FanHouse Quinn Pitcock

You know, I'm surprised this doesn't happen more often: 24-year-old defensive tackle Quinn Pitcock has retired. After one season. (Brett Favre, please take note.) PFT had mentioned the possibility yesterday, and today, the Indianpolis Star's Mike Chappell confirms as much.

"After much deliberation and careful thought, Quinn resolved to retire from the NFL,'' Brad Leshnock, Pitcock's agent, said in an email to The Star late Tuesday. "He notified the Colts of this decision last week.

"Quinn is grateful for the opportunity the Colts gave him, and he wishes his teammates and the whole organization nothing but the best going forward.''

I can totally respect that; just because there are thousands of people who envy Pitcock's athletic ability and good fortune is hardly reason enough for him to continue doing something he apparently is not into. There are plenty of us who go through life humping crappy jobs, but Pitcock made the conscious decision to avoid falling into that rut. So yay for finding one's self and all that.

For the Colts, who had big plans for Pitcock on the defensive line, they'll need to find another big body to work into the rotation along with defensive tackles Ed Johnson and Keyunta Dawson.

The AP All-American list was released today, and the Buckeyes landed three first teamers.

On the first team offense was Troy Smith, a no brainer really. Ohio State had two defensive players on the All-American list, Quinn Pitcock and James Laurinaitis. It's incredibly impressive for Laurinaitis to be an All-American his sophomore season. Lot to look forward to with that guy in the next year or two.

Ohio State also had some second teamers. T.J. Downing made the cut, as did Ted Ginn Jr. (who made the list as an all purpose player). The Buckeyes had no third teamers, but that's still pretty impressive to have five players make the first two teams. Really drives home just a little bit more what a special season this has been.

More: 2006 AP All-America Team - AP

The Buckeyes had their post season banquet a few days ago, with the team voting on annual awards. Troy Smith was named MVP in not terribly surprising vote. Here's the results for other team awards:

• Antonio Smith was selected for the Bo Rein Award, given to the team's most inspirational player. Smith went from walk on to first team All Big 10, so this vote seems pretty appropriate.
• Stan White Jr. won the John W. Galbreath Award for excellence in academics. White was an Academic All American this season.
• Quinn Pitcock won most valuable defensive player.
• David Patterson won the John Marshall Warrior Award.
• Ted Ginn Jr. won the Archie Griffin Award for outstanding offensive player. I'm guessing the team wanted to select someone other than Troy since he won MVP.
• First Year Awards went to Chris Wells and cornerback Donald Washington.
• Doug Datish and T.J. Downing won offensive lineman awards.

These awards are sometimes interesting because they give you a look into how the players feel about their teammates, but there really weren't any surprises here. Everyone seems to have well publicized roles on the team, and the players pretty much voted accordingly.

More: Smith Named Buckeyes' Most Valuable Player - Ohio State Official Site

It's getting down to the end of the season, which means all of the major college football awards are narrowing their lists. The Buckeyes had two players pop up as finalists and semi-finalists in the past two days.

Quinn Pitcock was named a finalist for the Lombardi Award, which is college football's award for outstanding lineman (offense or defense) of the year. Pitcock is joined as finalist by Justin Blalock of Texas, Paul Posluszny of Penn State, and LaMarr Woodley of Michigan. This one will be tight, but it wouldn't surprise me to see anybody besides Blalock win. I think in the end it'll come down to Pitcock and Woodley, but I'd honestly be surprised if the award doesn't go to Woodley. Still a great honor for Pitcock however, and hopefully I'll be proven wrong.

Antonio Smith was one of 11 semi-finalists named for the Thorpe Award. The Thorpe Award goes to the nation's best defensive back. What's amazing here is that Smith wasn't even recruited to play football at Ohio State. He was a walk on. To go from walk on to one of the 11 best defensive backs in the country is an incredible accomplisment.

The Thorpe Award will narrow it's list to three finalists on November 20th, so Smith gets two more games to make his case.

More: Thorpe Award Names 2006 Semi-Finalists - Ohio State Official Site
Ohio State's Quinn Pitcock Tabbed As One Of Four 2006 Rotary Lombardi Award Finalists - Ohio State Official Site

I'll tell you, the Buckeyes have played Northern Illinois, Cincinnati, and Bowling Green this season, but I still think Michigan State is the worst team they've played this year.

That was one ugly game by the Spartans.

I can't honestly say that there was one moment, even very early, even after the first drive fumble, where I felt like the Bucks were in trouble. Michigan State was so inept that I just couldn't see them mounting a serious challenge to the Buckeyes and, of course, they didn't.

A few quick thoughts on the win:

• Troy Smith had a couple more Heisman moments. His pass to Brian Robiskie for a touchdown was a thing of beauty. Troy Smith simply doesn't go down when pressured, and the more time you give him the more he's going to take.
• Loved going back to Chris Wells on 3rd and short after his fumble. He's had a tough time holding onto the ball this season, but the coaching staff has to show confidence in him because he's the future.
• Quinn Pitcock is a beast. Drew Stanton is going to be having nightmares about the guy for awhile.
• Ted Ginn's punt return felt like a touchdown from the moment he caught the ball. He has faults as a player, but Ginn is an absolute blast to watch as a fan.
• Anthony Gonzalez is getting so much love for being underrated that I'm not sure he's really all that underrated anymore. Great to see another huge game out of him.

Cruise control until Michigan. Have to love this season so far.

GO BUCKS!

Michael David Smith does an excellent weekly column where he liveblogs college games and discusses the draft chances of certain players. He talked a bit about Troy Smith today:

If the 6-foot-1 Smith were a couple inches taller, everyone would talk about him as a sure-thing first-round pick. But he isn't going to get any taller, so a lot of NFL scouts will overlook him. That's a mistake. Smith can play quarterback in the NFL. He has become an increasingly accurate passer over the course of his Ohio State career, he makes good decisions, and he's probably the best quarterback in all of college football at throwing on the run. He would be perfect for any team that runs the Bill Walsh offense, which is to say at least half the teams in the league.

I hadn't really started thinking about where Smith would be drafted until this season started, but I think the NFL would be stupid to not take him in the first round. However, I'm guessing he won't go that early, because of his 6'1 height.

As a Bengals fan I saw a lot of Jeff Blake in the 90's. Blake was also 6'1, and questions about his size have dogged him his entire career. It's silly in a way, because it's not as if 6'1 is tiny. I've heard that quarterbacks have trouble seeing over the line, seeing downfield, and have trouble with getting passes knocked down, but I think in the end you've got to look at a quarterback's ability as much as their physical attributes. Michael Vick is 6'0, and I've never heard anyone mention his height.

I'll come right out and say it: Troy Smith is every bit as good a quarterback as Vince Young. He's actually probably a better passer. You're not going to hear that from the media unless Troy wins a national title, but it doesn't make it not true. The NFL would be stupid not to realize that. I think Troy will end up going in the second or third round, and whoever gets him will be getting a real steal.

More: Draft Notes: Live Blog - Michael David Smith, FanHouse (also mentions Quinn Pitcock, so make sure to click through and check it out)

Jim Tressel named his four captains on Friday (chosen by their teammates), and there weren't any surprises in the bunch.

Troy Smith (Sr.), Doug Datish (Jr.), Quinn Pitcock (Jr.), and David Patterson (Sr.) were the four selected, making two captains selected from the offense, and two from the defense. The main point of interest is probably that the defensive captains (Pitcock and Patterson) are both up front players and also the only two returning starters from a defense that lost nine starters from last season. They'll have a hefty leadership responsibility with so many new players starting, although that'll be mitigated somewhat by the fact that so many of the greener players actually have a lot of field experience, just not experience starting.

More: Ohio State announces football captains for 2006 - BuckeyeXtra
OSU Captains Announced - Pfef's Sports Blog