Way too much favoritism and politics in all-league voting.

Let's play a game.  Who am I?

I won player of the year this season at my position.
In my two biggest games this season, I had 1 tackle and ZERO tackles and lost
        both games.
My team had a better record last year WITHOUT me (including a win over the #1
        team in the country) than they had this year WITH me.
Who am I?

If you said Jason Trusnik, you are right.  Sound like a reputation and politics vote to you?


And any statement that you give awards based on player ability without considering injury is ridiculous.  You have to play in the games to be productive.  If not, give first team and the Tressel award to Kyle Hausler of Capital.  He won it last year and is a three time All-American.  He is the best DB in the league, so if injuries don't matter, it shouldn't matter he only got to play in 2 games.  Otte should send him a thank you note and Christmas card because that award is his without the injury.

HS Coach

I couldn't agree more.  I have only seen Trusnik play twice and neither time has he had ANY impact on the game.  If I heard correctly, he was credited with zero tackles.........I was talking about this earlier today and I know you can game plan around him (ie. run away from him, double him, 3 step drops), but come on, ZERO tackles, that does not sound like a POY or someone who many D3 fans could play at the next level.  If you can't make plays against the OAC's best, the next level is out of the question.

As far as the CU defense is concerned, they have tons of great players, but their best candidate for POY (Kyle Hausler) has been out for the past 5 games with a foot injury.  He is a game changer and could have been POY the past two seasons.  He is everywhere on the field when healthy.  He is great against the run and is CU's all-time leader in picks.  The DTs (McKenzie, O'Malley,and Springs) are probably the league's best trio.  The ends are quick and have never ending motors.  Andriaco and Abdullah are second to none at LB and the secondary, even without Kyle is outstanding.  Thom Hausler and CJ Steele (Kyle's replacement) are very good safties, and Coleman and Starks may easily be the best pair of corners in the league.  Add in McDonough at CB and Hessel as a 3rd down specialist and the talent and depth is definitely there.  But they are more of a defense by committee w/o Kyle and have many great great players but really no POY numbers.

That being said it was a terrific team effort against ONU and they will need more of the same against OTT and ultimately Mount.  They do have a knack for forcing turnovers when they appear to have there back's against the wall.  Hopefully that will continue because they have had some problems on 3rd downs.

All this talk about Mount and CU is making me mad.....CU still has a tough test against ONU this weekend and after watching the replay on ONN I'm not sure they will win.......Glad to see the broadcasters agree with my assesment of CU's passive defensive schemes.......The ONU running game and Quirk scrambling ability are far superior to JCU and we all saw what JCU did against the CU defense......No matter how good or explosive the CU offense is, if they don't get on the field they don't score........Teams are controlling the clock and converting way too many 3rd down plays against an unaggressive BASE defense.......When are thay going to turn some of these athletes lose.......CU's DBs are as good as any in the league but they NEVER blitz and appear to be reacting rather than attacking......If this trend continues CU will be lucky to get by ONU and will have ZERO chance against a dominant Mount offense........More times than not, pressure leads to mistakes......Here's to hoping the CU offense plays mistake free football and puts a lot of points on the board.......I'm afraid they might need 'em

Kudos to the Mount coachs for changing the D from a 4-3 to a 4-2.  Nice to see a coach put ego aside, "we can play our base D all game and win", for the betterment of the team.  I am not, nor ever will be, a fan of the bend but don't break defense.  First off, team's can control the clock against you and limit your touches (a recipe for disater, ask CU).  Secondly, you are usually going to lose the battle of field position.  Be aggressive and make other teams make plays.  Base D (4-3) is nice if you can consistently get pressure with your front four, but a lot of teams can not.  The 4-2-5 allows a lot more versatillity and gets more speed on the field.  With  more and more teams playing 3 and 4 and sometimes 5 WR sets on a regular basis, you can not have enough DBs.  Imagine the possibilities and blitz packages with safeties as good and physical as the Hausler teams.  Safeties regularly sneak into the box on running downs anyways, so if you can stop the run with a good front 4 and 2 LBs, there really is no benefit for playing a 3rd LB.  So nice adjustment Mount coaching staff.  Talent on the field is not the only reason you win game after game.

To set the record completely straight.  Rocky Pentello, the Westerville South coach, is 2nd cousin to Rocky Pentello, the CU QB.  Rocco Pentello, the current Westerville South QB, is the HS coach's son and is the CU QB's 3rd cousin.  In other words, Rocco the QB and Rocky the QB's grandfathers were brothers.  Just for fun, the great grandfather of both QBs name was........Rocco Pentello!!!!!

Football runs in the family.

No offense to all you CU fans who are defending the defense, but I don't care about numbers vs. marietta, wilmington, and heidelberg.  I care about how they play Mount.  The defensive numbers are great again this year, similar to last season, then Mount put up 42 and 34.  That is not great defense.  The talent on Cap's defense is ridiculous, no question there, I worry about the schemes.  If the starting middle linebacker was out like has been stated, even more reason to play nickel and dime, especially against a team looking to throw the ball practically every down.  The majority of their rushes, and there weren't many, came from the QB.  So instead of playing an inexperienced 2nd team linebacker, play an extra DB to help match up against 4 and 5 reciever sets.  It seems to me CU needs to quit playing the opponent and start playing the season.  What I mean is, when your talent is so superior that it is obvious you will win the game (ala...marietta, Heidelberg, Wilmington) do things to help prepare you for tougher games where talent alone will not win it and adjustments and coaching are just as important.  Otterbein last year is a perfect example.  Sickmeier goes down, CU up 14-2 with 8:00 to play.  Backup middle LB in, no nickel or dime defense even though it is obvious OTT has to pass, they march down the field twice to win the game.  I love Cap's defensive players, they are fast and hard hitting.  I would just like to see a more aggressive defense to take full advantage of the players skills and them the best chance to succeed.  CU will definitely need the D to be at its best this month and hopefully the "O" will stay aggressive as well.  Play to win, instead of playing not to lose. Just ask Marty Schottenheimer about that!!!  You recruit great talent for a reason, trust it and let it perform.