Eleven Warriors

Though the football Buckeyes are off this week, Urban still knocked out his weekly call-in show yesterday, offering up a few worthy bits of news. 

After planting the seed a few weeks back, Meyer basically confirmed Jordan Hall will take a medical redshirt and return next season, adding one more body to what is already shaping up to be a ridiculous amount of talent at running back. 

Meyer also reiterated what he said after Wednesday's practice proclaiming Sabino should be ready to roll against Wisconsin. Urban also noted that in the basic 4-3, Sabino will join Boren and Shazier, making it clear he has no plans to move Boren back to offense. 

Though both Boren and Sabino struggle to cover receivers, Fickell can likely afford to play three linebackers more often in the next two games as both Wisconsin and Michigan lean heavily on the run game because neither has a quarterback that can throw with much consistency. Currently, Michigan is 4th in rushing offense while Wisconsin is 5th. Through the air Wisconsin has the conference's 7th best pass offense with Michigan sitting at 11th. 

Things really seem to be setting up quite nicely for the Buckeyes. 

Frank Beamer's team is 9-1 in its last 10 November games, dating back to 2009. Just one problem: The 2012 Hokies are pretty awful (for Beamer's standards, at least), having lost four of five coming into tonight's matchup.

Still, it's in Blacksburg, so there's a (small) chance of this.

Two weeks without an Ohio State football game: It's like 1/17th of the offseason crammed right into the middle of the season just to remind you of how horrible things are for most of the year.

The Buckeyes are spending their bye week soaking in hot and cold tubs to help heal their bodies for Urban Meyer's final two adversaries: Bret Bielema's bloated wizardry and Brady Hoke's corpulent genius.

Eyes downfield.

Vanquishing both would qualify his first season in Columbus as football's sexiest honeymoon season since Larry Coker's at Miami 11 years ago.

But that dream slumbers for another week, and regardless of what goes down next Saturday in Madison (SPOILER: Drunk people outnumbered only by encased meats) the Michigan game never cedes importance to anything. For now, it's a weekend of rest and observation.

And speaking of observation and Michigan, check out not-Tate Forcier in that picture. A few weeks ago The Situational made the mistake of displaying Jenn Sterger in its opening when discussing FSU, and then last week it showcased some fancy Oregon cheerleaders. That elicited pleas from the commentariat for more pretty lady pictures in this space.

Well, the Internet has plenty of those already and some men just prefer to watch the world burn. So here, have a Michigan Woman™ (she's probably just a native Ohioan rebelling anyway – that's how the category is generally defined).

Next time be more specific. Let's get Situational!

The Ohio State defense put together another positive performance in its near shutdown of Illinois. The Buckeye defense is on an upward trajectory based upon the same contributing factors—the return to health of key contributors, different personnel grouping, and slight tweaks in schemes—that continue to build upon each other in a virtuous cycle. While the Buckeye defense will be more tested in coming weeks, there is reason to believe that the Buckeye defense has improved in the second half of the season. 

Stick to the Script

Illinois sought several 'wrinkles' to create some type of offense. Primarily, the Illini used an extensive amount of direct quarterback lead runs with Nathan Scheelhaase. The Illini were clearly looking for some way to create an arithmetic advantage against the OSU base nickel defense.

Illinois also frequently used rocket motion with their running back to the flat. The idea was to stretch OSU's zone defense to create opportunities inside those defenders, just as Indiana found some success with.

With every new season comes new expectations. Ohio State's debut season under Urban Meyer was certainly no different. Back in August, I reached out to media members outside of Columbus, and around the country, to get their thoughts and predictions on the newest chapter in Ohio State football. You can go back and see what they thought 2012 had in store for the Buckeyes here.

As Ohio State is ten weeks into the season, and finally taking a much needed bye week, I checked in with some of the same experts who shared their predictions back in August to see how Meyer and the Buckeyes were stacking up against their preseason expectations and what to expect moving forward.

Big thanks to the following guests for providing their insights:

Bruce Feldman, CBS Sports

Robert Flores, ESPN/ABC College Football

Lisa Horne, formerly of FOX Sports

Chris Huston, Heisman Pundit and CBS Sports

Andy Staples, Sports Illustrated

One senior and three returning starters.

That’s what Thad Matta has to work with as the Ohio State Buckeyes get set for the 2012-13 basketball season on Friday. To many, that might signal a rebuilding year. But Ohio State basketball doesn’t rebuild under Matta. At the dawn of each season, the Buckeyes are already equipped with the necessary pieces for success.

Jared Sullinger isn't walking through that door.

After losing three starters off the 2010-11 team, Ohio State cruised to 31 wins, a Big Ten championship and a berth in the Final Four. One year later, Ohio State looks to repeat that journey, only with one more game at the end of the season.

Matta’s eight-year tenure in Columbus has included a level of success Ohio State basketball hasn’t experienced in two decades. The Buckeyes are consistent players in the Big Ten title race and familiar faces in the NCAA Tournament. Another trend during the Matta era has been player turnover.

During a four-season stretch, from 2007-10, six Buckeyes left early for the NBA Draft. All six were selected in the first round, including No. 1 overall selection Greg Oden (2007), second pick Evan Turner (2010) and fourth overall pick Mike Conley Jr. (2007).

With the advent of the NBA age requirement rule, one-and-done players and early entrants into the draft has skyrocketed. Ohio State, along with Kentucky, are two programs that have dealt with a high volume of players leaving early but sustained their success. Matta has won at least 20 games in every season at Ohio State and captured conference titles in two seasons after losing first-round draft picks.

The two players Ohio State must replace this season are contrasting cases.

OH HEY!!!! It’s Thursday. Hello and welcome. So glad you could make it. Let’s get down to business.

RODDY SMYTHE. Rod Smith’s acute case of fumblitis has been well-documented. While the third-year sophomore has shown glimpses of brilliance, his case of frying pan hands has kept him out of significant action.

On Saturday the disease struck again, but this time Coach Urban Meyer could live with it.

“When I looked closely at it, as I always do, if it was a ball security issue (the wrist below the elbow) or laziness or not doing what we teach, then that would have had a major issue on it. But it wasn’t that at all.”

“The defender put his face right on the ball.

The bye week brought relief to Ohio State players and coaches. After more than three months of the constant grind of football, no game is on the schedule for Saturday. But that doesn’t mean it’s a week off. 

The unquestioned leader. 

The Buckeyes have practiced in full pads this week and several coaches, including head coach Urban Meyer, have been traversing the country to see recruits.

Staying healthy and not allowing momentum to stall are the goals of the week. Riding a 10-game win streak, some believed an off week might halt the positive vibes.

Count Meyer among those that don’t believe in such talk. One look at his career record after off weeks – 12-1 – might have something to do with that. Looming for the Buckeyes is a trip to Madison, arguably the toughest game of the season. The following week is Michigan.

If Ohio State is able to finish off its dream season, it will have earned it. And if the record says 12-0, quarterback Braxton Miller will be largely responsible.

The sophomore signal-caller has produced one of the best 10-game stretches ever for an Ohio State quarterback, catapulting up the Heisman watch lists. Miller is just the third Big Ten quarterback to rush for 1,000 yards in a season and he has been responsible for 27 touchdowns.

Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen and welcome to another edition of the 11W Recruiting Notebook.

Will the Mike Mitchell saga end in him picking OSU?

Apologies for my absence with this feature last week, as I was fighting through Frankenstorm Sandy in the New York/New Jersey area. Luckily all in my family, as well as our property, survived the storm, but we were without power for quite some time, hindering my ability to join all of you in our little community here.

We return this week with the Buckeyes coming off a victory against Illinois and headed into a much-needed bye week. The Bucks have been dinged up all season long and the off-week comes at a great time for the players to heal, right before a tough two-week stretch to end the season at Wisconsin and home against Michigan.

The bye week is also a great time to sit back and reflect, not only on OSU's 10-0 season, but also on the staff's efforts on the recruiting trail. Urban and the rest of the coaches have done an outstanding job recruiting the class of 2013 so far, with 17 verbal commits on board already.

It is starting to look like there will be more room than anticipated for this class and the group could end up numbering 24 or 25 when Signing Day rolls around in February. Because of this, the staff has started to be more aggressive in their pursuit of some of the top prospects in the country.

This week Miles, Derek, and I do some reflecting of our own when it comes to recruiting, as we look at the players remaining on the board and give you our predictions (with commentary) on where they will end up. Join us after the jump to see our predictions, hear our thoughts, and get the scoop on some of the top players in the country still considering Ohio State.

Around the Oval is our weekly look-in at the sports that don't always get the coverage they deserve, considering we have an undefeated football team and all.

Pregame, the Buckeyes are getting ready to play.

We'll get this week started off with the Ohio State women's volleyball team, which is ranked #15 in the nation with an 18-8 regular-season record (9-5 Big Ten). The Buckeyes had games in conference last week against rival Wisconsin and #10 Minnesota.

On November 2nd at St. John's Arena, Ohio State came away with a 3-1 win (25-16, 25-15, 23-25, 30-28) over the Badgers, in a game that gave coach Jeff Carlson his 100th win with the program. Junior Davionna DiSalvatore recorded a new career-high with 31 digs in the match while Big Ten setter of the week, senior Amanda Peterson, ended with a .800 kill percentage and 37 assists.

Two days later, the Buckeyes returned to St. John Arena only to fall to No. 10 Minnesota, 3-2 (23-25, 21-25, 27-25, 25-13, 15-12). Senior Mari Hole led all attackers and tied a career-high with 26 kills in the match. She added 11 digs for her 13th double-double of the season and also had five blocks. Junior Kaitlyn Leary finished with 17 kills while senior Emily Danks totaled 11.