Thursday October 31, 2013 year: 133 No. 98
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thelantern Roby remains confident despite mistakes
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DAN HOPE Oller reporter hope.46@osu.edu
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A Morrill Tower haunting
With serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer said to be a former resident, rumors fly that Morrill Tower is haunted.
sports
Redshirt-junior cornerback Bradley Roby faced high expectations, including his own, heading into the Ohio State football team’s 2013 season. In March, Roby said he planned to enter the 2014 NFL Draft following this season and expected to be a top-10 pick. Through OSU’s first eight games — seven of which he played in — he has not lived up to those expectations. Roby hasn’t been short on confidence in himself though. His bio on his personal Twitter account, @ Brad_Roby1, says he is a “2014 National Champion,” and Roby said during spring football in March that his other goals for the season included winning the Thorpe Award, given to the nation’s top defensive back, and earning the Chuck Bednarik Award, which goes to the nation’s best defensive player. Those goals were seen as attainable by many. In addition to being named a preseason first-team All-American, he also was named to preseason watch lists for the Thorpe, Bednarik, Bronko Nagurski and Walter Camp awards. When the Thorpe and Bednarik awards released their lists of semifinalists this week, however, Roby’s name was absent. Roby’s season started off with a suspension from OSU’s first game against Buffalo after he was involved in an incident at a bar in Bloomington, Ind., in July. He was held out of the starting lineup in the Buckeyes’ next game versus San Diego State, although he did play the majority of the game with the rest of OSU’s defensive starters. In his first start of the season — OSU’s third game and first road game of the season against California — he was beaten in coverage on multiple touchdown receptions. He had another tough outing against
SHELBY LUM / Photo editor
Redshirt-junior cornerback Bradley Roby prepares for a play during a game against Penn State Oct. 26 at Ohio Stadium. OSU won, 63-14. Wisconsin Sept. 28, when he spent most of the night matched up against Wisconsin redshirt-senior wide receiver Jared Abbrederis, who accounted for more than half of Wisconsin’s offensive yards in the game. Roby has made some coverage mistakes this season, he acknowledged Saturday, but justified those mistakes by saying “everybody,” including three-time NFL All-Pro cornerback Darrelle Revis of
the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, gets beat at the cornerback position. “That’s the life of a cornerback,” Roby said. “People get beat all the time. I see Revis get beat all the time. It’s so easy to make a mistake. Our mistakes are glorified because everybody sees them.” In the week leading up to Saturday’s game against Penn State, OSU coach Urban Meyer said Roby has played “fantastic” at times this season, but also acknowledged Roby has not had a great start to his season. “He’s not playing at the same level he did a year ago,” Meyer said Oct. 21. While this season Roby has two interceptions, 37 total tackles and a blocked punt which he also recovered for a touchdown, he does not feel as though he has had as many playmaking opportunities this year. “I had more opportunities last year because a lot of teams didn’t really know who I was,” Roby said. “I can’t really control that. I can only control what plays come to me. If I don’t have the opportunity to make plays, I can’t make plays.” Roby’s assessment could be right, but his mistakes are evident. Roby’s reason for these mistakes, though, is his aggression on the field. “When you mess up is when you try to make too many plays when you’re not supposed to,” Roby said. “That’s when I had trouble earlier in the season trying to make too many plays when I shouldn’t have been doing that.” Roby said he knew his game Saturday against Penn State would be an important one, as it included a matchup with Nittany Lions junior wide receiver Allen Robinson, the recipient of the Big Ten’s Richter-Howard Receiver of the Year award in 2012. “I knew that going into the game, they had a good receiver (Robinson) on the other side, that a lot of people were going to be watching our matchup, and I just tried
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Semester switch effects still not fully realized
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Bucks hope to be hiccup-free OSU is preparing for Saturday’s game and focusing on avoiding its past streak of losses at Purdue.
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STACIE JACKSON Lantern reporter jackson.2087@osu.edu With the second year of semesters under way at Ohio State, some members of the university community feel OSU is still adjusting to a transition that caused campus-wide controversy and confusion. Executive Vice President and Provost Joseph Steinmetz said he has not looked at the overall grades of the university community since the semester switch and does not think the grades should be analyzed yet. “It’s going to take two to three years to stabilize the shift from quarters to semesters,” Steinmetz said in an interview with The Lantern Oct. 8. “But it’s just something I haven’t looked at, nor have I heard anything about it one way or another.” OSU shifted from quarters to semesters at the start of the 2012-13 school year. Undergraduate Student Government President Taylor Stepp said USG has been involved in the semester transition for a while, particularly with
the creation of a semesters appeals board, a project Stepp campaigned for when he first ran for USG president in 2012. The semesters appeals board, comprised of students, faculty and staff, was created last year to give students an opportunity to address problems they might face as a result of the semester conversion, including damage to academic progress, delay in completing their degree and increased costs in completing their degree, according to Lantern archives. Stepp said there were many cases in which students had to go through the appeals process, and the process was effective. He said he could not provide the number of students that were helped. “We had flexibility with the board because students had an individualized approach to having their problems resolved,” Stepp said. “Our No. 1 priority was making sure students graduated on time, and I think we’ve done that.” Stepp said the semesters appeals board has been a success overall and has been validated by the Office of Academic Affairs.
“Our No. 1 priority was making sure students graduated on time, and I think we’ve done that,” USG President Taylor Stepp said.
“It’s too soon to start analyzing the change in overall grade point averages from quarters to semesters but we can start looking at some of the non-academic changes resulting from the swtich to semesters,” Chris Kiriakou, third-year in economics, said.
“We tried to get the word out about the board and I think we did a great job with it. Students had their problems resolved,” Stepp said. “We stopped most of the problems before they became a major issue.” Stepp said the semesters appeals board will stand until all student academic issues pertaining to the semester switch are resolved. Chris Kiriakou, a third-year in economics, said it is too soon to
ELIZABETH TZAGOURNIS Lantern reporter tzagournis.24@osu.edu
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make any conclusions about the effectiveness of the semester switch. “I agree with Steinmetz that it is too soon to start analyzing the change in overall grade point averages from quarters to semesters,” Kiriakou said. “But we can start looking at the some of the non-academic changes resulting from the switch to semesters.” Kiriakou said some of the consequences of semesters he has experienced are longer lines in the dining
TBDBITL attracts attention of ‘TODAY,’ Michael Jackson’s mom
OSU Rec Sports is set to host Harry Potter-themed events for Halloween, such as a ‘Tri-Wizard Race.’
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KAYLA BYLER / Managing editor of design
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Grab a broom and butterbeer
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“It’s going to take two to three years to stabilize the shift from quarters to semesters,” Executive Vice President and Provost Joseph Steinmetz said.
The OSU Marching Band performs during halftime at the OSU versus Penn State game Oct. 26 at Ohio Stadium.
After Michael Jackson’s mother called the director and two consecutive halftime shows went viral, it seems the Ohio State Marching Band might be starting a streak to rival that of the undefeated football team. A BuckeyeTV video of a Michael Jackson tribute halftime show during the OSU football game against Iowa Oct. 19 had more than 7.8 million views as of Wednesday evening, and a YouTube video of the “Hollywood Blockbusters” halftime show during a game against Penn State Saturday had more then 8.7 million. With all the attention it’s getting, the band, often referred to as “The Best Damn Band in the Land,” appeared on NBC’s “TODAY Show” Wednesday and has been fielding calls from media around the world, OSU Marching Band director Jon Waters said. Katherine Jackson, the late Michael Jackson’s mother, contacted Waters Oct. 24 to thank the band for its tribute to her son, Waters said. “She was very gracious (and) wanted me to thank the band members and said that on several occasions,” he said. “She was very impressed by the performance of the band and extended the congratulations and thanks of the whole family for our performance.” Waters said the attention benefits the entire university. “This has given us global outreach and that is a wonderful opportunity for us and our university
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