{"id":169776,"date":"2023-09-05T03:45:27","date_gmt":"2023-09-05T08:45:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/?p=169776"},"modified":"2023-09-05T03:45:27","modified_gmt":"2023-09-05T08:45:27","slug":"random-thoughts-nwc-osu-tv-more","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/2023\/09\/05\/random-thoughts-nwc-osu-tv-more\/","title":{"rendered":"Random Thoughts: NWC, OSU, TV, more"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

SCOTT TRUXELL\/<\/strong>independent editor<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This week\u2019s installment of Random Thoughts centers around the Northwest Conference, a key WBL game, Kyle McCord, OSU\u2019s offensive line, Indiana\u2019s offense and TV disputes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Back to the drawing board<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Northwest Conference principals are scheduled to meet September 13 to discuss what\u2019s next after Delphos St. John\u2019s declined an invitation to join the NWC. The official word came out on Friday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Options are dwindling fast \u2013 here\u2019s hoping some sort of viable solution can be found before its too late.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My opinion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Personally, I would have like to have seen Delphos St. John\u2019s and Parkway join the NWC. It\u2019s hard to deny both schools would be a good fit in the NWC in more ways than one. With no disrespect intended, both schools would likely be much more competitive in the NWC.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This isn\u2019t meant as criticism. Both schools did what they thought was right for them. It just seemed like a better fit for both.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Key game<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was a big game before but it\u2019s really big now, if Van Wert is to stay in the hunt for at least a share of the WBL championship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Cougars will play at Defiance on Friday and it\u2019s become a must-win game if the Cougars are to compete for the title. Two league losses will almost certainly end any title hopes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Here\u2019s something to keep in mind \u2013 after losing regular season games in 2020, 2021 and 2022, the Cougars won the next game, so 3-0 after losses in each of those seasons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Friday night could be a dandy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kyle McCord<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As anticipated, a number of Ohio St. fans were up in arms\/hitting the panic button about Kyle McCord\u2019s performance against Indiana.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Comments ranged from terrible to no arm strength, although I\u2019m not sure where that came from \u2013 he put his arm on display more than once. His arm is fine and his performance wasn\u2019t terrible. Was it what OSU fans have become accustomed to? No. Play calling may have had something to do with it at times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s see how McCord progresses and let\u2019s remember many fans were calling for CJ Stroud to be benched after his first couple of starts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Offensive line<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m far more worried about Ohio State\u2019s offensive line than I am the quarterback. The line was able to pass block okay for the most part but run blocking \u2013 that\u2019s a different story. At best it was inconsistent, at worst it was not good at all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That unit needs to get better, pronto.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Indiana\u2019s offense<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I may be in the minority here, but I actually liked what Indiana tried to do offensively. The option can be the great equalizer in many games. Yes, it\u2019ll struggle against teams with great speed, but so will any offense. Against middle of the pack or lesser opponents, it can keep a team in games.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Disputes<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you have Spectrum, you probably looked on in horror Thursday night when you turned on ESPN, only to see wording on the TV that basically said \u201cwe\u2019re fighting with Spectrum over money, it\u2019s their fault, call them and complain.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of course it was timed like that \u2013 pull the plug so fans miss college football, key MLB games, tennis, golf, etc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Both sides are issuing propaganda statements, but those belong in the trash. Hopefully it gets worked out sooner than later. The same can be said with DirecTV and WANE-TV. They\u2019re deadlocked over carriage fees. It\u2019s a real shame the viewers are the ones made to pay for it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As always, if you have thoughts on any of the above subjects, feel free to email me at sports@thevwindependent.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SCOTT TRUXELL\/independent editor This week\u2019s installment of Random Thoughts centers around the Northwest Conference, a key WBL game, Kyle McCord, OSU\u2019s offensive line, Indiana\u2019s offense and TV disputes. Back to the drawing board Northwest Conference principals are scheduled to meet September 13 to discuss what\u2019s next after Delphos St. John\u2019s declined an invitation to join […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-169776","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-02 05:52:44","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169776","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=169776"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169776\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":169796,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169776\/revisions\/169796"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=169776"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=169776"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=169776"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}