ND vs OSU: A Rematch for the Ages

This college football regular season probably didn't go the way anyone thought it was going to go. Oregon was down, Alabama lost to Ole Miss again, Ezekiel Elliot isn't a Heisman finalist and Clemson is the only undefeated team in the country. All pretty shocking potential headlines. One thing that I did see coming though, since last week anyways, was that my Notre Dame Fighting Irish would be matched up against the Ohio State Buckeyes in a bowl game. I knew it from the moment Ohio State was out of the Big Ten championship game. Notre Dame being a two-loss team and Ohio State not being in a conference title game, would be the perfect matchup for college football fans.

The two will be facing off in the Fiesta Bowl sponsored by BattleFrog in Phoenix, Arizona. These two teams have some of the most dedicated and traveling fan bases in the nation and the game will surely be electric. The stadium in Phoenix is a high energy stadium due to the fact that it indoors and tight seated in the stands.

The coaches are viewed as two of the best in college football right now, as Urban Meyer will square off against Brian Kelley for the first time in their head coaching careers.

The matchup will have tons of coverage in the press leading up to the game and despite the fact its not a national championship game, it should be just as popular as the games contending for the national title. The two faced off in the 2005 Fiesta Bowl sponsored by Tostitos and Ohio State marched over the Fighting Irish 38-14. Heisman Trophy winner Troy Smith slashed the defense with his feet and arm and Ted Ginn Jr. lit up the scoreboard. The loss left a stain in the Notre Dame fan base and especially on me considering all of my friends are Buckeye fans. This rematch will settle the score for who is truly the better team. Although Notre Dame has been bitten by the injury bug this season, they have posted a 10-2 record and QB DeShone Kizer has stepped into his own under center for the Irish.

A slip up by Ohio State cost them a shot at repeating as National champs, so the Buckeyes will surely come out with a fire and competitive edge to win, considering their talent level is as high as anyone in the country.

This game will be one of the best in recent memory leading up to the kickoff, and hopefully both teams show up to play a great and entertaining game. Go Irish!

A Chapter Ends and a New One Begins

This semester has been full of reading. Whether it be the lessons from "Real-Time Marketing" or the importance of "Measuring What Matters", the books that I have read for this semester of school have been very informative and easy to read, surprisingly. The books all cover almost the same material, but each book harps on a certain aspect of PR and social media tactics. The reading was never something that I would do on my own, but when I did read for the chapter quizzes, I would find myself noticing instances in the real world and my life that applied to the books teachings.

The book "Measure What Matters" is the book we have just finished and I really liked chapter 10 with measuring employee relationships. This summer for my internship, one thing I noticed about Fox was they never really asked for their employee input or showed concern for the employees relationships in the workplace. I am not saying that Fox is wrong for not keeping in touch with their employees relationship with their job, but if they wanted to make themselves better, that would be one way.

Measuring employees relationships, according to the text is "important because employee morale and sentiment are closely tied with sales and profit."

When a companies executive members and superiors show concern and genuine care for the well-being of their subordinate employees, that really tightens the camaraderie around the office and builds trust between co-workers. Employees are the backbone of the business and without them, the grunt work can't be done. Maintaining the relationship with the employees is when the measurement part comes into play. The better measuring tools we use, such as surveys, are key in coming up with data to measure and better our relationship with our employees.

These books have all taught me something unique about the public relations field and isn't that what we want from a book? To at least be able to take away one thing from each of those books would be three lessons that I didn't know before hand. The books serve as a guide to successful marketing and PR, but it is up to me to execute those guidelines and do so correctly and ethically.

Social Media: Cyber Police?

Social media has many purposes. It can disseminate newsworthy content and information at the press of a button or the tap of a screen. It can be a way to spread our networks across the globe and increase our image. Social can even be a way to start a new business and make yourself a successful entrepreneur.

But, there is one purpose that has not yet been tapped into yet with social media- surveillance of national security. The social media companies such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube have come together to help "combat online propaganda for recruiting by Islamic militants." according to an article by Yahoo.com. The companies realize that the threats to our nations security are not just coming from the characteristic enemies. In this day of social media and technology, anyone can be a potential target for Isis.

The internet companies described their policies as straightforward and to the point: they ban certain types of content in accordance with their circumstances and they require a court order to remove or block anything.

This court order can be taken care of with one simple step. The social media outlets have always had this feature and it will come in handy sooner or later. The "report/spam" button on posts allows the audience or viewer to report the post as threatening, inappropriate, or vulgar.

I personally believe if we can be a force that stands for justice and freedom for all, then recognizing and doing something about cyber-terrorism can help us become a stronger nation and world. I am not saying we should put restrictions on social media, because that will only upset people and make them wish they they had not done anything to change it.

Now Watch Me Whip

These past ten days of Thanksgiving break have been unbelievably great. The people I saw, the times I had, and the changes I went through were truly some to appreciate.

One particular event that happened to me over break was one of misfortune. I was driving back to Lima on state route 309, the dark plains of Hardin county were filled with deer and one found its way into the road and in front of my car. Seeing the deer, the only thing I could think to do was to speed up so the deer didn't ride up on my hood. I hit the deer and my car was pretty damaged. I managed to make it home with a headlight out and my horn honking the entire time, but still home in one piece. As for my car, it was not in one piece. The front bumper was hanging off, my airbags were deployed after impact, so my steering wheel was funky to drive with, and grill was cracked.

The Ford Explorer seen to the right is my first car.
 I always wanted to name my first car and in honor of my dad's service in the military, I named it 'Nam. I named it that because my dad was in Vietnam and it was his car before it was mine. Also, for those that know me, my car has been through Nam and back with how many problems and breakdowns its had. It always found a way to be fixed and come back to the road somehow. Now, after the deer made its fatal hit on 'Nam, it was time to come to terms that I had to give up my baby. I have had that car for so long and so many memories have been shared in that car, that if you were a part of them, you would understand why I had a legitimate tear come to my eye when we traded it in.

The old was past and the new was to come. Having a few days to reflect on my car, I had to choose what car I would get to replace my old one. I looked at some of the 10 and Under lots in Lima and found a few options I liked, but one in particular caught my eye. A 2005 Nissan Frontier. I wanted a truck and I wanted to have a 4 door truck so people could get in and out of the car freely instead of waiting on the front passengers.

On Friday the 27th, my parents and I had scheduled an appointment at Reineke Family Dealership in Lima to go hunt for a new whip. I had always wondered what it was like to go through this process. When you see a commercial for people at the car dealership, it is supposed to be quick and painless. This appointment was not quick and not painless. I had to wait for 6 1/2 hours until an agreement was finally made between my bank and Reineke. I would be paying for the car myself and will have to make a car payment of $254 a month. This seems to be a challenging task for me since I don't make a whole lot of money, but it is something I wanted to step up and accept as a young man. I got to purchase my first car and take my first step into adulthood.

As one chapter of my life closes, another one begins and nothing is more exciting than a new beginning. To all the miles yet to be traveled!

Lima Boy takes down his fellow Buckeyes

This week in the sports world, many watched as the defending national champion Ohio State Buckeyes took on the Michigan State Spartan in Ohio Stadium. With the cold mixed conditions falling down on Columbus, it was an unpredictable atmosphere. The Buckeyes offense was stalling and potential Heisman trophy-candidate Ezekiel Elliot only had 12 carries in the game.

All in all, everyone soon found out that the Buckeyes 23 game winning streak was snapped by the Spartans on a game winning field goal as time expired.

What most people didn't know, is that the quarterback who won that game for Sparty is a young man named Tyler O'Connor. Tyler hails from Lima, Ohio. The same town as yours truly. Tyler is an Irishman from Lima and was a standout dual-sport athlete in high-school at Lima Central Catholic. Also, this blogger got the chance to guard O'Connor in his high school basketball days, but the results were pretty one-sided.

Anyways, O'Connor had not played a game in "The Shoe" since the summer he graduated high school for the annual Ohio North-South All Star Game. O'Connor played for the South and led his team to victory that day 22-14.

Now O'Connor is 2-0 in the Shoe. Tyler, someone who grew up in Ohio and most of his close friends from high school attend Ohio State, must've felt some serious butterflies when he got into the game, whether he'll admit it or not. For someone like Ty, who is so competitive, they were probably the good butterflies. The ones that give you excitement and anticipation for battle. I can personally say that since I was in Lima on Saturday, almost everyone in Lima was in Columbus Saturday, so O'Connor had a home crowd, even on the road.

Ty's final stats were: 7/12 completions for 89 yards and 1 touchdown. The Ohio native delivered a handful of key third down conversions for the Spartans and helped keep the momentum on an even playing field. This is key because OSU lost on its senior day, in front on thousands of fans that might not always go to games, and to keep that stadium quiet is one heck of a mission.

O'Connor said in his post game interview,"They [Ohio State] recruited me to come punt for them, but I obviously made the right decision. Good team win." A little sprinkle on top for the team that fell to its own son, A Lima kid taking down the Goliath of the college football food chain on its own turf.

Measure What Matters Chapter 7

Chapter seven of the book, "Measure What Matters" deals with measuring the impact of events. In social media today, events have become "redefined" according to the book on page 107. 

"'Events' is a term that can now refer to an online fund-raiser or an in-person Twestival organized via Twitter."

As we always seem to point out, there are a multitude of ways that social media has enhanced the marketing world and industry as a whole. When we see how much the social media platform changes things that were capable before, but are easier and quicker now, it is changing the opinions of consumers to use social media and that it is more than just a way for teens to retweet their favorite memes. 

The best part of the chapter in my opinion was the 7 steps process. I like these steps the book lists for the reader because it provides order and strategy. The seven steps in the book to measure sponsorships and events are:

1. Define Your Objectives

2. Determine Your Measurable Criteria of Success

3. Decide Upon Your Benchmarks

4. Select a Measurement Tool 

5. Define Specific Metrics 

6. Choose a Measurement tool

7. Analyze Your Results and Use them to be more effective 

The last step was the one that caught my attention and Dr. Agozzino alluded to it in class last week. The measuring process is not over. The process is never over, because we must constantly be updating, remodeling and improving our content and tactics if we want to thrive. 

Steelers Deliver BIG vs Browns

Most of the time, when we see no. 7 on the field for the Steelers, it is as a starting quarterback. This past Sunday, that was not the case. Coach Mike Tomlin listed Ben as active for the game Sunday versus conference foe, the Cleveland Browns. The reason Ben was not starting on Sunday was due to a left mid-foot sprain he sustained in the previous week in the Steelers week 10 victory over the Oakland Raiders. Roethlisbeger was sacked in the middle of the 3rd quarter and his foot was landed on by Raiders defensive end, Aldon Smith. 

The Steelers began the game with back-up quarterback Landry Jones. In just his second career start, Jones was 0-1 and facing a battered Cleveland defense at home, so the odds were somewhat in his favor. Jones' day however,  was cut short. On the opening drive for the Steelers, Jones delivered a throw near the endzone and a Browns defender pushed a lineman into Jones and stepped on his ankle. Jones couldn't put any pressure on that ankle, so that was when Mike Tomlin looked like a genius. 

If Ben had been listed inactive instead for the game due to his injury, he wouldn't have been able to play and backup Jones and the Steelers would've had to have played tight end Heath Miller at quarterback. Luckily Ben was active and played the entirety of the game. If Ben is healthy, that can only mean one thing. A good day for this man:

Antonio Brown is arguably the best receiver in the NFL when Ben Roethlisberger is under center. The chemistry and connection those two have is remarkable and it shows up in numbers. In games with Roethlisberger, Brown averages 10.4 catches per game averaging 153 yards. In games without

Ben, Brown is averaging a dismal four catches for 64 yards. It is Ben that stirs "AB's" pot and Ben was the spark that Steelers needed on Sunday. 

The game was tied at 3-3 with the Browns having the ball in the first quarter. That is until Ben found his favorite target. Last week versus the Raiders, Brown had franchise recording-setting day, hauling in 17 catches for 284 yards. 

This week, Brown followed it up with 10 catches for 173 yards a pair of touchdowns. 

Brown and Ben are hotter than any other duo in the league and have high potential if Ben stays healthy. Headed into the buy week, the Steelers will receive a much needed rest and prepare for a tough road test in week 12 versus the Seattle Seahawks. Go Steelers!