You may have noticed I have been quiet since Saturday's shellacking. Two reasons. One, I am into my hand therapy and very busy, and two, I have been wondering what to say.

The beat writers and talk show callers have done all the postmortems: Who to blame, What went wrong, What to change. The national writers have done their gloating. Myself, I've accepted that USC played a whole lot better than we did and moved on to the challenge of the rest of this season... a Big Ten Championship and Rose Bowl appearance. So beyond disappointment, what's left to say?

What's left came to me last night in an email about a different aftermath. My regular readers will remember my posts below in tribute to Fred, my 92-year-old Buckeye friend who served his country and proudly represents the Scarlet and Gray in the state of Texas. I was looking forward to seeing Fred in the 'Shoe this fall. That changed with the email I received last night from his son. Fred's house, and the homes of five of his children, were all damaged in Hurricane Ike. I am reprinting the email below to share the plight of Fred and the people of the Gulf Region.

It makes pining over the score of a football game seem rather trivial.