Visit to rivals a rite of spring for Ohio State
January 7, 2008 Source: USA Today - "OSU coaches were in Baton Rouge last spring to check out the Tigers...'We anticipated Jan. 7, 2008, that's why we asked Les (Miles) if we could come down and study a little bit in the spring,' Buckeyes coach Jim Tressel said jokingly Sunday. 'He was gracious enough to let us, but that's one of the great things about our profession...'We visited Florida a year ago, and obviously that wasn't a great study. Maybe they didn't go to the football office enough.'..."
 | Boeckman steps up for Buckeyes
January 6, 2008 Source: Akron Beacon Journal - "It has been said that no one wants to be the person who replaces a legend. Everyone should strive to be the person who replaces the person who replaced the legend. But Ohio State quarterback Todd Boeckman didn't have much of a choice. Boeckman, a 23-year-old redshirt junior, knew that when Heisman Trophy winner Troy Smith graduated, the Buckeyes' offense would be his for the taking..." |
Henton move could become advantage
January 6, 2008 Source: Akron Beacon Journal - "Lost in all the hoopla that is the BCS National Championship Game is a seemingly innocuous move that Ohio State coach Jim Tressel and his staff made — Antonio Henton's move to second-string quarterback. There might be more to it, however, as OSU looks for any advantage against LSU. Of course, Tressel played that fact close to his proverbial sweater vest..."
Tressel says Henton at quarterback is possible in title game
December 30, 2007 Source: Canton Repository - "...In the middle of bowl practice, Tressel gave LSU something to think about: Antonio Henton. For the first time, Tressel acknowledged that Henton would be the team’s No. 2 quarterback for the national title game..."
Some Buckeyes Out, Others in for National Championship Game
December 29, 2007 Source: Bucknuts.com - "Lawrence Wilson, Antonio Henton, Robert Rose and Eugene Clifford. OSU Head Coach Jim Tressel talked about all of those players and a few others during the half of the OSU basketball game today (Saturday)..."
 | The Animal lair
January 6, 2008 Source: Cleveland Plain Dealer - "He wanted nothing more than to be like his dad, so 6-year-old James slept in the in the red and black wrestling tights every night. On the road for 250 to 300 nights a year, wearing those same red and black tights, pulling on the spiked shoulder pads and applying the face paint that disguised who he really was, Road Warrior Animal couldn't talk to his co-workers about his children back in Minnesota, his oldest son Joey; his baby, daughter Jessica; or little James in those tights. Real life wasn't welcome in the world of professional wrestling. 'It was taboo for guys to talk about their home life,' Joe Laurinaitis said. 'You just didn't do it.' So the two lives remained as separate as possible -- for everyone except James, who performed wrestling flips with his friends from a 9-foot loft above the living room onto a mattress below..." |
LSU running back Jacob Hester on Ohio State linebacker James Laurinaitis: "That guy is all over the place. His motor never stops. When he makes tackles he'll be on one side and then he'll run a running back down on the other side of the field. He's a great player. He doesn't miss tackles. He's always where he has to be. If you watch him on film, he's the first guy to the football every play. I'm sure we'll meet a lot. He'll be wherever I'm at, that's for sure."
 | OSU's Gholston an unstoppable force
January 5, 2008 Source: Cleveland Plain Dealer - "Vernon Gholston, Ohio State's 6-4, 260-pound junior defensive end, looks like he was carved by a chisel and runs like he was hurled from a thunderhead. He is a second-team All-American. He was first-team All-Big Ten. Mike Vrabel, a linebacker with the New England Patriots who was among the best defensive linemen Ohio State ever produced, has schooled him in techniques for the hand-to-hand battles that rage up and down the line of scrimmage. Maybe most of all, in this city, which lives by the French slogan Laissez les bon temps roullez! ("Let the good times roll!"), Gholston has the proper attitude for the business-like approach Ohio State's players, in the wake of last year's national championship game embarrassment, are taking for this year's version against LSU..."
Quiet Gholston loud on gridiron
January 3, 2008 Source: Newark Advocate - "Vernon Gholston isn't a player seething with anger and violence,...No, what the Ohio State defensive end does on the field doesn't quite jibe with the real person. 'I go out there and try to play hard within the scheme of the defense,' Gholston said carefully..." |
 | Grant Hoping Fourth Time Is Charm
January 5, 2008 Source: Bucknuts.com - "Athletes often just ask for the chance at winning a championship and claim they can live with the outcome if only that wish could be granted. Larry Grant, however, has had a hard time dealing with year-end disappointment. For personal reasons, the senior OLB is on a mission to help Ohio State seize the crystal trophy..." |
OSU players content to avoid French Quarter
January 5, 2008 Source: Gannett News Service - "Just a few blocks from Bourbon Street, where partying was perfected, the Ohio State Buckeyes are getting primed for their national championship date with LSU by staying in their hotel. It's almost like they're in a monastery. So that his players were walled off from all distractions -- or, as some would put it, fun -- of going to a bowl game, coach Woody Hayes used to make his Buckeyes spend the nights before their Rose Bowl games in a monastery..."
Players who will try to be on the sideline Monday
January 4, 2008 Source: Journal Register News Service - "...Antonio Pittman is one of 17 players who will try to be on the sideline for the game against LSU. The rest include: Troy Smith, Ted Ginn Jr., Orlando Pace, Will Allen, Will Smith, Mike Vrabel, Michael Jenkins, Chris Gamble, LeCharles Bentley, Bobby Carpenter, Jay Richardson, David Patterson, Antonio Smith, Anthony Schlegel, Santonio Holmes and Darrion Scott. Will Smith, now a defensive end for the Saints, will serve as honorary captain..."
Caution: Possible split title ahead
January 4, 2008 Source: Shreveport Times - "When the BCS national championship game ends on Monday night, the debate may likely be just beginning. Just as in January of 2004 when LSU won its national title in the BCS title game, the possibility of a split national championship looms again. The 65 voters in the Associated Press poll are not bound to award the AP national title to the winner of Monday's game...'My problem is Ohio State, quite frankly,' Florida Today sports writer David Jones said. 'They played a schedule about as comparable as Hawaii's. If the Buckeyes manage to somehow win a 14-13 game and play poorly, then I've got to reconsider Southern Cal and Georgia.'..."
 | Tress gets the boys fired up
December 27, 2007 Source: Columbus Dispatch - "Jim Tressel doesn't like to admit he uses the revenge factor as motivation, but he's not above using it, big-time, for the national championship game. When the players went home for a week off on Dec. 19, every one of them was given a DVD containing multiple clips of announcers from ESPN or Fox or wherever, blasting OSU and giving the Buckeyes no chance of beating LSU. Mark May of ESPN was featured prominently. Supposedly (I have not seen the DVD), it's very compelling stuff....clip after clip after clip of people just destroying OSU. It's the kind of tape that is designed to get your blood boiling, and Tressel reportedly told his players to watch it every single day until the game..."
Take Home Talk - Buckeye Motivational DVD - first 3 minutes of 'take home talk' motivational DVD
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History repeating: Buckeyes try to match '57 feat
January 3, 2008 Source: Gannett News Service - " A lot of things have changed in the 50 years since Dick Schafrath won a national championship with the Ohio State Buckeyes ...Ohio State's run to that national championship that season didn't exactly follow a Hollywood script, which makes the 1957 Buckeyes and the 2007 Buckeyes kindred spirits. Hayes' Buckeyes rebounded after losing their first home game to two-touchdown underdog Texas Christian. Jim Tressel's Buckeyes rebounded into the Jan. 7 BCS title game against LSU after losing their last home game to two-touchdown underdog Illinois. 'Isn't that something?' said Schafrath, a starting tackle for that '57 team. 'Fifty years exactly. We had one loss and won a national championship and now they have a chance to win it with one loss. It's almost ironical.'..."
Tressel, Ohio State made for each other
January 3, 2008 Source: ESPN.com - Ivan Maisel writes: "They have been seven years of feast, and no famine is in sight. In seven years, Jim Tressel has transformed from being merely the coach of Ohio State football to being the face of Ohio State football. There is a difference. John Cooper, his predecessor, won a lot but never quite enough. Before Cooper, Earle Bruce never escaped the shadow of Woody Hayes. Tressel has brought the Buckeyes to their second consecutive BCS Championship Game and third during his tenure. But an Ohio State victory won't place Tressel's face on the Mount Rushmore of Columbus. His sweater-vest got chiseled up there some time ago..."
 | At 28, Pretorius finally OSU kicker
January 3, 2008 Source: Dayton Daily News - "Most Ohio State's football players are recruited. A few transfer in, and a few others are asked to walk-on. And then there is Ryan Pretorius. He snuck into the Woody Hayes Center and nosed around the Buckeyes' practice facility until he finally bumped into Jim Tressel. 'I introduced myself and said, 'I want to kick here,' ' Pretorius remembered. The Bucks' head football coach sized up the 5-foot-9 interloper, picked up his distinct South African accent and, according to Pretorius, asked, 'Oh yeah, so what do you know about football.' Not missing a beat, Pretorius answered: 'Nothing, absolutely nothing.' And so began the most unlikely, far-fetched, fairy tale story connected to Monday night's BCS National Championship Game between Ohio State and Louisiana State in New Orleans..." |
Public officials get invites to BCS game
January 3, 2008 Source: Dayton Daily News - "It may be the toughest ticket in the country, but there'll be seats in the Louisiana Superdome for Monday's BCS championship game for Ohio lawmakers and other public officials..."
OSU gets it done with fewer 5-star recruits
January 2, 2008 Source: Dayton Daily News - "Developing lesser-known players who have the right attitude — like Laurinaitis and Jenkins — works, too. Ohio State hasn't been putting together banner recruiting classes year after year, at least not compared to the likes of Notre Dame and Southern Cal. But at least one recruiting analyst believes he knows the reason the Buckeyes still have managed to win 30 of their last 32 games and make consecutive appearances in the national title game. They may not always land five-star recruits, but Duane Long of Bucknuts.com says, 'I think they're getting five-star human beings.' Long points to all the players who emerged from the 2005 recruiting class, which wasn't even ranked in the top 10 nationally..."
Buckeyes' 2005 recruits exceeded expectations
Many key contributors to championship run arrived on campus with little fanfare.
Don't count on Gee, Tressel to favor dumping bowls for playoffs
January 2, 2008 Source: Associated Press - "Jim Tressel padded his resume thanks to college playoffs. Once a fervent supporter of the postseason format, now he's changed camps. As for his boss, Ohio State President Gordon Gee, don't even mention revising the current system to him. You do, and the guy in the bow tie gets downright graphic...'They'll have to wrench a playoff system out of my cold, dead hands.'...'A playoff system is proposed a lot. It's been talked about a million times. What I would say about it is you've got a lot of hurdles,' said Tressel, who won four Division I-AA playoff titles while at Youngstown State. 'What are you going to do with the dates because people like the bowls around the holidays? I think most importantly you have student-athlete issues.'..."
Ohio State Buckeyes football players likely to get caught if they use drugs
January 2, 2008 Source: Cleveland Plain Dealer - "Ohio State football players figure that if they use drugs, either recreationally or to enhance their performance on the field, they're going to get caught...Ohio State, the Big Ten and the NCAA all administer various degrees of year-round testing, with the school providing one of the country's most comprehensive testing programs, according to OSU Athletic Director Gene Smith. While the NCAA's focus is steroids and the Big Ten tests only for performance-enhancers, Smith said Ohio State's priority is curbing marijuana use..."
OSU bowl travel costs about $2 million
January 1, 2008 Source: Dayton Daily News - "...Ohio State, like most of the 64 bowl participants this season, will take a massive force to New Orleans for its appearance in the national title game against LSU. Such an undertaking needs massive organization so that every player, every coach's wife and every clarinet player has a ticket, a room and a credential. All told, bowl planning, housing and feeding costs about $70 million each year, almost all of it taken from the participation payout. While the Big Ten Conference will receive $17 million for Ohio State's appearance in the title game, it will funnel about $2 million back to the school to make the Superdome and the Big Easy as Buckeye-friendly and comfortable as possible..."
OSU delays leaving for title game
Columbus, listen and then repeat
January 1, 2008 Source: The Morning Journal - "THE year started with 41-14 and ended in celebration, with Oklahoma and Pitt joining forces to send the Buckeyes back to another national championship game. As we head into 2008, a few resolutions for those involved with THE Ohio State University. Repeat after me..."
Stricter scholarship rules put Big Ten athletics at a disadvantage to SEC
January 1, 2008 Source: Cleveland Plain Dealer - "When former LSU coach Gerry DiNardo arrived at Indiana in 2002, he went to work bringing a piece of the Southeastern Conference to Big Ten recruiting. He successfully pushed for a rule change that introduced the concept of "oversigning" to his new conference, but on a limited basis. Five years later, there's still a difference in how the Big Ten and other conferences, like the SEC, put their recruiting classes together. 'Is it a competitive disadvantage for the Big Ten? The short answer is yes,' said DiNardo, now an analyst for the Big Ten Network...."
Buckeyes: a need for speed?
January 1, 2008 Source: Columbus Dispatch - "...If there's one subject sure to boil the Buckeyes' blood, it's speed. It goes hand in hand with the SEC's supposed superiority over the Big Ten, even though the conferences have split their meetings in bowl games the past decade. The stereotype is that Southern teams are more athletic, with wide-open offenses, and Northern teams are plodding and run-oriented..."
 | The Buckeye Cruise To Benefit Spielman Fund
The Buckeye Cruise For Cancer, set for Feb. 8-11, 2008, will benefit the Stefanie Spielman Fund for Breast Cancer Research at OSU’s James Cancer Hospital and Solove Research Institute. Mingle and have fun with Buckeye greats on the Buckeye Cruise for Cancer. All proceeds go to help the Stefanie Spielman Fund in their quest to raise $1 million. Reserve your spot now for this once in a life time vacation. |
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