Football Reappears with Spring Practice

The Ohio State team that wears helmets and pads and who last showed up for a game in November, is set to take the field again for spring practice. The team will take the pratice field tomorrow for the first of 14 practices and one spring game. All pratices will be closed to the public unless you can get to tenth floor of the Fawcett Center with a pair of binoculars. I don't recommend you try.

Michigan fans can rejoice because Troy Smith has left the building and in his place is...ta-da...Todd Boeckman. Boeckman does have some competition for the QB spot but not in the form of Troy Smith-clone, Antonio Henton. From all accounts, Henton has shown promise but is a year away from really competing for the job. Beanie Wells returns to lead an offense that lost a lot of talent and production. Conversely, the defense appears poised to improve on a mostly very good season. In effect, we have the exact opposite issue as last year when the team was offensively loaded and defensively light. Pfef goes into more depth and 11W has nifty Youtube clip. Get your fill of rosters and early depth charts here.

That aside, perhaps the most important position isn't on the field. In light of our woodshed beating, the spotlight will be on Coach Tressel to shake the cobwebs and get back to successful preparation. What we saw in the championship game was a physically bloated team who had mentally checked out in December. Affecting change, in light of staff departures, will require some of Tressel's best work yet.