A quick look at Ohio State’s schedule:

Clearly, the Buckeyes have the most difficult out-of-conference matchup - at Southern Cal on September 13. Outside of that game the clash against Troy proves to be the Buckeyes other challenging out-of conference opponent.

The Southern Cal game proves to be interesting an accompanies many story lines. Pete Carroll versus Jim Tressel - two of the greatest coaches of this generation who bring together two of the greatest dynasties of this era, two vaunted defense led by All-American linebackers, Carson Palmer’s ill-willed words against the Buckeyes, and more!

I think the key to who breaks this game open is whose offense gets the first break; currently that nod goes to the Buckeyes. Outside of Joe McKnight there is not much experience on the offensive side of the ball for the Trojans; however, this USC under Pete Carroll and they seemingly always deploy a very talented offense.  With that said I think one has to look inside the trenches at the lines.  Ohio State will deploy a very talented offensive line against a USC line that proved to be feisty last season only giving up 84 yards per game on the ground while also  getting to the quarterback 45 times. However, that line replaces two starters who went in the first round of the NFL draft and for that reason I think the nod goes to the Buckeyes.

I fully expect of tough hard fought game against USC but I cannot see the vaunted Buckeye defense led by potential All-Americans James Laurinatis and Malcolm Jenkins yielding too much against an offense that returns only one starter on the line and will breaking in a quarterback who proved to be inconsistent last year.

Expect the Buckeyes to enter Big Ten play undefeated at 4-0. That’s where things get dicey.

The schedule makers were not very kind to Ohio State. While the Buckeyes open the Big Ten season against a rising Minnesota squad from there they face Wisconsin, in Madison, at night and then in succession - Purdue, at Michigan State, and back home for a prime time contest with Penn State. Thankfully the Gods of scheduling gave the Buckeyes a week off between the Penn State tilt and the game at Northwestern.

Two games out of this stretch scare me more than any - the two night time contests. The last time the Buckeyes went to Wisconsin at night they walked away with a loss and everyone knows that the best thing to go with a Wisconsin sausage is some of that delicious Milwaukee’s Best. Camp Randall will be rowdy and if the Badgers new quarterback Allen Everidge can come into his own this could spell trouble for all of the Big Ten. Wisconsin yields a formidable offensive line and one of the studliest running backs around in Pajamas (PJ) Hill.

Penn State could surprise people around the country this year. While everyone expects Daryll Clark to be at the helm full time I wonder if JoePa will deploy the antithesis to the Boeckman-Pryor combo and spell the speedy shifty Clark with Devlin. I know it sounds weird but it gives the defenses more to prepare for and more film to watch. We will see. The loss of Sean Lee on defense will be tough to overcome but Penn State likely possesses one of the toughest defensive lines in the Big Ten. Penn State always plays the Buckeyes tough and what better way to legitimize yourself than a big victory over the Buckeyes, in prime time, at the ‘Shoe.

Of course Illinois, and the Battle for Illibuck, will be another great challenge the game that everyone is looking forward to is the game against Michigan and it’s first year coach Rich Rodriguez. The past three Michigan first year coaches have been victorious against the Buckeyes and Rodriguez would surely love to continue that streak. Many folks, naively or not, think that Roddy will try to run the ball 70% of the time still that is highly unlikely unless incoming frosh Justin Feagin is just stoopid good. Expect a balanced attack that spreads the ball around and searches for advantages against every defense. I’m not predicting a big win but I think the Buckeyes prevail this year.

My preseason prognostication puts the Buckeyes at 12-0 and returning to the BCS National Championship game. Expect heart attacks at USC, at Wisconsin, at home against Penn State, and with Michigan. However, expect a strong, experienced, determined, Buckeye squad to win an unprecedented third straight outright Big Ten title and to challenge for their first national title since 2002.

This entry was posted on Monday, July 28th, 2008 at 9:15 pm and is filed under Big Ten, Ohio State. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.