Don’t gloat too much, because if we want your coach in four months, we’ll take him. And there’s nothing you can do about it.

Consider him on loan to you while we figure out what to do with Fickell and Meyer.

Buckeye fans, stay tuned. The game recap will be posted soon – expect plenty of anti-Bollman sentiment.

Dantonio returns home. This time, however, he will not be facing his mentor across the sidelines, but will be facing his mentee. The roles have been reversed. Fickell’s foundations as a defensive mind were set at Dantonio’s chalkboard, and the two remain close acquaintances to this day.

The Bad News
With due respect to Al Golden, this will be Fickell’s first true coaching test. Dantonio has established a reputation as one of the more saavy coaches in the B1G, taking calculated risks at times and playing conservative at others. Also, he’s been able to extract more productivity out of his players than their talent level would seem to allow.

The Spartans lead the nation in total defense (172.3 ypg) and pass defense (101 ypg) and have an offense with veteran skill players that has looked dangerous at times. They are led by fifth-year senior quarterback Kirk Cousins, who is way better than OSU’s fifth-year senior quarterback, who we affectionately call “B-Deck Bauserman.”

The Spartans have destroyed the cupcakes on their schedule, beating Youngstown State, Florida Atlantic and Central Michigan by a combined score of 117-13. They lost their only game to a decent opponent when Notre Dame easily brushed them aside 31-13.

The question is: which MSU team will show up on Saturday? The one that rushed for 197 yards against Central Michigan; or the one that only managed 29 yards against Notre Dame?

The Good News
While Michigan State won a share of the B1G championship last season, it wasn’t without drama. They needed a fake field goal in OT to beat ND, and needed miracle 4th quarter comebacks to beat Purdue and Northwestern. Remove those three breaks, and MSU would be viewed as a ‘fair-to-middlin’ team at best.

Dantonio hasn’t done that well on the road, either, going 10-10 overall (and 1-6 against ranked opponents).

At the Big Ten preseason media day, Dantonio said, “Every time we’ve lost a game, when I talk about lost it decisively, which has not been very often, it’s because we’ve not won the game up front.” With that in mind, OSU seems to hold a decisive advantage in the trenches against MSU. The Buckeyes will likely continue to rely on the power-I/spread hybrid being developed for Braxton Miller.

The best benefit of this approach is that OSU’s best and most reliable player, Zach Boren, will continue to see significant time. With OSU’s larger and more athletic offensive line, and “I’m Zach Effin Boren’s” continued ownage of all things linebacker, the advantage in the trenches and rushing game seems to favor OSU.

Boren leading Braxton… woe unto any defender who sees this approaching.
Image via The-Ozone.

Will this strategy allow Braxton some play-action magic to convert some 3rd downs via the pass? Time will tell.

The Unknown
Ultimately, because neither team is particularly dominant this year against good competition, the game will likely hinge on whichever team capitalizes on the other’s mistakes. In that vein, MSU has had special teams difficulties this season. The Spartans gave up an 89 yard kickoff return against ND. They’ve also had major problems with penalties, committing 27 penalties (to OSU’s 16). Jordan Hall has been getting closer to the end zone each week… will this be the week he punches a kickoff or punt return in?

OSU will be without Jaamal Berry, a potent weapon on offense and special teams. However, if there’s one position OSU could suffer a loss of depth in and it have negligible impact, it would be at RB. Expect no drop off in rushing with Hall, Hyde, and Miller in the backfield.

Finally, the weather may play an unforeseen role. The conditions are expected to be windy and gusty, which could affect the kicking game in particular. Michigan State edges OSU out slightly in FG percentage on the year (but only slightly).

What to think
Doom is nigh if…

• OSU is forced into repeated 3rd-and-longs
• The game becomes a FG-fest
• Fickell gets his glass-eyed Adam Sandler face going

Rapture is around the corner if…

• Hall gets a special teams score
• The defense gets a defensive score
• Any OSU RB goes over 100 yards

Predictions?
Predictions:

Ohio State 24 (with 1 TD via defense or special teams)
Michigan State 17

So I really don’t like writing articles without all the known info but this strange case deserves a write up of some sort.

Wednesday morning at Enarson Hall on the Ohio State campus a “physical confrontation” between two people was reported to campus police. When campus police arrived they found an incoherent and mentally unstable Jamaal Berry who was reportedly involved in a wrestling match with an as of yet to the public unknown other person. Berry reportedly couldn’t tell police his name or location. A OSU professor who witnessed the situation said that Berry was “clearly out of sorts and… quite disconnected from his surroundings,”. Jamaal Berry voluntarily admitted himself to the hospital to be subjected to some tests and to be monitored.

As of Friday morning Berry has been released and no criminal charges have been filed as of yet. His status for this weekends game against Michigan State is completely up in the air let alone his career at OSU. We at MOTSAG wish nothing but a healthy recovery for Berry and hope whatever his issue is/was is solved soon and he can have a productive career and life.

– Coach Fickell is very happy with the special teams play so far and says it is a real strength of this team.

– He feels Braxton did a great job in his first start and he protected the ball well. He has progressed nicely in practice this week as well.

– Doesn’t look like either Philly Brown or Nate Williams will play this week.

– Fickell said Christian Bryant brings a certain confidence and IT factor they need at the safety position.

– Jordan Whiting is out for this weeks game with an undisclosed injury.

– Ryan Shazier is part of the 4-man rotation at LB and will get increased playing time as the season goes on.

– Kenny Guiton may get some time on special teams on the kick off coverage and return teams.

As always, stats are grabbed from cfbstats.com.

Raise your hand if, after the first series of the Braxton Miller era, you had doubts.

Even little ones, back there in the dark recesses of your Buckeye consumed mind. I did.

Then, a shanked punt, a nice little eight-yard run for Jordan Hall and Braxton was off an running. Two running plays for 16 yards by Miller and just like that, the Braxton Miller era at Ohio State was officially underway.

He didn’t look back after that.

While the stat line isn’t “impressive” (5-13, 83 yds, 2 TDs; 17 rushes, 83 yds), the product on the field was. For one game at least, he lived up to the hype he came to Ohio State with. He was faster than I remember and while the moves and jukes might not make you forget about Terrelle Pryor, it was certainly a sufficient substitute.

And not to get ahead of myself, but on those sprint roll-out passes (especially the 32 yard touchdown pass to Devin Smith), I dare say he looked Troy Smith-esque. Laying off the hyperbole, let’s just agree to say the Miller looks promising and should have a long illustrious career at Ohio State. That should involve multiple Heisman Trophies.

(Oops, there’s that hyperbole again)

The defense played as well as could be expected. They held Colorado’s offense well under their average offensive output and shut down their playmakers, especially Paul Richardson. A few performances stood out: I thought the insertion of Christian Bryant at Safety paid immediate dividends. He was involved in numerous plays and seemed to be around every big stop.

Tyler Moeller aslo had his best game, contributing to the aforementioned shut-down of Paul Richardson.

Ryan Shazier hasn’t worked his way into the starting rotation yet, but I’d be really surprised if he isn’t there by the end of the season. He’s making his presence known on special teams and he’s making the most of his playing time.

The Buckeye Battlestation is almost fully operational. One more game before the suspended players are able to join their teammates on the field. While their impact on the game may not be immediate, their senior leadership will be. And as the season goes on, the debacle against Miami game gets smaller and smaller in the rearview mirror.

We haven’t had one of these in a long while. We’ll still have the Live Game Chat for the Colorado game, but that isn’t for a few hours. There’s a full slate of games all day, so why not chat while the day goes by?

I’ll be in and out during the noon block of games but we’ll be around for Colorado and thereafter.

To get the conversation starter, here’s a picture of Mark May sportsMonkey shared on Google+ earlier: