The Purdue Boilermakers welcome your Ohio State Buckeyes to Gatorade (or Kool-Aid, or whatever it’s called) Stadium this weekend. While this game isn’t the spotlight game of the week (a little showdown in the SEC is supposed to be pretty good, too) this game still promises to be fun. At least for the guys in the Scarlet and Gray.

They say you should know your foe. The Buckeyes know what they’re facing. Do you? Buckeye Planet, The O-Zone and 11 Warriors are here to drop some preview knowledge.

The sportsMonkey posted some numbers of common opponents between OSU and Purdue, so there’s a place to discuss that aspect of the game. Purdue doesn’t frighten me as much as Tiller’s mustache frightens dogs. They’ll gain some yards, but they’ll give up just as many, probably more. It’s a matter of taking care of the ball and keeping their offense off the field. That means a combination of ball control on offense and some lockdown defense for some three-and-outs. Plus, it wouldn’t hurt if Gholston and Heyward put a serious hurt on Painter.

What others are saying (this will be updated as more people post their picks):

Everyday Should Be Saturday:

Purdue is averaging 45 points per game, all the better to capture the faces of disillusioned home crowd when Ohio State methodically, mercilessly snuff the life out of Curtis Painter’s season.

Bemusement Park:

Purdue has been putting up arenaball numbers all season. They have yet to face a defense ranked in the top 100 nationally.

Ohio State is a top 2 defense.

Purdue, on the other hand, has the tenth-best defense . . . in the Big Ten. Crikey, they gave up 19 points to Notre Dame!

It wouldn’t be a MotSaG Open Thread without some discussion points. Here are a few to chew on:

• How many yards do you think Ohio State will give up to the high-flying Purdue Offense? 300? 400?
• Who has a bigger impact on the game: Ray Small or Brandon Saine (assuming he plays)?
• Does Ohio State gain more yards on the ground or through the air?
• Final Score?

el Kaiser
Yards OSU gives up: 340 yards, but almost all of it in passing yards
Saine or Small: Even if Saine plays, I’d still go with Small. I predict he breaks a big return for TD in the next couple of games, so now is as good as ever.
OSU Yards: I’m going with an even split — 220 on the ground, 220 through the air.
Final Score: OSU 37 – Purdue 10

Sylvester Yon-Rambo
Yards OSU gives up: 272 yards……we can shut down this offense easily if Gholston plays his game.
Saine or Small: Saine I am hoping it means we are playing our 3rd team RB…….which means we are blowing them out early.
OSU Yards: I say we have 320 yards in the air and 240 on the ground.
Final Score: OSU 38 – Purdue 6

sportsMonkey
Yards OSU gives up: 310, about 40 of it rushing
Saine or Small: Tressel said Saine would play “about 20 snaps,” so he’ll only get about 8-10 carries. Small is starting to hit his stride.
OSU Yards: Most on the ground, unless Tressel has to play catch-up.
Final Score: OSU 24 – Purdue 16

This one reminds me of one of those AT&T commercials.

“Vernon Gholston is the new QB Sacker”

Better late than never.

Boeckman and the Offense: 4 Sweatervests

Boeckman has finally proven that he can overthrow a receiver, which heretofore was unbelievable. Seeing the ball sail over everyone was actually a relief. He still has work to do, but it’s always been clear that the arm strength is there. Robiskie and Hartline both made circus TD catches (Roboskie’s being a triple flip off the trapeze, Hartline’s being a simple tuck and twist). Beanie Wells is still running over people like it’s his job and as Keith pointed out, Mo Wells is doing just fine. Everyone’s getting a piece of the action.

Minnesotans who are Buckeyes: 4.5 Sweatervests

There is only one Minnesotan who wears the Scarlet and Gray. I don’t have to tell you who he is, of course. But Lauranaitis is, quite emphatically, proving to everyone he very much deserved the awards and accolades he won last season. A lot of it was probably based on hype, but this year he has proven he is one of the premier linebackers in the country. (Rivals.com says he’s the best, actually.) He was all over the place in Minnesota, participating in 14 tackles. That’s a rock-solid performance.

Ohioans who are Gophers: 1.5 Sweatervests

There are twelve Ohioans playing as Gophers. You probably wouldn’t recognize many of them (I know I didn’t) but they couldn’t stop talking about poor Ernie Wheelwright. He accounted for 53 yards, but he sure didn’t seem like he wanted the ball in his hands. There have been players from Ohio playing for other teams that played like they had something to prove (old what’s-his-name from South Carolina comes to mind) but EW sure didn’t.

Special Teams: 2.5 Sweatervests

This is the area that makes me nervous. These are not Jim Tressel-like special teams. The punting game (when we actually punt) is fine, but the rest is not exactly instilling confidence. The kicking game is far from perfect: kick-off coverage is still spotty and the blocked PAT is almost unexcusable. Pretorius is still a good kicker with a good leg, but fundamentals seem to be a bit lacking. The fake punt was fun to see, but Trapasso was a little overanxious. The return game has the biggest upside, though, with Ray Small. He will explode in the next couple games.

Vernon Gholston’s Ghost: e^Sweatervest             e

I noticed that Vernon Gholston played like a mere mortal against Minnesota (just 2 body crunching tackles), deciding that the Metrodome was not big enough to contain his aura. He’s only able to allow his power to run free in open-air stadiums. There’s no telling what would have happened if the real Vernon came to the Metrodome.

Overall Perfomance: 4 Sweatervests

Baseline: 3 Sweatervests, +2 for acrobatic catches, +1 for allowing one touchdown, +1 for Beanie running over small, tasty defensive backs, -3 for a blocked PAT.

I was originally going to use this one, but thanks to Maje for providing the link to this week’s Gholston ogling:

A co-worker of the Monkey and mine mentioned that Vernon even has muscles on his face. I think his eyebrow muscles can curl more than I can.

(The link round-up will be up sometime this afternoon!)

It’s hard to believe that it’s only been seven years since Jim Tressel was hired as coach of the Ohio State University Buckeyes.

Since then he’s gone 66-14, a record which is bested by only Pete Carroll of USC. Not counting his inaugural year, he’s running with an insane 85% winning percentage.

In the past five years alone, Tressel has competed for two BCS titles, winning one, and finished ranked 4th or higher four times. And he’s done that mostly by playing “Tressellball,” a low-risk, anti-West Coast style of play.

And of course, he’s owned the Wolverines, winning five of six matchups.

So, without further adoration, we at MotSaG have assembled a small photo album showcasing some highlights of Sweatervest’s seven years at OSU. It’s what we like to “imagine” what might be representative of his tenure and coaching style at The Ohio State University.

You’ll need the Flash Player to view the slide show. Click the following image to launch:

All images courtesy of The O-Zone