1. Name one (offensive or defensive) unit you expect to produce this season and one that makes you nervous.

Poe: Produce: Wide Receivers. Terrelle Pryor wants to “feed his guys” and the receivers should benefit in a big way. The Brians both got drafted and Robiskie should have been one of the best receivers ever at Ohio State, but the unit should have more athleticism and more big play ability. Young and unproven, they could put up big numbers if they are allowed. Yards After Catch (YAC) have been almost nonexistent recently, whether it’s due to under thrown balls or the Amazing Falling Hartline. These receivers will need YAC to be effective, because there will be some mental lapses and dropped balls. The team needs to play like it wants to be in the endzone every play.

Nervous: The Big Uglies, Offensive Line and Defensive Tackles. I’m still confident that Heacock and Bollman have no idea what they are doing, especially when it comes to line play. I’m no expert, but some experts have openly criticized the units and their play. The offensive line could easily go in the ‘produce’ category will all new players and the addition of Justin Boren, but I’m just not sure.

Cassius: The unit that I most expect to produce this year, and this may be a shocker, is the O-line. Thanks to the inclusion of Justin Boren who apparently likes to play very, very angry, and the continued progression of Brewster and center I'd look for a line that will do a better job at run blocking and pass protection and I don't think we'll have any more problems with bad snaps this year. The unit that makes me the most nervous is the linebacker corps. Ohio State has effectively supplanted Penn State as linebacker U, but it doesn't change the fact that this will be the most green unit on the field come September.

Massey: I think the Ohio State secondary needs to acquit itself. In fact, I will go a step further and say that all pass defenders give me heartburn. For years I have been watching them play soft zone, bend-but-don’t-break coverage and it makes me nuts. Still, that approach has been mildly successful (until it faces a true passing team) but that was with players like Malcolm Jenkins, Nate Clements, Chris Gamble, and Donte Whitner. When I look at the defensive secondary for 2009, I get very nervous. Read More...

I will skip right to the analysis because you have likely seen the details of Jamaal Berry's arrest for marijuana possession. Twenty grams worth.

The first question out of most fan's mouth is whether he will ever play for Ohio State. While these are not perfect parallels, the last two Ohio State arrest for marijuana are Jonathan Skeete's pot trafficking bust in 2005 and Eric Haw's arrest a week later for a more pedestrian grade offense for smoking a joint outside a dorm. Skeete was never heard from again. Haw played one more year in the program until his transfer to Jackson State. Berry's arrest falls somewhere in between in my perspective as Berry had less than an ounce.

Berry's age (he only recently turned 18) and the fact that he has not officially entered the program may help him out. The coaches may feel that he is young and has not been adequately exposed to there ways and teachings. The above-mentioned arrests involved players that had been in the program for at least one year.

The true is, I would respect Tressel's decision either way. If he dismissed Berry it would not totally offend my sensibilities. Likewise, if he kept Berry on the team I would not view it as a blatant advance of the depth chart.

If I had my druthers, I would welcome Jamaal onto the team with the understanding that his next slip-up will result in his dismissal. I have seen too many other players get a second chance for Berry to be summarily dumped right off the bat. I am sure your opinions vary on the topic.

More than anything, it is shame Berry's misstep did not happen in Massachusetts, where he would have paid a $100 fine and no one would have noticed.

The Big Ten recently announced that Ohio State and Minnesota will square off at high noon. Big deal, right? I tend to agree with that sentiment, but it did get me thinking about one thing: does Ohio State have a regular schedule? I know only three games have announced start times but from the looks of it Ohio State will be lucky to have more than two games in a row at the same time.

For argument's sake, let's assume that the Navy and Toledo games start at noon. Illinois looks like they will be marginally successful early on, so it is not unreasonable for that game to kickoff around 3:30pm. Plus, the Saturday night games that day already include Big 10 squads. We already know Indiana is at 7:00pm, and the games against Wisconsin will be either be noon or 3:30pm (Michigan v. Iowa is already scheduled at night). So, through 6 games the Buckeyes will not have played two games in a row at the same time.

The four-game stretch of Wisconsin-Purdue-Minnesota-New Mexico State offers the best chance for the Buckeyes to experience any regularity. At the very least, they Scarlet and Grey will probably play back-to-back nooners at home against the Gophers and Aggies. I think it is unlikely that any of the last three games will be at the same time. Penn State will most likely start at night while the Michigan game has been known to begin at 1:00pm.

When I was a kid going to Ohio State games, virtually every game kicked off at noon. Now, some teams do not know the kickoff time until the week of the game. This is not to say that other elite teams don't face the same type of scheduling fluctuations and I am not sure how I would quantify the effects of different kickoff times, including the different time zones.

Does this matter? I don't know, but in a game of inches inspired by a military aesthetic, you would imagine a defined routine would yield considerable benefits. So, this varying schedule has to be considered a slight - perhaps minuscule - handicap. (If anyone has the time and inclination to perform a little research regarding the Buckeyes' past schedules I would be very interested to see if any patterns appear to support my random supposition.)

Sleep schedules, pregame meals, and fan "participation" vary greatly based on something as simple as a kickoff time. So, I don't find it is ridiculous to consider the impact on college players, especially for younger players still adjusting to college and a new city/campus.

The question for OSU, will results vary?

On Friday, I heard this question asked on The Fan: if Ohio State could only beat USC or Michigan this season, which one would you choose? I actually posed this one to two diferent fans this weekend and received totaly different answers.

For our purposes here, we will assume that the Buckeyes would win their remaining 10 games - a dangerous assumption, I know, but one that is not totally out of the realm of possibility. The responses of the callers were mixed. While I am not suggesting I have the right answer, I did not have to think too hard about it.

Ohio State has to beat USC.

Here's why:

1. Ohio State - fair or not - is the flag bearer for all things Big Ten football. When the Buckeyes lose a big non-conference game (and they have lost four straight) the entire league is shamed. When Michigan scores at will while beating Florida, no one notices.

2. I know many of the old-schoolers would say that you always have to beat your rival, but a loss to Michigan would help rejuvenate the rivalry. We know that the games in 2001, 2002, 2003, 2005, and 2006 were as great as any rivalry could wish for. But Tressel's 7-1 record combined with the last two games has diminished the rivalry in many outsiders minds. If you doubt that, try to remember how you felt about the Auburn/Alabama games until 2008.

3. I know some people cringe at the thought of losing to a sub-par Michigan team with a birth in BCS Title Game on the line. But in my mind, a loss to either team ends the Buckeyes dreams of a championship appearance. There is simply no way that voters would place Ohio State in the top 2 if they lost at home to USC. And, in a weird way, a win over USC would pave the way for 2010. With the big game monkey off their back, thanks to Pryor no doubt, the Buckeyes would be poised for great things.

Anyway, what do you think?

...and this...

If you are anything like me (and, for your sake, let's hope you are not), then baseball season is the sports abyss of the calendar. I happen to love the NBA and the Playoffs but the Western Conference is on a little for me. Naturally, I look for other sources of "sporting" entertainment.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I know this is not Ohio State or even football-related but I have to believe these guys are in college. And, judging by some of these angles, I am guessing their school has a nice engineering department.

These days, not much is missing from Ohio State football. Ten-win seasons? Check. Big Ten championships? Check. Beating Michigan? Check times six. But there is still one thing that the football program is missing. And it’s not on the field, or even inside the stadium.

That thing is a life-sized bronze effigy of our once fearless leader, Wayne Woodrow “Woody” Hayes parading the sidelines in short-sleeves during a snowstorm. I know, its hard to imagine, the man who brought five national titles and 13 big ten titles to Columbus has relatively no remembrance of him on campus besides a sign in the stadium (a sign which may soon be surrounded by digital advertising ribbon) and a football practice complex that is second-to-none, but still not accessible by the common fan.

And on the one hand, maybe that’s the way Woody would have wanted it. A simple man born of simple roots, Woody was the kind of man who worked his whole life on one-year contracts because of the fear that money would detract from his love of coaching. The kind of man who preferred plain-white short sleeved t-shirts and horn-rimmed glasses. The kind of man who would lock up a recruit by looking at him, shifting his glasses and saying “son, you’re going to be a buckeye,” instead of rolling up in Auburn’s new recruiting limo.

But to us fans, Woody was and still is a larger than life figure. A man who embodied everything that we like to root for in our Buckeyes: commitment, passion, and hard work. I think it high time that the man who we most closely associate with Ohio State gets his due tribute. A statue project resolution was introduced by Undergraduate Student Government and passed in 2008, but was given such a low priority that there was no chance it would ever happen.

So maybe the way to pay homage isn’t through the university necessarily, but instead is up to us. Imagine that bronze effigy standing tall outside the rotunda with a plaque at its feet reading “paid for by the thousands and millions of Buckeyes from all corners of the globe.” I think even the man that I’ve heard about would be OK with a statue of him if it too had such humble beginnings.

So what do you think? Even in this tough economy, would you donate some extra scratch in order to help meet the estimated $30,000 statue fee?

This, but in bronze form.