Awesome article about the 4 Ohio State Panthers

[KB_fan]

Ohio State is braggin' on having 5 players in the Super Bowl.  4 Panthers & 1 Bronco.   Really excellent reflections from their ex-coach Jim Tressel on our 4 Buckeyes - Ginn, Philly, Norwell & Coleman  His insights into each of the players are amazing.  He gets why they each have been a huge part of our Super Bowl season.

http://mmqb.si.com/mmqb/2016/01/28/jim-tressel-super-bowl-50-ohio-state-nfl-ted-ginn-kurt-coleman-philly-brown-bradley-roby-andrew

Here's a few excerpts:
 

Quote

 

On the emergence of safety Kurt Coleman in Carolina…

Kurt is a neat kid. When he was with me, Kurt tackled another player in practice and that player, Tyson Gentry, became paralyzed. Unfortunately, he is in a wheelchair, but yet the two of them are the best friends in the world. It’s just the kind of kid Tyson is but also the kind of kid that Kurt is. As a player, he’s a little bit undersized. He doesn’t have that range that maybe you want in your free safety. Not a Teddy Ginn speed guy, but just a good athlete. We first saw him in high school and he was a great baseball player. He’s just a tough kid, a great leader, and everyone loved him.

He needed to have the right fit with a team. He was with the Eagles for a bit, the Vikings, then the Chiefs. He was doing okay, but he got the fit with the Panthers, he’s got the great front seven and he’s kind of playing center field back there. He’s had seven interceptions this year. Kurt is just going to do whatever is asked, doesn’t worry about being the star. If you find the right fit for him, he’s just going to be there.

About mid-season this year, Kurt had a big play on SportsCenter. I happened to text him to say I saw his play. He texted back and he said, ‘Coach I want to tell you that this is the first time since our days at Ohio State that I feel like we have a team that can really do something special.’ He knew that far back that everyone was pulling in the same direction. I’m not surprised that he’s headed to the Super Bowl. He’s not Cam Newton and he’s not Luke Kuechly, but without him, the Panthers probably aren’t where they are. He’s a solid role player and you can’t do without that role. To have a great team, you can’t do it without every single person.

 

 

Quote

 

On watching Ted Ginn’s chase down Patrick Peterson in the NFC title game…

Peterson may be one of the five fastest guys in the league. I told someone on the phone when they called me after the game, that Ted was like the roadrunner. Remember that cartoon? Teddy has just unusual speed. He was a national caliber track athlete. There was a time when he was trying to decide between being an Olympic hurdler or playing football. First year at Ohio State, he had a great freshman year in football. And then we did the track thing and hurdles are really demanding on your body. It’s a little different than running 100 meters. He had run in a lot of national track meets after his senior year of high school, so he hadn’t really given his body much rest. After going through a long freshman football year, after that first winter training in the hurdles, I think he felt like maybe not, maybe he was going to make football his thing. His little reverse touchdown, where he ran like 60 yards to get 20, reminded me of so many times, whether it was in practice or a game, he would just run to where they were not going to tackle him. He didn’t care where it was, he’d just say, I’ll run around you, because you’re not going to tackle me.

Carolina has been a neat place for him, because he had been there once and he had all that pressure in Miami to live up to being a first rounder. His dad and I have been best friends for 25 years and we would always talk that he needed to be in a place that would meet his personality and he needs to be appreciated. He doesn’t need adulation, he just needs to be appreciated and coached that way and I think he has found that place to feel good, and have that insane speed utilized. This is year nine for him, and you shouldn’t be that fast when you’re that old. Usually they are talking about a guy being washed up because he’s 30. But Ted is just a blur and he’s had a heck of a year.

On Ginn’s speed compared to other players Tressel has coached…

He is the fastest guy that could keep his speed for that length of time. Santonio Holmes might have had a little bit more 20-yard stop-and-go explosion than Teddy. When you run you can get to a certain speed, but when do you start decelerating? That’s what speed is. He doesn’t start decelerating very soon. That’s why his long hurdle events were so good because he could keep a top-end speed longer than most people. He could keep accelerating, he didn’t begin deceleration for a long time.

And he takes good care of himself. I don’t ever remember him being a guy that would burn the candle at both ends. He was always going to keep himself at his top physical form. If you think of Olympians, they really don’t hit their peak until they are about 30 years old. Now they don’t go crashing into people all the time like football players, but it’s kind of neat to see Teddy at a peak level. He’s a guy who wants to have fun, so he’s a great match for Cam. If a game ends and he wins, he’s happy. If he loses, he just goes about his day. The world is not going to end, because he is just having fun.

 

 

[YourMomsLover]

Every single damn one of my coworkers are pulling for the Panthers next week. The 4 guys mentioned above are a huge factor in that.

Die hard Dawg Pound guys too. The Panthers are backed up 100% by by the people of Cleveland and Northeast Ohio for sure. 

Me: Who y'all got in the SB guys?"

Them: "Your boys all day!"