What happens in the locker room stays in the locker room, but I figure it’s been almost a decade and a half so I can share some more intimate stories of the Walker era Cats - when I was briefly a team member.
Particularly I’ve been thinking of Zach Strief lately given his likely career-ending surgery. There was a lot to like & respect about Zach as a teammate. One particular trait of his, which I didn’t fully appreciate until years later, was that he addressed everybody by their first name. Most dudes just don’t do that, and will simply default to your surname or a nickname. Perhaps his trait was developed because the senior linemen in 2001 gave him an awful nickname due to that crap Deuce Bigolo movie: they called him “Big Bitch”. He could have been a real jerk to younger guys on the team but never was - he just kept improving as an OL. Even after I left the team, it was clear that he got a kick out of meeting “normal” student friends whom I hung out with, and was always polite to them when we’d run into each other at the 24/7 Burger King after evenings at the Keg.
During film sessions, our OL coach Patton tasked us with studying opposing defensive linemen and also the OL on other Big Ten teams that faced them during film study. I think we were prepping for the Iowa game and were watching their gametape against dOSU when Zach pointed out a hilarious detail: after each offensive play, the Buckeyes’s All Big Ten right tackle would pull up his pants. Literally every play in every game we saw him play thereafter, Shane Olivea had to hitch up his game pants so that his butt crack wouldn’t show. He ended up having a decent NFL career - but nothing compared to Zach’s.
Thus, a nickname was born for the fattest offensive linemen of the *uckeyes: “Tubbypants” Olivea. It’s too bad that Urban Meyer hasn’t really allowed any fat offensive linemen as the nickname doesn’t really apply anymore. But I take solace in knowing that somewhere, somehow, Ole Tubbypants is pulling his pants up to avoid showing his buttcrack cleavage - and our big #64 is smiling about it.
Particularly I’ve been thinking of Zach Strief lately given his likely career-ending surgery. There was a lot to like & respect about Zach as a teammate. One particular trait of his, which I didn’t fully appreciate until years later, was that he addressed everybody by their first name. Most dudes just don’t do that, and will simply default to your surname or a nickname. Perhaps his trait was developed because the senior linemen in 2001 gave him an awful nickname due to that crap Deuce Bigolo movie: they called him “Big Bitch”. He could have been a real jerk to younger guys on the team but never was - he just kept improving as an OL. Even after I left the team, it was clear that he got a kick out of meeting “normal” student friends whom I hung out with, and was always polite to them when we’d run into each other at the 24/7 Burger King after evenings at the Keg.
During film sessions, our OL coach Patton tasked us with studying opposing defensive linemen and also the OL on other Big Ten teams that faced them during film study. I think we were prepping for the Iowa game and were watching their gametape against dOSU when Zach pointed out a hilarious detail: after each offensive play, the Buckeyes’s All Big Ten right tackle would pull up his pants. Literally every play in every game we saw him play thereafter, Shane Olivea had to hitch up his game pants so that his butt crack wouldn’t show. He ended up having a decent NFL career - but nothing compared to Zach’s.
Thus, a nickname was born for the fattest offensive linemen of the *uckeyes: “Tubbypants” Olivea. It’s too bad that Urban Meyer hasn’t really allowed any fat offensive linemen as the nickname doesn’t really apply anymore. But I take solace in knowing that somewhere, somehow, Ole Tubbypants is pulling his pants up to avoid showing his buttcrack cleavage - and our big #64 is smiling about it.
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