Buckeye Fever is sweeping the nation once again. Are you ready?

In a crazy season, why not the Buckeyes?

“Maybe, maybe not. But we do know this after six games: The Buckeyes are an efficient blend of passing and running wrapped in a two-ply steel coating of defense that is more than capable of winning big.”

Ohio State has championship look; opponent says defense has ‘no weakness'”

“Ohio State won the BCS title in 2002. That Buckeyes team relied on a dominating defense and an opportunistic offense. The 2007 version has a defense that might be better than the ‘02 crew.”

Rebuilding? Not these Buckeyes

“The biggest obstacle to Ohio State making its third BCS title game appearance in six seasons isn’t necessarily the schedule — Kent State, Michigan State, Wisconsin and Illinois are all in Columbus, while OSU is on the road against enigmatic Penn State and Michigan — but perception.”

Opportunity knocks

“Still coach Jim Tressel isn’t ready to crown this his best OSU defense.

‘They are a good defense,’ he said. ‘They’ve got to make sure they keep getting better.’

A frightening thought.”

LSU is No. 1, but who’s the second-best team?

“Meanwhile, Ohio State has the team and the pedigree. The Buckeyes just keep motoring along, knocking off would-be threats like Purdue. They’re a lot better than the roadblocks they have coming up – Michigan State, Penn State, Wisconsin, Illinois and Michigan – yet all of those teams have enough national credibility so that the Buckeyes will impress the pollsters after they roll over them.”

At Least They’re Not Going To Play Florida

“Sorry everyone, but Ohio State might just end up back in the national championship game with a better team, and you’re not going to see it coming.”

So here we are, looking at week seven, a weak Kent State ahead of us and people around the country proclaiming the Sugar Bowl matchup of LSU and Ohio State. Are you buying it? Does it make you nervous? Do you have nightmares of that insane SEC speed haunting you still?

The link round-up is tastier when it simmers an extra day. The links for your perusal:

First off, if you’re a Buckeye fan outside of the Midwest and you barely get to see Ohio State games, this week will be a treat, as pretty much the whole country will be watching OSU/Purdue Saturday evening. This is good. All eyes (that aren’t on LSU/Florida) will be on the Buckeyes, giving them a chance to show the country that the Big Ten is still an elite conference. It is!

We all expected that Tressel-ball would be making a return to the ‘Shoe, what with an untested QB and young offense, but that really hasn’t been the case. This offense has scored 10 of the last 12 times in less than two minutes. That’s called taking care of business.

Yes, it’s very fun and exciting to dog the Big Ten and the hard-headed reliance on 3-yards and yadda yadda, but some people would say that’s crazy talk. From the article:

Surely you do it. SEC snobs chortle that fat slobs in leather helmets and Army boots play Big Ten football — in shades of flickering black and white, of course.

Sunday Morning QB looks at the OSU/Purdue matchup. He points out a fact that should be disheartening to Purdue fans everywhere:

Purdue still hasn’t beaten a team that finished with a winning record since it opened against Akron (7-6 at year’s end) in 2005.

Have you got your App State gear? People are trying to strike while the iron is hot: Men of the Black and Gold?

Some non-OSU items

The Indians blew up the Yankees in grand fashion Thursday night, taking a 1-0 lead in the ALDS, knocking the crap out of the ball, hitting four taters and getting bunches of runs with two outs. Kenny Lofton stepped into a ten-year time warp and played lights out. This bodes very, very well. Carmona faces the Yankees next. Let’s go Tribe!

This probably deserved its own post, but the thought of Braylon Edwards doing the O-H chant is surely a sign of the apocalypse. Are there any pictures of this? I would pay thousands of Buckeye Bucks for a picture. If Kellen Winslow Jr. joined him, my head would explode.

Better late than never, right? Here are a few links from the past week.

Todd Boeckman leads the Big Ten in Passing Efficiency and is 10th in the nation. Things are going according to plan.

Injury Report: Beanie Wells doesn’t have a “tender ankle” and if all goes well, Lawrence Wilson will be back for OSU’s BCS Bowl game. Or should he redshirt?

Ohio State is not overlooking Minnesota’s weak defense. They’re just planning on out-running it, out-muscling it and overloading it.

I mentioned the Nike contract last week, but The Other Paper actually has a much deeper look at the contract. Interesting tidbits about Michigan’s contract with Adidas, too.

Ghosts of Wayne Fontes is wondering why people are sleeping on the Buckeyes. I think that will be the prevailing mindset for the next month or so. Eventually we’ll have something more concrete than the Washington win.

Love him or hate him, it’s hard to argue with Mike Hart’s body of work. We’re actually warming up to the dude here at the MotSaG HQ. In fact, we’re already feeling bad about the fact he’s going to be 0-4 against OSU. That’s no way to end a career. Regardless, this piece by Brian at MGoBlog is great blogging.

A Michigan fan (and Pastor) put his “allegiance” up for eBay, donating the proceeds to his church. The winner? Do I even need to tell you? (Here’s the eBay auction)

Yes, I know it’s a late round-up this week, but we’re entertaining family at the Kaiser household this weekend (taking the bro-in-law to his first game at the Horseshoe on Saturday) so I fell behind in my blogging duties. Apologies all around.

First link we have is from the Dispatch, about Little Animal’s family. More specifically, his mother. Even more specifically, how much his mother thinks he stinks. She wasn’t happy with the interception. She wanted a touchdown. Talk about a demanding mother! (James’ mom, Julie, also lifted weights competitively, by the by.) What is it with linebackers and their moms? I’ll refer you to this ESPN article written about A.J. Hawk’s blood-thirsty mother, Judy:

Judy’s general instructions: Hit ’em all. Hit ’em hard. Violently hard if need be. And be sure to get in a shot on the quarterback.

And

“I love to see A.J. hit,” Judy Hawk confirms. “We thrive on A.J. hitting people.”

Sheesh!

This does finally explain why I never got a chance to play college football — my mom. Love her to death, but she never critiqued my performances. In fact, she never saw any of them. Oh sure, she was at all my games, but she had her eyes closed during every play! My long-snapping duties were extra hard on her nerves. So she’d keep her eyes shut until she heard the whistle blow. No wonder the only school that showed any interest was Hiram College! If only my mother was watching!

(Come to think of it, my eyes were closed during most plays I was in on.)

Moving on…

What we’ve learned as we head into conference play.

Ohio State football trainers beware — too many wrong tape jobs and you could cost the athletic department nearly $12,000 per messed up football cleat.

Couldn’t someone just Sharpie a Swoosh over the tape job? Get someone from the art department. They aren’t doing anything else on Saturday morning.

When is enough enough? We could always ask Rice University.

While not directly related to this year’s squad, Buckeye Legends has a good post about the good academic performance of the 2006 squad. (BTW — if you’re haven’t already, make sure you’ve subscribed to Buckeye Legends, a blog written by former Buckeyes.)

Your moment of Zen:

I’d like to remind our most excellent readers, if you come across a story, a tidbit of information, something you think other Buckeye fans would love to know about, don’t hesitate to email us at motsag-at-gmail-dot-com or use our Contact form to let us know. We love to hear from our readers!

Here are some links and other items of interest:

A couple milestones: Tressel will be going for his 200th career win this Saturday at Washington, while OSU has scored a TD in 127 straight games.

Silver Bullets reborn: Gholston = Vrabel (I’d say Gholston = Spellman, but whatever. Different eras I guess), Laurinaitis = Katzenmoyer (In 33’s dreams) and Jenkins = Springs (Possibly).

“… a defensive tackle in a defensive end’s body.”

Yes, Virginia, there is a Ray Small.

Filling the shoes of a Heisman. Sure, this is unfair to compare Boeckman to Troy, but the torch has been passed and Todd has some big cleats to fill — the cleats of the Ohio State Buckeyes Quarterback.

Former OSU Linebacker (and my namesake) Matt Wilhelm called former Florida Gator (Grrrr!) Rex Grossman a mental midget, which of course is an insult to mental little people around the world.

Not OSU related, but still fun: Hart’s guarantee, U-M, Notre Dame are jokes.

This has nothing to do with football, but Greg Oden is having exploratory surgery done. Yikes.

Thanks to MotSaG’er Zach for the link to this interview of Eddie George.

Eddie just exudes class. When I was a student at tOSU, I was at the Mickey-Dees on High Street when he walked in with one of his little boys (this was 7 or 8 years ago, when he was at the top of his game) and the restaurant was rather empty. While some of the workers asked for autographs, I decided not to bother him, which I sort of regret now. He was very accommodating and fulfilled all the requests. I was in awe and I couldn’t stop staring. His arms and legs looked like they were chiseled out of a slab of granite. I stood in amazement of that physique (is there something wrong with me?!) but the one thing that stuck with me was how little his head was. I don’t know why. After reading that article, though, I can say he really does have a little head. Figuratively and literally.

We love our Eddie! (Best thing about the article? Eddie = A Ninja Turtle.)

No surprise here, but Appalachian State gear is rather popular around Central Ohio.

Brandon Saine has a bright future as a Buckeye. Interesting side note: I learned from the article that I have something in common with Saine: “He is the same guy he was last week, and that’s one of the neat things about him.” Awesome! I’m the same guy I was last week, too! I never really thought it was one of the neat things about me, but hey, I’ll take what I can get.

Look for Beanie to bounce back big-time. 175 yards+. You heard it here first.

Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise — Tressel was rooting for Michigan on that fateful Saturday.

We’ll be seeing more of this in a couple days.