If you like themed-majors, the first week of the 2011-12 bowl season is right up your alley. Of the fourteen teams participating in seven bowls the week before Christmas, all but one hail from non-BCS conferences, with all five of those conferences (Mountain West, Conference USA, WAC, MAC, Sun Belt) represented by multiple teams. Arizona State, sliding from Rose Bowl aspirations to the backwoods of the pre-Christmas bowls, is the lone BCS team playing this week.

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Can it be just two weeks since Urban Meyer was named head coach at Ohio State?  And just slightly longer than that since the Buckeyes lost to their arch-rival to finish the season on a three-game losing streak, with their worst record in over a decade? This was a program that has been waiting since January to “hit bottom” with the announcement of final NCAA sanctions, and has appeared to collide with every possible hazard on the way down.

It is increasingly obvious though, that Urban Meyer is not “waiting” for anything, and that the “bottom” is something that he heard about, but that happened before he got here. It’s no surprise that the NCAA is still dragging its feet, nor is it a surprise that Urban Meyer is not. A rejuvenated Meyer has leapt into his new job with energy and aggressiveness, and as a result, OSU fans are as pumped in December as they were despondent in May.

The 180 degree turn in the fortunes of the Ohio State football program during 2011 has been nothing short of amazing. If his early success on the recruiting trail is any indication of things to come, the reaction to Meyer around the Big Ten might be summed up best by Michigan’s Brady Hoke. Asked what he thought of the hire, Hoke responded, …”not good”.  The OSU administration could ask for no higher praise.

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Urban Meyer hasn’t coached a single game, or even a practice yet for Ohio State -- but that hasn’t stopped him from making his presence known throughout the Big Ten (or rather all of college football) with his efforts on the recruiting trail. The experts at recruiting websites like Scout.com and Rivals.com have been floored by the waves Meyer is creating not only in the state, but nationally on the recruiting front. 

Ohio State was granted a waiver by the NCAA that allowed Meyer to begin recruiting while Luke Fickell coaches the team in preparation of its upcoming bowl game. Despite this being a relatively common practice for schools with coaching changes, there are university coaches and presidents (I’ll give you a wild guess as to which school we’re talking about here) who aren’t happy that Meyer gets to start his recruiting efforts immediately. What those people should be worried about is finding a way to keep up with the recruiting machine Ohio State just hired as its head coach.

Urban Meyer has only spent two and half weeks on the recruiting trail and he has already produced three fantastic commitments (two new, one reaffirmed) for Ohio State.

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After sitting for two games with back spasms, Jared Sullinger made his return to the Ohio State basketball team Wednesday night in their game against South Carolina Upstate. Despite coming off the bench at his own request, Ohio State’s preseason All-American gave the Buckeyes 12 points and 10 rebounds in their 82-58 rout of the Spartans.

Jared didn’t look like the dominant player we’ve grown used to watching against USC Upstate, at least early in the first half, and he was asked about it after the game, “I was tired -- two weeks off is a killer,” Jared said. “I did a lot of work on the treadmill these last few days, but I was still very out of shape tonight.”

Lucky for him, one of his teammates fueled Ohio State’s offense. Deshaun Thomas scored a game-high 23 points, one point shy of tying his career high, while adding three assists and two rebounds. Buford scored 14 points and Ravenel had nine in an effort where the Buckeyes shot 56% from the floor (29-51). On the other side, the Spartans shot 45% from the field in a decent effort against one of the best defenses in the country -- but 25 turnovers was the difference in a game that could’ve been a lot closer with the way it started.

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