little to no reason to miss the kick. It concerns me to rely upon these kickers as of now. Hopefully, the old saying "competition breeds success" holds true.
That's about it from my trip to Athens and attendance for the spring game.
For more in-depth breakdown on game, I recommend following Ohio beat writer Jason Arkley with The Athens Messenger. His Twitter handle is @JasonAmessenger. For Arkley's account on the spring game, read his article online. For others completely obsessed, you can visit BobcatAttack, the Ohio University athletics fan message boards, for more discussion.
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