Retooled Buckeyes Quick to Go to Hurry-Up Offense

The news is not all distressing these days for the UCLA football team--it only seems that way. The opponent that should provide the only real competition in nonconference play, sandwiched between home games against Boise State and Fresno State, is struggling through its own transition.

Like the Bruins, Ohio State is trying to find a new starting quarterback with little luck and needs to replace important parts of the offensive line, especially after star guard Rob Murphy flunked out of school and subsequently joined the NFL as a free agent. Of even more concern for the Buckeyes is opening against Miami, at Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J., before getting UCLA in Columbus.

Wrote Gary Nuhn in the Dayton Daily News after the defense dominated the spring game:

“It could have been worse except with 6:10 left in the fourth quarter, Coach John Cooper looked up at the timekeeper in the temporary bleachers at the Woody Hayes Athletic Center and whirled his index finger in the air, the international symbol for ‘Let’s end things as quickly as possible with a running clock.’

“That should give you an idea of how the search for a quarterback successor to Joe Germaine is coming. The two candidates, redshirt sophomore Austin Moherman (pronounced “MOCK-er-man”) and regular sophomore Steve Bellisari (pronounced “seven for 21 isn’t good, is it, Daddy?”) were underwhelming.”

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More Buckeyes: Murphy’s struggles, in the wake of the well-documented classroom problems surrounding Andy Katzenmoyer, prompted Nuhn’s paper to ask on its Web site how the outbreak of academic problems has affected the reputation of Ohio State. Among the responses:

YESSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!GO BLUE!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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Trivia time: Dameyune Craig of the Scottish Claymores passed for 611 yards in an NFL Europe game against Frankfurt. Who holds the NFL record?

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Hoop dreams: That excitement you feel building is because of the Tournament of the Americas, the qualifying tournament for the 2000 Olympics in basketball. The U.S. opens play today against Uruguay in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

“I know it starts with a U and ends with a Y,” Allan Houston of the New York Knicks and Team USA said of the first-round opponent. “And I would guess they are probably perimeter-oriented.”

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Tennessee waltz: Pat Summitt continues to say how much she still loves overseeing the machine that is Tennessee women’s basketball. Last season the Lady Vols sold 11,570 season tickets and Summitt recently signed a contract extension worth an estimated $500,000 for 1999-2000. But she also can’t deny the lure of the WNBA.

“I’m 47 years old,” she told the Knoxville News Sentinel. “I don’t plan on retiring any time soon. I might finish out the last couple years at the pro level. I might not.”

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Trivia answer: Norm Van Brocklin of the Los Angeles Rams, with 554 against the New York Yankees on Sept. 28, 1951.

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And finally: From Bud Geracie of the San Jose Mercury News: “In Greece, Stratis Stratigis resigned as chief organizer for the 2004 Olympics, leaving the group without a strategist.”