Lucky No. 7: The Buckeyes received their seventh commitment for 2009 on Tuesday.  Chris Fields, a 6'1", 180 lbs wide receiver from Harvey High School in Painesville, runs faster than you or me - 4.39 in the 40, to be exact.  It is not that I am disappointed, but I would really like to see a stud running back or the next great defensive tackle commit.  Still, the draw to play for Ohio State seems to be at an all time high.  Sure, early commitments is an increasing trend, but for a program that has been very selective, it appears the Buckeyes are getting some players they have initially targeted. 

Cut the halftime: The NCAA is at it again.  They want to shorten the length of games.  This time by changing up the play clock.  Call me Scrooge, but how about shortening halftime to the NFL length: 12 minutes?  College football and the NFL have been trending together for years (see next topic) and I do not see any reason why half time should be any different.  Hell, at NFL games you can buy beer, so there is a compelling reason to stand in the insufferable concession lines.  And, if you are not attending the game, watching Jon Saunders and crew bumble their way through meaningless first half highlights is a veritable punishment.  I know what you are thinking, "I love watching The Best Damn Band In The Land at the half."  Sure, but how many show tune medleys can you sit through?  Personally, I have seen them perform the Jon Williams Star Wars piece about 35 times.  They perform Script Ohio at the beginning of most games, anyway.  And, truth be told, most schools do not even have watchable bands.  I would rather watch those fast dogs catching Frisbees while jumping through flaming hoops for 10 minutes than sit through that nonsense.    I am probably in the minority here in central Ohio.  I get it.  I know I am in the majority around the rest of the college football landscape. 

Roy Williams back in college?: Despite having left Oklahoma a few years ago, Roy Williams is still having an effect on the college game.  (Deep breath Texas fans; Chris Simms is not involved this time.)  Rules are rules, and I usually do not feel compelled to talk at length about these types of modifications.  But, I think this rule change is overdue.  It does not change the flow of the game and attempts to prevent unnecessary injury.  On a side note, the NCAA is proposing to eliminate the incidental face mask penalty.  I like that rule and think it was typically enforced evenly.  Oh well, you cannot win 'em all. 

Gray Matters: What do Charlie Weis and Jim Tressel have in common?  Nothing, right?  Well, Yahoo Sports has come up with something and Ohio State fans may be a little nervous.  Yahoo Sports has been on a serious role recently as they ramp up their efforts to take on ESPN, breaking some key stories ahead of the "Worldwide Leader."  Far be it from me to take a serious position on this.  NCAA rules are too crazy to analyze (ham sandwich anyone?), so I will leave this one to the pros. 

The title of this cannot be more apropos in at least two ways. In any event, apologies for the recent lack of posts.

Thad Matta's squad shot 56% last night and barely won at home against Illinois (photos!). In fact, the Buckeyes were hovering around the 65% mark for much of the game until things came crashing down at about the 10 minute mark. The lead was as high as 15 points on a few occasions at which time Illinois started to chip away. It bottomed out when the lead shrunk to 3 and Illinois had the ball with a chance to tie. The Bucks got a stop and ended up padding the margin a bit by game's end. Disaster adverted.

David Lighty and Evan Turner led the way. Turner, in particular, is gaining confidence by the tanker load with each outing. His improved body control at the basket is quite impressive and it allows him to finish plays. Jamar Butler was again quiet because, for the third straight outing, the opposition is selling out to stop him. It's apparent this team will face obnoxiously long hedges at the top of the key to make Jamar work extra hard to get over the top. Our problem is we aren't yet exploiting this as well as we should.

If you were to grade Jim Tressel in 2007, what would you give? One such site has offered their grades for just about any coach in college ranks. Tressel is given a "B" and is admonished that he "can do better." Better in this case must mean win the National Championship which is a helluva measuring stick. What other coaches are held to that standard? Sure, we're all disappointed with the finish but keep in mind he took a team decimated offensively to the national title game for the second straight year. This happened in the face of multiple outlets projecting the Buckeyes to finish anywhere from 2nd to 5th...in the conference. Perspective.

The Terrelle Pryor sweepstake is starting to get ugly for reasons I'm still somewhat unclear. As far as I can tell there's a bunch of fuzzy dot connecting based on internet rumors, a Corvette, a guy named Ted Sarniak and a dinner he may or may not have attended which may or may not have also included Ohio State coaches. I'm not going to link the parties who are beating this drum on various sites but Eleven Warriors outlines and tackles a bit of the hypocrisy.

Essentially, it boils down to Ohio State must be cheating. The closer signing day comes the more the mud flies from those desperately in need of Pryor's services. And, once Pryor makes his final choice, just keep this handy, somewhat humorous tip sheet nearby for reference (HT: Sanibel Buck):

I just want to make sure I've got this straight. If Pryor commits to OSU, it's because the coaching staff paid huge sums of money to some guy in PA that makes glass and also gave TP a Corvette.

If he signs with Oregon, it's because the coaching staff paid huge sums of money to some guy in PA that makes glass and also gave TP a Corvette.

If he signs with LSU, it's because the coaching staff paid huge sums of money to some guy in PA that makes glass and also gave TP a Corvette.

If he signs with scUM, it's because it was the better fit for him and because of the awesome tradition in Ann Arbor.

Sounds about right but I'll let you be the judge.
PS: Yea, the Live Wire in the right sidebar is back functioning again, I think. Fingers crossed.

Tuesday represents the deadline for loads of college players to officially enter the NFL draft. James Laurinaitis is one of them as he contemplates returning to Ohio State for his senior season or making the jump to the league. By many accounts, Laurinaitis is a first round lock and even a Top 15 pick according to some mock drafts. I'm not sure I agree but that's an entirely different argument.

While James is still undecided, other Ohio State players have made up their mind. The only defection to date is Vernon Gholston who announced his intention to enter the draft a few days back. Gholston capped off a great junior year by setting the single season sack record. On the same day he announced, corner Malcolm Jenkins picked the opposite path shocking many as it was given he would leave early as well.

Jenkins' quick choice may have helped spur others to comeback. Marcus Freeman made it official today he's coming back. So did Alex Boone which may be the biggest of all considering we have absolutely no talent behind him at left tackle. All of the players coming back would have been first day picks and some may have jumped into the late first and middle second round. Only Laurinaitis has yet to make his decision final.

Recruiting: Ohio State has received a commitment from another Glenville HS player. Fullback Jermil Martin received an 11th hour offer from Jim Tressel and immediately backed out of his verbal commitment to Iowa. This commitment has Buckeye fans talking because it's bizarre on a few levels. First it signals current fullback heir Aram Olson isn't living up to billing. Secondly, we just accepted a fulllback in the 2009 class in Adam Homan (Ross' brother). Homan commited on the 29th. Lastly, the fullback is on the endangered species list so it's curious to have three on scholarship at a given time.

The number of the scholarships brings up another point. The 2003 class really put us behind the eight ball in terms of numbers. Each team can have 85 players on scholarship and Ohio State has about 74(ish). Four of them are kickers or punters. I've already talked about the high number of fullbacks in 2009. Unfortunately, Big Ten football programs cannot grossly oversign recruits as commonly done in the SEC and other places. Correcting the double digit shortage of scholarship players should be priority number one for the staff and apparently it is. They just offered another player at the 11th hour - Zach Domicone. It's likely he'll officially commit very soon.

Transfers: Recently demoted quarterback Robbie Schoenhoft is likely to transfer to the University of Delaware. Other transfers possibilities exist but the veracity is dubious at this point. Nevertheless, for your edification, here they are: Albert Dukes (read the whole thread), Eugene Clifford, Mark Johnson and Thaddeus Gibson. I hesitate to list Johnson and Gibson because all I've seen is message board speculation and nothing else. Actually, with Gibson it's a bit more. Two people were somehow routed to this site by searching in Google for "Thaddeus Gibson - Ball State". I don't know what it means. Probably nothing. Just making it known.

For those of us who cannot make the trip to the title game, we can live vicariously through the Bourbon Street webcam. We are t-minus 48 hours until the clash of pads begin.

Non-Title Game Related: The annual Army All-Star game was played today with eight Ohio State commitments selected for the game. There were at least two others - Terrelle Pryor and Josh Jenkins - who may become Buckeyes. Pryor was named the MVP and created a brouhaha by playing with Buckeye leaf on his helmet. He also acknowledged the leaf for the cameras which palpitated hearts across all Buckeye nation. This kid is either a Buckeye to be or setting us up for the biggest recruiting fall in years. A few thoughts on the commitments who played:

• JB Shugarts - Huge, lean and strong. Plays with a nice flat back and was positioned at guard during this game though he'll likely be a tackle at Ohio State. Seemed to have trouble with footwork on occasion.
• DeVier Posey - Didn't see many passes his way after having a stellar week in practice. Wore #85 after striking up a friendship with OchoCinco earlier this year.
• Mike Adams - Played at left tackle and dominated. He dominated all week during practices too and was named captain of the team. Unlimited potential.
• Jake Stoneburner - Played exclusively at tight end which I think will be his future position. For some reason, this rankles people. Yes, I know he's got wheels but he has legs like Ben Hartsock (read: thick) . Similar day to DeVier Posey.
• Etienne Sabino - Started and was in on a few tackles before the rotation of players began. Really nice size and speed combination.
• Lamaar Thomas - Played running back though he's being recruited mostly as a wide receiver at Ohio State. Thomas is much more built than I thought for a player with 10.3/100 speed. Reminds me an awful lot of Percy Harvin in terms of being a versatile player at both the RB and WR positions. Broke off at least two lengthy runs in the game.

A couple of the players did not play due to injury. OL Michael Brewster has a shoulder injury and K/P Ben Buchanan has a foot problem.

Youngstown Connection: The northwest part of Ohio is known for steel, blue collar and an uncanny amount of football icons - ahem, Paul Brown! This bowl season carries that legacy with Jim Tressel taking his team into the national title game for the third time in six years. What has slipped past some, including most in the mainstream media, are the other coaches with Y-Town roots. It's an uncommonly high number. A quick glance reveals in addition to Tressel, Mark Mangino at Kansas, Mark Dantonio with Michigan State and Bob Stoops at Oklahoma all have ties. Mangino and Dantonio were assistants under Tressel at Youngstown State (MD at OSU, too) and Stoops is just a good ol' fashioned Ohio boy from the rust belt. For those keeping score, of the 10 head coaches in the BCS Bowls, 3 have a Youngstown connection.

Honorary Captain Is...: Sack master Will Smith. Smith plays for the New Orleans Saints which makes the choice all the more sensible. It's also plausible Smith selection harkens back to the 2002 title game, a victory where the defensive end created all kinds of issues for the Hurricanes. There's been an avalanche of sideline pass requests from a dozen or two of past players who hope to be on the sideline for the game. How many actually get passes is another story.

Third Party Breakdowns: The ever thorough Sunday Morning Quarterback has his breakdown of the BCS Championship Game. It's a two part series (Part 1, Part 2) which relies heavily on statistical analysis. Keep in mind these aren't your boxscore-like stats but rather information that you actually have to research to compile. That alone makes it a worthy read but be warned: you need a good 20 minutes to get through both parts. At least I did. For another flavor, LSU's Dandy Don has daily updates and breakdowns.

The Orange Bowl tonight reinforces an annoying production issue I have FoxSports. And because the Ohio State/LSU tilt will be broadcast on Fox's airwaves, this is a particularly relevant gripe. So here it is: While their HD product is top shelf, their graphics package is horrendous and there is no better example than the obnoxiously gigantic scoreboard graphic. Here's a quick picture I took last night while it was bothering the hell out of me:

For the life of me, I can't reconcile why they need to take the entire horizontal width of my 16:9 screen. I cannot fathom why the scoreboard 'ribbon' isn't at the very top rather than lowered a few inches which takes up further precious screen real estate. It's the new craze apparently because ESPN does the same thing but not quite as bad.

Sure, it's a trivial bitch but I'm not kidding. In the picture above, you cannot see the far sideline coaching staff signaling in plays or maybe calling a timeout. In fact, you can barely see any of the sideline at all. You can't see the side judge in case he throws a flag. You even can't see the endzone pilons. If that weren't enough, I love graphic that's CGI'd on the field which tells me it's 2nd and 6...which is the same information I get in the scoreboard ribbon.

As we near Monday night, the speculation is building regarding what Coach Tressel may have in store for the LSU Tigers. Gadget plays, personnel switch-ups and tactical shifts are all possibilities. This speculation is a natural phenomenon mostly because we've had six weeks of idle time. Our minds wonder, various news nuggets drift to the surface and the process begins. It's sexy and fun so I decided to delve into two of the more popular new wrinkle discussions.

I focus on only two because they are both grounded in some basis of fact and/or reality We can hypothesize all day long who will have a 'coming out party' but that's more guesswork not to mention, it's really not a 'wrinkle' either. For those who crave that science, however, take a look at this BuckeyePlanet thread. For all others, the two possible new wrinkles:

• 
  
• Consistent Dose of Gibson. DE Robert Rose suffered a shoulder injury in the second half of the year. It stunted his improvement and limited his play. He had surgery after the Michigan game and will not play against LSU. This is a considerable loss that's getting very little play in media. Consider we already lost our starting defensive end - Lawrence Wilson - the beginning of the season, so the scratch of Rose is significant in terms of depth and rotation. It leaves Ohio State with two legitimate defensive ends who have seen worthy time in Cameron Heyward and Vern Gholson. Beyond them, we have players like Alex Barrow and, well, nobody.
  
  Enter Thaddeus Gibson.
  
  Gibson, when he's not walking out of practice, can be a terrifying force on the opposing offense. He plays in the old school mold of Na'il Diggs in that he has a linebacker's body but excels at rushing the quarterback from a standup position on the edge. We saw how effective he can be against Wisconsin and I see no better fit Monday night in an effort to minimize the loss of Rose. The use of Gibson is less a new wrinkle more than the a re-establishment of an effective defensive tactic and I think it's highly probable Gibson plays considerably.
  
  
• Henton is Second String! Presumably the implication here is that Henton's promotion is a signal he'll get snaps versus the Tigers. I mean, what better way to trip up the Tigers than to throw the Troy Smith clone into the game to run some spread, chew up large chunks of yardage and cause mayhem in Les Miles' mind? Won't happen.
  
  I suppose I can see JT using Henton as a decoy or maybe for a few quarterback sweeps but it stops there. Anything more than that - where he's actually throwing passes and stuff - would be Hindenburg-esque. Unmitigated disaster. Henton hasn't seen anything other than a practice field since September. His last snap was against Northwestern and to insert him into the game would throw caution to wind. Probability and sanity have to win out here, right?

Whatever the case is on Monday night, we all hope and expect success. Just because I think playing Henton would be a mistake doesn't mean I hope he fails just so I'm right. Or maybe Gibson won't play at all because the staff has another ace up their sleeve. One thing you can count on is LSU will have something prepared for us. Whether it's going for it 4th down a half dozen times or faking a punt or FG (or both), we have to be ready. By the way, on the latter part, LSU did just spend a whole practice focusing completely on special teams.

Including mine. There's the little thing I posted about last night that needs tending to...

False Alarm: Right, so Donald Washington isn't suspended for the BCS Championship game or any of the practices leading to it. Eugene Clifford is suspended though and for what, we don't know. Overall, this is welcome news indeed. Apparently all the original reporting outlets (The Dispatch, Newark Advocate, NBC4) and the various (previously) reliable insiders have the same, exact source inside the WHAC.

Bowl Game Swag: Each bowl game provides gifts to the players (in compliance w/NCAA) and fanblogs.com highlights some of the best. Think the biggest bowl of them all gives the best gifts? Think again. In fact, the Capital One bowl appears to come out on top. $400 Best Buy gift card! Sign me up. The entire swag rundown can be found at SportingNews.

I'll Take Illinois by 7, Says the Ref: By now, you've probably read this Yahoo story on the glorious background of Big Ten football official Steve Pamon. If not, it highlights the criminal activity of Pamon along with his gambling habit and eventual bankruptcy. Clean livin! Pamon's crew drew an onslaught of criticism for their awful work in both the Penn State/Purdue and Ohio State/Illinois games. Today Lonnie White of the LA Times dropped a scud (reg. req.) which includes information regarding abnormal betting in both games:

Two games from the 2007 regular season have come into question regarding Pamon, an officiating crew chief with a history of bankruptcy and gambling: Penn State's victory over Purdue on Nov. 3 and Illinois' upset win over Ohio State on Nov. 10.

"Both games had disproportionate money bet on the teams that benefited from the objectionable calls in those games in Penn State and Illinois," said RJ Bell of Pregame.com.

The Big Ten office released a statement that said they'll now begin conducting background checks each year. They also said they'll have "no further comment" on the matter. Precious.

Your Attendance Desired: Anyone finding themselves at home this Saturday, can check in here at Buckeye Commentary for live blogging of the Ohio State - Florida basketball game. Rather than the old fashioned way of publishing updates, I'll be using some fancy real-time technology from the good people at CoveritLive.com. It allows reader interactivity and, at the end of the game, the session will be archived.

I feel so behind and you probably feel slighted. My apologies. Anyway...

Soccer in Final Four: Non-revenue making waves. The Men's Soccer team made the NCAA Final Four this past weekend by upending Bradley 4-0. The team, which is riding a 14 game win streak, moves on to face unranked and unseeded UMass Friday at 7pm, ESPNU. The Bucks are undefeated on neutral fields this year.

Extra Week Added: E. Gordon Gee and the other Big Ten presidents voted to move to a 13 week football schedule beginning in 2009. This moves paves the way for teams to insert a bye week allowing squads to rest weary bodies and shorten the layoff between bowl games. It will also push back the annual Ohio State-Michigan game beyond Thanksgiving stealing our delight in talking about yet another Buckeye victory while nodding off with Tryptophan coursing through their veins.

More Honors for JL: James Laurinaitis was recognized by the Associated Press on their First Team All-America team. No other Buckeyes made the list. However, other Buckeyes including Chris Wells, Kirk Barton, Malcolm Jenkins and Vernon Gholston were selected on various other teams:

AP	Laurinaitis
AFCA	Laurinaitis, Barton
Walter Camp	Laurinaitis
FWAA	Laurinaitis
Sporting News	Laurinaitis, Barton, Wells, Gholston, Jenkins, Heyward

Thad's Streak in Jeopardy: I'm afraid it's true. While Matta has won 20 games or more each year he's been a head coach, this year may break that streak. Last night's victory over Coppin State was quintessential ugly and made some eye's bleed. The team failed to reach 50 points during a night Matta tinkered with lineups (Mr. Diebler meet Mr. Pine) and substitution patterns. I firmly believe the team will make improvement but this glaring lack of consistency and periods of frighteningly awful shooting has got to stop...or we'll be NIT bound. This was Coppin State!

Michigan Coaching Search: Day 23. Miles is still somewhat in play though he says he's only helping Michigan with their search. (wink - wink). Because, you know, this is what coaches do at opposing schools in rival conferences. I quite like the drawn out process especially since it involves LSU who already has one lame duck coach in Bo Pellini. I'll take any smidgen of distraction I can get.

Jim Tressel's team is exactly where we thought they'd be in the newest BCS Poll. Our hope is squarely on the shoulders of the Sooners as no rational person can expect, let alone think, Pitt will upset West Virginia. It should be pointed out that it's always more difficult beating an opponent twice in the same season and Missouri did hold the lead going into the 4th quarter. Then again, Missouri scored a meaningless touchdown with 12 seconds left to trim the final deficit to 10 points. As I suspected, Vegas has Oklahoma as an early favorite. The beauty in all this is we are guaranteed a fantastic bowl and matchup no matter what happens.

Ed Orgeron was fired at Ole Miss. I found this particularly ironic for me because I just finished the book Meat Market, written by Bruce Feldman. It focuses on major college football recruiting but not at a powerhouse. Feldman chose Ole Miss and (former) head coach Ed Orgeron who gave him complete access to all their recruiting meetings, evaluations, phone calls, offers, etc.

The book is recommended and there is an Ohio State angle. Both Cameron Heyward and Rob Gronkowski are mentioned along with how Orgeron feels about recruiting in the north. If that doesn't interest you, there's the in depth discussions on player evaluations and what a staff looks for (ie: ankle flexibility, "pop", stiffness or lack of, etc.) when determining whether to offer a scholarship or not.

Big Ten Wonk is no more and he's now at Basketball Prospectus, as we've mentioned before. John cranked out great stuff and, not coincidentally, soon after I started linking his stuff here - those same links started popping up on all the 'major' Ohio State sites. I'd like to think I was some small part of that. Now, I want to pass along a new college basketball site called StatSheet.com. No only does it focus on all just about every college team, it also includes cool charlets for bloggers like myself to embed in their site. Stuff like baseline stats for each game so you can compare great outings with horrific ones, such as:


While we may experience some growing pains this year, Matta is in a class by himself at Ohio State in terms of winning percentage:
Matta's boys are back in action as I type, up 43-29 at the half vs. VMI. Live play by play is here. OSU Student Radio has the call. Othello Hunter of the game it's suspected because of injury and/or cramps?

MGoBlog is reporting that Kirk Ferentz has been offered the Michigan job. UM fans are generally up in arms carrying pitch forks and torches which is puzzling to me. Ferentz is a superior choice to Les Miles in my mind simpy because, well, he knows how to coach a game and manage crucial junctures. Miles does not.

The status of big, talented running back PJ Hill is still unclear. The official diagnoses according to cheeseland newspapers is a deep bruise on a leg he previously broke. He tried to practice on Tuesday but was seen limping noticeably. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinal is already on record saying barring signficant improvement, Hill 'won't be healthy enough to play' and if that's the case, his replacement is likely to be freshman Zach Brown. Quincy Landingham is another option but he's coming off an injury of his own.

They're still other alternatives. The staff could also shuffle up things and invert the attack, choosing to use fullbacks more than tailbacks. Whatever the case, Wisconsin staff is exploring all avenues. In some ways, a healthy PJ Hill would have made game planning easier for Ohio State based on fewer unknowns. But again, this is all based on Hill not playing or being limited in doing so - two scenarios I fail to accept as legitimate possibilities. Wisconsin may not be trying to dupe or hoodwink the Buckeyes but they are keeping information purposefully scarce. I just can't see Hill skipping this game - against this defense.

Elsewhere, Gonzo clone Luke Swan talks about his hamstring tear which has sidelined him for the season.

Update (10:01pm): Bielema says Hill hasn't practiced but is improving each day:

"All week he has gotten better every day, and hopefully he will continue to get that way. Saturday will be a game-time decision in his hands whether he can go or not."

There you have it.

Flag Conspiracy: Obviously said in jest but what the hell is going with the officiating of Ohio State football games? I know, I know, my good blog buddy John Gasaway, formerly of the Big Ten Wonk and now with Basketball Prospectus, taught me long ago that complaining about the refs is a tired pastime left best alone.

But, I can't help it.

The opponents of Ohio State are the least penalized of any Big Ten team...for the third straight year. Conversely, we've had the most flags against us (flags, not penalty yards). Nothin' to see here. Carry on.

Major Award: AJ Trapasso has been named a semi-finalist for the Ray Guy Award which goes to the nation's top collegiate punter. Brian Robiskie made the semi-finalist cut for the Biletnikoff Award, which is given to the top receiver.

I read this on a number of sites today so attribution is difficult and, beyond that, this needs no ramp up anyway. Let's get right to it:

Ohio State opponents have more punts (57) than points (45)!

This ri-damn-diculous stat is made even more impressive when you subtract the amusingly late garbage touchdowns (2 - Washington & Purdue) and the safety the offense allowed against Akron (Edit: plus NW kickoff return. Thanks, zb). It would be a notable statistic only one game into the season, let alone six. And, there's a good possibility it will still hold true after this weekend.

We salute the Silver Bullets...at least two of them anyway:

Edit: The blogpoll ballot below has been updated with comments.

Having a real job totally interferes sometimes on my blogging schedule. Such is the case this week when, at this minute, I'm behind on several parts of the site. I'm getting caught up slowly though and have a few interesting items pass along.

Better Late Than...: Because of time constraints, it's not my best stuff but I have the Minnesota Game Analysis up and ready for your feedback. It's a little watered down, admittingly, since I posted a fairly lengthy Minny recap earlier in the week.

Recruitnik Stuff: Lamaar Thomas, a RB/WR from Maryland, has narrowed his list to three schools: Maryland, Illinois and and Ohio State. From at least one account, Ohio State leads but it could be a situation of who's in his home last that wins. Thomas is blessed with incredible speed with times of 10.3/100 and 21.4/200. The one question remaining is what position does Thomas play in college? He may be set on running back but there are several schools that think wide receiver will be the best spot for him.

On the Mend: While we are dealing with various nicks, bruises and sprains, the Buckeyes look to get two players back this week or next. Andre Amos has been cleared to play for the first time all year after sustaining a knee injury. Amos, pre-injury, likely would have challenged for a starting job as notes ATO and 11W. Also, speedster Brandon Saine is nearing return, possibly even seeing time this weekend.

Purdue's Ohio Connections: There will be a least two Ohio connections this weekend when Ohio State travels to West Lafayette. Coach Joe Tiller is a Toledo native and one of their top wide receivers, Greg Orton, was a high school teammate of Marcus Freeman at Huber Heights Wayne HS. Purdue recently lost two other Ohio players in Ray Edwards and Andre Chattams - brother of former Buckeye WR Angelo Chattams.

Where's the Rush? BoilerStation.com has an article about the lack of sacks and pass rush from the Purdue front four this year. It's an area of focus for the staff and they hope things begin to change Saturday. To date, they've registered only nine sacks compared to Ohio State's 13 and league leader Indiana's 27. Naturally, how they plan to create more sacks isn't known but if I had to guess, get ready for new blitz packages to try to throw off Todd Boeckman.

Coverage Map: Most know by now the Ohio State - Purdue game is scheduled for 8pm (EDT) on ABC. However, the coverage map for this contest pretty much includes the entire country. The only area not covered is the west coast and a tiny dot of northern Indiana. Ouch Notre Dame fans. To make sure you will have the Buckeye's game this weekend, be sure to check your local listings.

...Antonio Henton was up to no good last night. The word on this leaked very early in the morning but I wasn't online and, as fate would have, I heard the news reports later as I was driving into work. If you're like me, you've read about fifty different articles each with a little more detail. However, if you are late to this shame, here's a quick rundown as it stands now:

Henton was arrested just before 8:30 last night for Solicitation. The third string QB allegedly pulled his car alongside a female and offered $20 for intercourse. Weirdly, he only had $19 on him. Unfortunately for Antonio, the 'prostitute' turned out to be an undercover police officer working an area that nabbed 11 people Monday night. The charge is a misdeamenor and Henton has already posted bail of $274. He did not enter a plea, contrary to various reports. There were also initial reports the charges were dropped but in actuality they were only refiled after gaining an additional signature. He faces some fairly significant penalties but generally it's reduced to a small fine. He is currently suspended indefinitely from the team but still has academic privileges. You can read JT's presser verbatim and even watch it with the accompanying video link (must be registered user). That's your reader's digest version.

The court of public opinion may be the harshest storm to weather. There are media members calling for his outright dismissal or season long suspension. Jokes are already abundant and surely will not float away any time soon. On the other side of the issue, there are those attempting to minimize the situation and/or redirect blame to Columbus Police. In reality both sides are misguided by either overreacting or refusing to acknowledge Henton's culpability. And, if there is some hot-damn misunderstanding it will come out. Until then, I have no reason to blame anyone but the young man who made a poor decision.

While the offense ranks ultra low on the egregiousness-scale, it ranks stratospheric in terms of embarrassment. Perhaps the best course of action is simply pay the fine, show contrition and somehow work yourself back into the graces of the coaching staff. Kicking him off the team isn't the answer - not for a misdemeanor - and there has been some precedent here. Notre Dame went through a similar thing earlier this year. So did Michigan 2002. (HT: MotSaG) Each player was reinstated. I can't help but think the same thing will happen with Henton.

I meant to get this up yesterday but couldn't. Alas, here you go....

Coder Fun In Bristol, CT: You're going to have to take my word on this one. ESPN has an on-going Heisman watch where they list the leading candidates. Mike Hart is listed (no, that's not the crazy part) and, earlier today, when you clicked on his name to see his statistical details it directed you to Armanti Edwards. That would be Armanti Edwards of Appalachian State. The linking 'error' has since been corrected but was it really an error? Some junior coder having a little fun in Bristol?

Call to Recruitniks: Bruce Feldman, ESPN senior writer and friend of Buckeye Commentary, has just released his latest book titled Meat Market: Inside the Smash-Mouth World of College Football Recruiting. I'll let Bruce explain further:

The book details exactly how big-time college programs go from 1000 names at the beginning of the recruiting cycle down to the 25 recruits they sign at the end on National Signing Day. I had amazing access and it turned out to be even more of a roller-coaster ride than I ever imagined.

He spent two years in South doing the research and you can find it right now at Amazon. Hopefully, he detailed the SEC practice of oversigning.

Required Reading: We are all aware of the colossal struggle Notre Dame is facing right now. Their fans have it even worse but who's to blame? There are few required reads on the internets but if you're an Ohio State fan, one has to be Ramzy at BuckNuts. His latest piece has everything that makes him great - funny and he's right.

This is Reloading? 11W has an excellent article on Robo and Hartline and their somewhat surprising production to date. They even went as far as doing arithmetic to extrapolate final receiving yardage if the current pace is maintained. Robo is on pace for nearly 1400 yards which would fall only behind David Boston's single season performance. Yeah, we lost two first round receivers and have we really noticed?

Oh, the Akron Showdown is On! One Akron back took over for another when Chris Wells assumed the running back duties with the departure of Antonio Pittman. Now, Wells will meet up again this weekend with former rival Tyrell Sutton of Northwestern They're both from the Akron area with Wells prepping at Garfield HS and Sutton at Hoban. Sutton's a year older and has had a very good career at NU but of late has been injured, missing a few games including the loss to Duke. However, he is due back in the line up for the Wildcats when they come marching into the Shoe this Saturday. You just have a feeling Beanie, if he can stay away from the injury bug, is about to have a huge game. (pic shows HS photo of Sutton in center, Beanie far right)

We're heading into Akron but a few last points regarding the past few days...

Punt Formation Change: I pointed out after the Youngstown State game that our punt formation underwent a change in the offseason. Rather than letting it go and just hoping you believe me, I decided to grab a few screenshots to illustrate the point - especially since I haven't seen it mentioned anywhere but here at BC.

Below I have a screenshot taken from a random punt in the Iowa game last year (why Iowa? It was in my DVD player, easy accessibility) and then to the right of it is the formation from YSU. The YSU camera shot is different but the change is apparent. We are no longer bowing our line to create a pocket for punter AJ Trapasso. Instead, the staff has essentially created a second level of blockers, three of them, approximately ten yards beyond the line of scrimmage compared to five yards last year. It's not as radical as, say, LSU but an interesting little tweak nonetheless. (btw, sorry for the small screencaps)

Simmer Down Now: Buckeyes fans have been peppering 1460 and ESPN chats with questions about how Ohio State could drop one position in both the AP and Coaches Polls after soundly (albeit sloppily) beating Youngstown State.  After all, the Buckeyes defeated a highly ranked Football Championship Subdivision team, formerly known as D-IAA, by 32 points.  As we all know, mighty Michigan lost to a team from the same division.  

Upon closer inspection, Ohio State actually received more dap in the latest polls than it did in the preseason.  The thing is, the polls were simply more even than the preseason editions.  The same teams were more consistently ranked and, thus, many teams received more votes.  Some did not - Texas went from 1375 to 1221 in the AP Poll.  

Tressel's gang received 919 points in the preseason USA Today Coaches Poll.  After week one, they received 977.  That means, on average, the Buckeyes were voted higher than they were in the preseason by one spot because they received 58 more votes from the 60 voters.  Likewise, OSU received 64 more points in the AP Poll, which equals approximately 1 position higher per voter (there are 65 AP voters).  

What does this all mean?  It means that the voters ranking are codifying, as usual.  It means their minds are being shaped.  And, it means that more voters are voting the Buckeyes closer to the Top 10.  And, that is a good thing.  Ultimately, it means the Buckeyes are getting their love, or as Ali G says, respek.  

Don't get your Buckeyes in a bunch.  

Being that I've been away, it's probably prudent to get up to speed with news items that have come and gone. If I have missed something (100% chance of that), just chime in. I did not follow my 150+ RSS Feeds on a daily basis when I was 'away'.

Fall Practice Begins. Hello Injuries: We are a solid two weeks into fall practice and the injury bug is starting to surface. By now, you all probably know about Ray Small twisting his ankle. On top of that Curtis Terry was carted off the field the other day (HT: BuckeyePlanet), the day after The Dispatch ran a nice piece declaring him injury-free. Jinx! Elsewhere, so many folks are talking about injuries to OL Kyle Mitchum and Jon Skinner that I'm not even going to find links. I believe it to be true. Even the franchise, Beanie Wells, came down with a stinger during a recent Hoot 'n Holler drill.

On the positive side, Anderson Russell appears to be full go and showing no side-effects of his knee injury. The loss of AR last year was a critical blow to the defense. His return to the secondary will bolster a somewhat thin backfield. True frosh Devon Torrence has moved to WR from DB where most thought he'd play.

BTN = Free? The Big Ten Network (BTN) has yet to formulate an agreement with the two big dogs - Time Warner and Comcast. A recent Dispatch article, however, indicated Central Ohio Time Warner subscribers may receive the first two games of the year on a free trial basis. When asked point blank Mark Silverman, BTN head honcho, said:

"I can't comment on that specific solution, but we're trying to get this (overall deal) done. I'm open to coming up with creative ways to solve this."

Seemingly, this tactic would provide additional negotiation time while satisfying the seething and frothing Ohio State fans. I can live with that because what I'm not going to do is attach one of these to the side of my house. Then again, with just released men's basketball schedule, I made reconsider.

Kosta Koufos: No one will ever truly replace Greg Oden but Kosta Koufos is a much heralded big man who is playing exceptionally well. In the UMCOR U18 European Championship, he was named tournament MVP while playing for Greece. During tournament play, he averaged - averaged! I say - 26.5 points, 13 boards and 3.5 blocks against some of the top competition in his age bracket.

Worst. Cover. Ever: This doesn't necessary classify as old news but pertinent nonethless. The next issue of Sports Illustrated will feature Michigan RB Mike Hart on the cover. Initial reaction is one of 'whatever' but this has an interesting tie-in to James Laurinaitis. For those who aren't aware, there's been a subtle campaign to out JL as a good, but overrated player. To a point, I would agree in so much as he's no AJ Hawk. But, Mike Hart fits 'good but overrated' tag (GBO) about as well as anyone. This is a guy, after-all, who averaged less than 5 yards a carry last year...and the year before. He gets his 1500 yards by virtue of a bazillion carries. On top of that, he and Chad Henne (another who is GBO) have yet to beat Ohio State or a bowl opponent.

After several conversations with me, myself and I - it's about time I get rocking on the site again. As much time as this animal takes, the satisfaction in return is enough to keep pushing on. Plus, the timing would be just awful considering we're about to embark on a new season.

Many thanks to all the comments and emails. I read them all and I am very appreciative. I'll be back soon with business as usual.

A few of you have emailed genuinely concerned about the lack of updates. My posting has been nil in the last 10 days or so and it isn't because I'm enjoying a vacation in some tropical paradise. No, I'm home and have complete access to update the site or write new commentary and whatever else it is I think may be of interest to readers. But, alas I don't. I haven't felt much like blogging. It may change; it may not. I'm still sorting out if this is something I want to continue doing.

This may seem sudden but it's been gradually building. I'm not looking for pep talks or the like. I just wanted to give an idea of what's going on.

On the heels of The Dispatch's exclusive walk-through, the rest of the media had a chance to see the renovated Woody Hayes Athletic Center today. The $21.5 million dollar project brings the total size to nearly 90,000 sq. ft and features a new atrium, players lounge, locker-room, coaches offices, meeting rooms, media room and training facility including underwater treadmill pools and plunge tanks. Oh, and the expanded weightroom is unreal.

Just how good is it? Consider this quote a few months back from the project coordinator, Sean Perkins:

"It will be the nicest facility, college or pro, in the country. No one will have anything like this."

Sean's a little biased but we catch his drift. Players now have a weightroom that is double in size and, more importantly, football only which few other programs can say.

The player lounge features pool tables, hordes of flatscreen HDTV's, xBox's and just about any other amenity the 18-21 demographic craves. By chance, if they want to know the depth chart of the that team up north, it's posted on a large board for quick reference. This once outdated and cramped structure is now perhaps the biggest recruiting tool in JT's arsenal.

Photos of the structure can be found here and here. Video from The Palestra here. Sorry, no photos of the players lounge, it was off limits to photogs.

Sports Illustrated published its list of the Top 10 Buckeye athletes today. This is an ambitious effort considering the legends that have played for Ohio State. Whittling down a gigantic list of candidates to only 10 and then ranking them is no small feat. So for that, a tip of the cap to SI. In order to save some of you some clicking, their selections are as follows:

Rank	Buckeye Athlete	Sport
1	Archie Griffin	Football
2	Jesse Owens	Track & Field
3	Hopalong Cassady	Football
4	Blaine Wilson	Gymnastics
5	Jerry Lucas	Basketball
6	Katie Smith	W.Basketball
7	Eddie George	Football
8	Greg Oden	Basketball
9	Jack Nicklaus	Golf
10	Troy Smith	Football

Yeah, so, that represents 5 Heisman Trophies, 7 Olympic Gold Medals and a Silver (Wilson). The selections are strong and Yes, I think Oden deserves to be on the list. Opinions vary. Maybe not at #8 (more like #10) but in twenty years from now, any list without Greg will look utterly ridiculous. Certainly cases can be made for others such as John Havlicek and Orlando Pace but there'll always be arguments for inclusion.

My chief argument is the ranking of Jesse Owens. It's felonious and shameful to rank him anywhere but at the top. Whereas others figured on the national scale, Owens impacted the World. The Buckeye Bullet won prestigious awards, set world records and broke through extreme pressures to win Gold - multiple times - in the face of hatred. Consider too, he won eight individual NCAA Championships at Ohio State and at a meet in Ann Arbor, set 3 world records (tied another) in less than an hour. We love Archie. He's beloved. But Jesse is the top and the next in line isn't even close.

Pending approval from the Board of Trustees, The Dispatch is reporting E. Gordon Gee will be returning to The Ohio State University as the new President. He most recently served as chancellor of Vanderbilt, a position he'll hold until August 1st. Early reaction seems to be one of approval but lacking excitement.

Gee does, however, have the opportunity to reach deity status among the Ohio State students, alumni and faithful. How? A fifty thousand feet overview: Continue the mission of Holbrook in terms of strengthening admissions and increasing research funding. Then, clean up the endownment fund flap and get a competent folks to manage it. Finally, for the