O$U coach Ryan Day apologized to Nebraska for the Buckeyes scoring a TD from the Nebraska 2 yd line in the final minute with a 28-pt lead. To his credit he said that he didn't want to run up the score. But he also said that O$U had a young QB in the game and didn't have the personnel in the game to take a knee. https://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/30182863...

I'm just curious as to what personnel a team needs in the game on offense to take a knee. It seems that all they would need is a snapper, a QB, somebody quick to line up 15 yds behind the line of scrimmage, and eight other guys. I didn't know that teams might have a "Take a Knee" unit. Does anyone have any insight on this?

Evidently it's the newest unit on special teams. You have a punt team, punt return team, FG team, kickoff team, kickoff return team, and now a "take a knee" (TAK) team. Just as you can't reasonably be expected to kick a field goal without your FG team on the field, you can't reasonably be expected to take a knee without your TAK team on the field.

Some time back in the late 70's or early 80's Ohio HS rules allowed coaches to go out into the huddle during a time out instead of the team going to the sideline. I'll keep the schools and coaches names on the QT.

One school was pounding a "young" program. The winning team had put their worst team on the field at the end but even that couldn't stop the onslaught. With little time remaining the young QB called a timeout near the goal line thinking that is what his coach would want.

The two coaches headed for the goal line from opposite sidelines the opposing coaches drew nearer and the trailing team coach started giving the leading coach a 4 letter tongue lashing--they knew each other and were not on the friendliest terms. The leader stated that he didn't want a timeout but that didn't stop the hot head trailer from escalating the situation until fists flew and the fight lasted quite a while as the two bulls let into each other.

I guess the guy isn't coaching now at Nebraska!

Nebraska has been on the other side of lopsided scores, too. In particular, I remember a Nebraska game where they trounced Army on national TV. It was a road game, so they only had a 60 man travel squad, and they played their last string the entire second half. They did some other bizarre things, as well, including using offensive linemen on defense and defensive linemen on offense, as well as letting their placekicker playing the game at a position; I think it was linebacker. I think the final score was 77-7. Sometimes you just can't keep the score down.

In any case, I have no real problem with OSU scoring, though that excuse was lamer than the score itself. He should have just said he had his last string in, and he didn't expect the score.

That said, and i agree with every word you wrote there, Ryan Day should be mocked for his lame excuse. A better response would have been: “our [whatever] team players were in there and they scored. If Nebraska doesn’t like that, they should have stopped them.”

Or even "to get in the CFB playoffs we have have to win by as a big a margin as possible." To blame it on not having the right personnel doesn't quite measure up.

Sounds like you are channeling your inner Woody Hayes! ;-)

Last night Luke Fickell had a double-whammy vs ECU. First, Cincy pulled a fake punt for a first down even though they led by 30-something points in the fourth quarter. Then, after ECU scored a TD, they ran a play instead of taking a knee with 17 seconds left and scored on a 75-yd TD run to make the final 55-17. According to ESPN's announcers, Cincy considered this a "revenge" game from last year's game, where Cincy beat ECU but gave up 43 points. ECU coach Mike Houston had plenty to say to Fickell after the game. Fickell apologized for the fake punt but apparently for the last TD. I guess when you don't have a "P" on your schedule you need to run up the score to impress the committee.

Hell, with a 28 point lead you don't even need the safety guy!