Marshall
7th Conference USA5-7
Ohio State
3rd Big Ten11-1
Marshall @ Ohio State preview
Ohio Stadium
If you think there’s no chance Ohio State could be looking past Marshall to next week’s game against No. 13 Miami, just rewind back to 2009.
Ohio State was ranked No. 6 entering its season-opener against Navy with USC on the schedule the following week. The result was a tight 31-27 win over the Midshipmen and the Buckeyes followed that up with an 18-15 loss to USC in Ohio Stadium. That loss dealt them a severe blow to their aspirations of playing for a national championship.
The second-ranked Buckeyes (11-2 in 2009) cannot afford a similar performance when they open against Marshall in a rare Thursday night matchup in Columbus.
With high expectations for another run at a national championship and talented Miami coming to town on Sept. 11, you can’t help but wonder about the Buckeyes’ focus for the Thundering Herd.
Nobody in Columbus will admit to taking Marshall lightly. Then again, it wasn’t that long ago when OSU needed Mike Nugent’s last-second field goal to beat Marshall 24-21 early in the 2004 season.
But with 26 players with starting experience back this year – 19 of 22 starters are juniors or seniors -- the Buckeyes look as deep and talented as they’ve been in a long time. And with their decisive 26-17 win over Oregon in the Rose Bowl still a fresh memory, they have the look of a championship team.
Junior quarterback Terrelle Pryor, who is 19-3 as a starter, had a great offseason. Head coach Jim Tressell says Pryor has made significant progress in learning the position and casting off the inconsistent play that plagued his first two seasons. Based on that and his MVP performance in the Rose Bowl, many have Pryor penciled in as a Heisman Trophy candidate. He passed for 2,087 yards and 18 TDs in 2009, and also had a team-high 779 rushing yards.
The Buckeyes are loaded at the skill positions with running back Brandon Saine (739 rushing yards) and their two leading receivers DeVier Posey and Dane Sanzenbacher back.
Six full-time starters are back on defense, including defensive end Cameron Heyward, the team’s leading sacker. The son of former NFL fullback Craig “Ironhead” Heyward, Cameron Heyward could be a top-10 pick in the 2011 NFL Draft. Senior linebackers Brian Rolle and Ross Homan had more than 200 tackles between them last year.
A bit of a fly in the ointment for the Buckeyes is the uncertainty about what Marshall will bring to the field Thursday (7:30 p.m.; Big Ten Network). Doc Holliday makes his head-coaching debut, and Tressell said in his weekly press conference that it was difficult to pin down what to expect from a program with new coaches and schemes.
Linebacker Mario Harvey and tight end Lee Smith are preseason all-Conference USA picks, but the Thundering Herd (7-6 last year) will need more than them to knock off the Buckeyes.
Quarterback Brian Anderson is back, but he had a fight to earn the starting job and will have to be more consistent for Marshall to be successful. He passed for 2,646 yards with 14 touchdowns and 13 interceptions in 2009. The defense has talent in the front seven, but the secondary is suspect.
Ohio State was ranked No. 6 entering its season-opener against Navy with USC on the schedule the following week. The result was a tight 31-27 win over the Midshipmen and the Buckeyes followed that up with an 18-15 loss to USC in Ohio Stadium. That loss dealt them a severe blow to their aspirations of playing for a national championship.
The second-ranked Buckeyes (11-2 in 2009) cannot afford a similar performance when they open against Marshall in a rare Thursday night matchup in Columbus.
With high expectations for another run at a national championship and talented Miami coming to town on Sept. 11, you can’t help but wonder about the Buckeyes’ focus for the Thundering Herd.
Nobody in Columbus will admit to taking Marshall lightly. Then again, it wasn’t that long ago when OSU needed Mike Nugent’s last-second field goal to beat Marshall 24-21 early in the 2004 season.
But with 26 players with starting experience back this year – 19 of 22 starters are juniors or seniors -- the Buckeyes look as deep and talented as they’ve been in a long time. And with their decisive 26-17 win over Oregon in the Rose Bowl still a fresh memory, they have the look of a championship team.
Junior quarterback Terrelle Pryor, who is 19-3 as a starter, had a great offseason. Head coach Jim Tressell says Pryor has made significant progress in learning the position and casting off the inconsistent play that plagued his first two seasons. Based on that and his MVP performance in the Rose Bowl, many have Pryor penciled in as a Heisman Trophy candidate. He passed for 2,087 yards and 18 TDs in 2009, and also had a team-high 779 rushing yards.
The Buckeyes are loaded at the skill positions with running back Brandon Saine (739 rushing yards) and their two leading receivers DeVier Posey and Dane Sanzenbacher back.
Six full-time starters are back on defense, including defensive end Cameron Heyward, the team’s leading sacker. The son of former NFL fullback Craig “Ironhead” Heyward, Cameron Heyward could be a top-10 pick in the 2011 NFL Draft. Senior linebackers Brian Rolle and Ross Homan had more than 200 tackles between them last year.
A bit of a fly in the ointment for the Buckeyes is the uncertainty about what Marshall will bring to the field Thursday (7:30 p.m.; Big Ten Network). Doc Holliday makes his head-coaching debut, and Tressell said in his weekly press conference that it was difficult to pin down what to expect from a program with new coaches and schemes.
Linebacker Mario Harvey and tight end Lee Smith are preseason all-Conference USA picks, but the Thundering Herd (7-6 last year) will need more than them to knock off the Buckeyes.
Quarterback Brian Anderson is back, but he had a fight to earn the starting job and will have to be more consistent for Marshall to be successful. He passed for 2,646 yards with 14 touchdowns and 13 interceptions in 2009. The defense has talent in the front seven, but the secondary is suspect.