Please let this not be true.

As with all information of this nature, we offer you grains of salt. That being said, Keith is pretty reliable.

Update: Confirmed. So this means:

His absence means redshirt freshman Chimdi Chekwa likely will start with Malcolm Jenkins at the corners. In the nickel defense, safety Jamario O’Neal now likely will get the nod.

Previously, Chekwa has played corner in nickel and Jenkins has shifted to safety. Andre Amos, Nick Patterson and Aaron Gant also could see more playing time.

I’m not freaking out about this, as Chekwa is serviceable and O’Neal was supposed to be all-world, but it still stings.

Update #2: Not so fast, my nervous friends.

It’s not uncommon to see former Buckeyes tackle former Buckeyes. It is, however, uncommon to see a former offensive superstar take down a former defensive heavy-hitter.

(For those of you who are NFL-challenged [who could blame you?] that’s Ted Ginn Jr. taking down Donte Whitner)

… is BACK! This time, with 200% more ACTION! I’m sure everyone remembers this sequence of occurences:

For you forum go’ers (we salute you) here’s a handy avatar version for your next forum post:

(Please right-click, “Save Picture As” this, don’t hot-link it. It’d be greatly appreciated)

We’ve got some great stuff coming up as we hunker down for the winter, waiting patiently for January 7th. There will even be a homework assignment! Stay Tuned!

Hey everyone, we’re alive and doing well. Sorry about the lack of content recently but with the holiday weekend, the end of the regular season for Ohio State and my surgery, we’ve been otherwise occupied. But there is still a lot of football left to be played this weekend that directly effects our Ohio State Buckeyes, so what better topic for an open thread than: Possibilities.

OSU’s Bowl opponent is still up in the air, but the choices are relatively slim. So today’s question is: Who would you rather Ohio State played — West Viriginia in the National Championship game or USC in the Rose Bowl?

To seed the discussion, there’s a quote from former el Kaiser man-crush Kirk Herbstreit, wherein he says:

“In my opinion, Ohio State could do more about [improving] the image people have of its program by playing a talented USC team that right now is as hot as any in the country … I promise you, if Ohio State goes into the Rose Bowl, everyone is going to be saying, ‘USC is going to kill Ohio State.’

… Ohio State will gain more respect if it plays USC in the Rose Bowl and wins that game, than if it goes and beats West Virginia and wins the national title. From an image standpoint, Ohio State would score more points going to the Rose Bowl than by going to the national championship game. If you can believe that, that’s the truth. ”

(h/t SMQ)

Herbie has lots of ulterior motives for saying this (ESPN/ABC will broadcast the Rose Bowl, his comments last year about “setting the Big Ten back ten years”, etc) but it brings up a point: Who is OSU better off playing? You can view the question from many different angles. You could look at it from a national reputation perspective. You can argue the merits of each opponent. What about the scary possibility that Ohio State may actually lose the game. Does that change how you feel about it?

I look at it from the perspective of opponents. I’d rather play a confident, fast (yeah, I said fast) West Viriginia team than a healthy, scary good USC. My reasoning is that while they are an athletic and fast team, West Virginia is soft. (Except for that Schmitt guy! He’s broken like twenty face masks! His team scores an extra point for every face mask the man child breaks! [Man, I would love to see Gholston punk that puke in the backfield]) Sure, they’ve got more SEC-speed than most SEC teams, but they lack a true killer instinct. My Exhibit A is West Virginia’s last year loss to Louisville. Watching that game, it really seemed like Steve Slaton, playing through an injury, was completely out of it. I remember more than once the camera panning to Slaton on the sideline during the third quarter, looking dejected and lost. He had been punched in the gut and it really looked like he had given up. Then Exhibit B would be Beanie’s entire season — playing with a bum wheel and a hobbled wrist while he bulldozed a Wolverine defense and carried Ohio State to victory. Boys to men.

I think Ohio State’s defense could come flying out of the gate, pummel White and Slaton a few times and really take the wind out of their sails. I know the Moutaineers are a different team this year, but I have to believe the killer instinct still eludes them.

What say you? What match up do you like? Which outcome is more appealing? Inquiring minds want to know!

It’s game time!!!

We’re a little late getting today’s open thread out, but with a game of this magnitude, the Open Thread has to be carefully crafted.

Here we sit, less than 21 hours to go until game time. Even without the allure of a #1 vs. #2, the Ohio State/Michigan game still excites people from around the country. All eyes will be on Ann Arbor. Heck, there will even be SEC fans in the stands. Michael Henne Long the III will be there, in search of that oh-so-elusive victory over the pesky Buckeyes. Will they get it? Then, there’s the issue of Carr’s retirement. Will we finally put a date on the tombstone as well?

Time will tell, but all signs point to Yes.

Buckeyes look statistically superior. But that’s why you play the game. Let’s look at what people are saying.

Keith has the game plan up at Buckeye Commentary. It’s beautiful in its simplicity:

• Remember our Identity.
• Beanie’s Health.
• Playaction and Boots.
• Where’s 86?

Buckeye Planet has their excellent, in-depth look at the game along with all the matchups. One matchup in particular stood out to me. Look at Beanie and Hart’s lines:

Hart: 215/1188 yards, 12 TDs, 5.5 YPC; 7 rec/43 yards, 0 TDs, 6.1 YPR
Beanie: 215/1241 yards, 12 TDs, 5.8 YPC; 5 rec/21 yards, 0 TDs, 4.2 YPR

Very interesting. While comparing Hart to Beanie isn’t exactly apples-to-apples, it’s very close. Like Granny Smith-to-Fuji. Both played with nagging injuries. Both ran against Big Ten defenses. If you are a Michigan fan, how would you feel if Mike Hart was running the ball against your defense? Probably not very good, right? You better start swigging the Pepto now.

Some more blog verbiage: 11 Warriors. The M Zone wants to know its foe. The unrelenting Sunday Morning Quarterback has a great look at the game. From said look:

One of the questions on Wednesday night’s discussion with Football Outsiders was “Who does Michigan need more against Ohio State: Chad Henne or Mike Hart?” For most of their careers – the first 48 games, to be precise – I would have said Hart, without question. But the answer now is that the Wolverines clearly need both of them. Michigan has beaten good teams this year without Henne (Penn State) and without Hart (Illinois), but last week at Wisconsin was the first time since they stepped on campus Michigan has played with Henne and Hart both on the sideline. And it was, in all phases, a disaster. If Hart is the motor, the juice that makes the offensive pistons go, we saw in Madison that Henne is the brain, and an offense with Ryan Mallett at the helm right now is one running around with its head cut off. Henne has to play for Michigan to not lose – chances of overcoming Ohio State’s defense if Mallett does anything approximating his erratic, mistake-assured horror show in the pocket last week are virtually nil – and Hart has to play for the Wolverines to win. This is, of course, just as it should be.

That’s some patented High quality Blog-2-oh©

And we would be remiss if we didn’t take some time peruse what Sir Brian MGoBlog is thinking about. More of that high quality stuff.

Finally, we will just ask you to predict the score and pray to whatever God you pray to that opher-threes go opher-four. Please keep environmental conditions in mind.

Me? I say OSU 34-23.

Go Bucks!

sportsMonkey says: OSU 31-20.