{"id":196047,"date":"2025-08-18T20:40:18","date_gmt":"2025-08-19T01:40:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/?p=196047"},"modified":"2025-08-18T20:40:21","modified_gmt":"2025-08-19T01:40:21","slug":"random-thoughts-hs-college-football","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/2025\/08\/18\/random-thoughts-hs-college-football\/","title":{"rendered":"Random Thoughts: HS, college football"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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

This week\u2019s installment of Random Thoughts centers around the start of the high school football season, Ohio State\u2019s starter, and the University of Michigan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Football is here<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As we all know, the 2025 high school football season kicks off this week and of course, it\u2019s one of the most exciting times of the year. Check Wednesday\u2019s Sports page for previews of the Van Wert Cougars and Crestview Knights. Pigskin Pick\u2019Em returns to the Sports page on Thursday. Last year, regular season and playoffs combined, I was 200-47 (80.9 percent) correct on my picks. Let\u2019s see if I can improve that a bit this fall. Once again, complete game stories will come after each and every Van Wert and Crestview game this season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A handful of college football games will be played this Saturday and while they aren\u2019t exactly primo matchups \u2013 hey, it\u2019s college football.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Starter<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ohio State head coach Ryan Day named Julian Sayin as the starting quarterback for the season opener vs. Texas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s not a big surprise. It\u2019s also no big surprise that Day waited this long. It\u2019s how he does things. Remember last year? The race between Will Howard and Devin Brown went through the summer until about a week or two before the opener. By the way, Brown is now at Cal and apparently isn\u2019t getting the starting job there. That\u2019s going to a true freshman.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Remember the quarterback races involving Kyle McCord and before him, C.J. Stroud and Justin Fields? He drags it out so no one bolts via the transfer portal, and he\u2019s not alone in doing it that way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wow\u2026just wow<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Imagine that you or someone you know cheated, lied, destroyed or deleted evidence, was suspended in 2024, 2025 and again in 2026, and caused your business or organization to lose at least $20 million, perhaps $30 million. That person would be toast, right?<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Not at the University of Michigan. In fact, after Friday\u2019s sanctions were handed down, university officials announced they support head coach Sherrone Moore, who had a hand or committed in all of the above acts. Oh, and the university intends to appeal the punishment. Literally, at any other place, a person who was caught doing all of that would either be asked to resign and\/or be terminated immediately, with cause.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of course, there are Michigan fans that point to Ohio State\u2019s \u201cTattoogate\u201d scandal in 2011-2012, which is only an attempt to deflect. It\u2019s not the same thing. In fact, it\u2019s not even close. There are also a number of Michigan fans that are truly embarrassed by the actions of those involved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The report issued by the NCAA is quite damning. There\u2019s no doubt what happened. The NCAA didn\u2019t issue a multiyear postseason ban because it \u201cunfairly penalize student-athletes for the actions of coaches and staff who are no longer associated with the Michigan football program.\u201d This isn\u2019t the NCAA of old because even 10 years ago, that\u2019s exactly what would have happened.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What\u2019s done is done. My only hope is even more information comes out during the appeal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As always, if you have thoughts or comments 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 sports This week\u2019s installment of Random Thoughts centers around the start of the high school football season, Ohio State\u2019s starter, and the University of Michigan. Football is here As we all know, the 2025 high school football season kicks off this week and of course, it\u2019s one of the most exciting times of […]<\/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-196047","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-04 07:37:23","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\/196047","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=196047"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196047\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":196048,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196047\/revisions\/196048"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=196047"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=196047"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=196047"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}