Eleven Warriors

Should be a fun Saturday and a good test for the Buckeyes. The Gophers (and their fans) are riding high and are a step up from the Penguins, Bobcats and Trojans (lesser type). The defense, in particular, has a good chance to answer some critics today. I'm excited to see what Gibson can do getting a majority of the snaps at one of the end spots and it's also nice to watch the continued evolution of Hines -- the next great Buckeye safety (though judging from last week, Coleman has taken notice and would like to join him).

The first time you see Beanie and Pryor line up in the same backfield, you're excused for crapping yourself in excitement because you won't be alone. We know Posey, Thomas and Washington will get more snaps and all it would take right now would be one big game out of one of those burners to put possibly thrust them into a starting role. The message from the Boeckman situation is that no job is safe, regardless of how long you've been in the program and that's a refreshing change to see.

Say what you will about Tressel being stubborn and conservative, but he's making the changes the fans are demanding. Some, like the Pryor switch, were inevitable. But I like how he's tinkered with the offensive and defensive lines as well as at receiver. I have a feeling that this team is getting ready to go off.

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Later in the day, there are some interesting matchups as conference play begins:

#10 Wisconsin @ Michigan, 3:30 - ABC
The big story heading into this one is that the Badgers have a really, really good shot to get their first win in Ann Arbor in 14 years. I think they'll get it done, but I have this creeping suspicion that Rodriguez will get one upset this year -- and the sooner the better. If he's upset-less by the time 11/22 rolls around, I'll be slightly more worried than I probably should be.

#8 Alabama @ #4 Georgia, 7:45 - ESPN
Georgia is busting out the black as they welcome Bear Saban and the Crimson Tide to Athens. The Dawgs are stacked and have played well this year, despite losing a little bit of ground in the rankings. Alabama has looked like an elite team and say what you will about Saban -- the guy can coach the college game. If nothing else, tune in for the Southern honies dotting the stands.

#24 Illinois @ #9 Penn State, 8:00 - ABC
On Thursday afternoon, Penn State looked like a great team. They had dominated everyone they played and put up mad points in the process. Then late Thursday night, Pacific time, they began to look even better, considering the pasting they administered to Oregon State way back in week two. If they do to Illinois what they've done to every other team they've played this season, they'll jump into the top five and deserve to be there.

#15 Ohio State 3-1, 0-0 Big Ten Roster | Schedule

September 27, 2008 12:00 PM ET - BTN —— Ohio Stadium Columbus, OH

Minnesota 4-0, 0-0 Big Ten Roster | Schedule

You have to go all of the way back to 2002 to find a Gopher team heading into a showdown with Ohio State playing with this much confidence. That season, Glen Mason's team raced out to a 7-1 start before getting handled 34-3 in Columbus. The Gophers would go on to lose their next three Big Ten games and ultimately finished the season 8-5. In 2004 Minnesota started the season 5-0 before losing a close one to Michigan and then watching their season spiral away to the tune of five losses in their final six regular season games. Will this year be any different?

I'm certainly not here to say the 2008 Buckeyes are as good as that 2002 squad that would go on to shock the Canes, but despite the confidence of Gopher fans, the historical numbers and the fact that the Buckeyes, thanks to USC and some questionable play in other games, are out of the woods in regards to sleeping on any decent teams makes this a game that I just don't see Minnesota pulling out.

Maybe in another year where they aren't facing Pryor, a refurbished Beanie and a defense hungry to prove doubters wrong could Tim Brewster get that landmark win he so sorely needs. Just not this Saturday.

Opponent

There was some debate earlier in the week about how the Gopher's out of league schedule compared to Ohio State's. Sure, the Buckeyes can claim to have played against USC, but that's all they really can claim in that one. The Gophers, meanwhile, avenged a tough loss to FAU last season by thumping the Sun Belt favorites 37-3. Two weeks prior, they erupted in the fourth quarter to blow-out a pretty decent Bowling Green team on the road (ask the Wannstache). But their true colors came out in narrow wins over Northern Illinois and Montana State. Juggernauts they are not.

Still, they are 4-0, a record Buckeye fans would kill to have and come into this game vastly improved over the inaugural Brew Stew of 2007. That mark is aided largely by turnovers. It was turnovers that did the Falcons in and the Gophers have forced 13 on the season, good enough for 3rd-best in the nation. Meanwhile, they've only given the ball away twice. So there you have it: +11 against middling competition and you have that spotless record.

On offense, they're powered by the Adam Weber (#8) to Eric Decker (#7) combo. Weber, the reigning all-freshman quarterback in the conference is off to a hot start of his sophomore season. He's completing nearly 72 percent of his passes with 7 touchdowns and only one interception. Steady, he's thrown for at least 200 yards and one touchdown in each of his four starts this season and is good enough to play at a lot of places.

Decker, his safety blanket, is putting up monster numbers, leading the Big Ten and placing fourth nationally with 32 receptions heading into the game. He's on pace for a 100/1400 season. He's also consistent -- the junior has exactly one touchdown catch in each of his four starts. And then the big drop-off. Decker, as good as he is, has three times as many receptions as Minnesota's second-leading active receiver, Ben Kuznia (#16).

It's not just an arial attack as Brewster will look to establish the running game. After starter Duane Bennett went down for the season in week two, freshman DeLeon Eskridge (#23) stepped up and has filled-in nicely. Listed as 5-11/190, he has decent, but not large size for a back and he's already delivered one 100-yard game with another near miss in his two starts. He's also a touchdown factory, having popped-off for 5 in those games.

The Minnesota offensive line enters the game allowing only 1.5 sack per game, while their counterparts on the Buckeye said are allowing 2.5 (though USC did its part to inflate that number). It looks like between Becker's poise and the line, getting to him will be difficult, but the schedule to date has not provided any real type of indication of how they will perform against top units.

Senior end William VanDeSteeg (#91), besides having an awesome name, will be the guy to watch on the Gopher defensive line. He has 20 career starts and served as a captain as a junior last year.

There's nobody in the linebacker corps that really jumps out at you (though senior Steve Davis is one of the captains), but the JUCO-infused secondary is off to a hot start. Two players, sophomore Kyle Theret (#27) and junior Traye Simmons have multiple interceptions on the year -- all part of a unit that's already collected 8 picks.

Aside from Eskridge, a number of players from Brewster's nationally ranked 2008 class for Minnesota will also see action, most prominently return man Troy Stoudemire Jr. (#11) and his 30.7 average on kick returns and defensive tackle Jewhan Edwards (#68).

NOTES: Former Gopher coach Glen Mason is serving as the honorary captain for the game... After allowing 38.5 points per game last season, the Gophers are giving up just 17.5 this year... Eskridge's five scores tie him with Baylor's Robert Griffin for most among FBS freshmen... Minnesota actually holds a winning all-time record against six Big Ten teams, but they're just 7-40 all-time against the Buckeyes.

Buckeye Breakdown

With the anticipated return of Beanie this weekend, Buckeye fans are envisioning a Pryor/Wells-powered backfield destroying just about any defense that they run into. The truth is that Beanie will probably only get a handful of carries this weekend in an effort to see where he stands with his turf toe mysterious toe injury. Still, the mere threat of him on the field, with Pryor, opens up all sorts of problems for opposing defensive coordinators. In the two, you have two former Army All-American Bowl MVPs in the same backfield and you'd be right to key heavily on each of them, at the same time exposing your corners to a lot of man coverage.

The line, after receiving an extended verbal smack-down from Tressel for the better part of this week should be ready to come out and finally play up to their considerable hype heading into the season. I'm excited to watch the growth of Brewster at the center position and you have to being to wonder whether Rehring will find himself either out of a job or moving in to take Person's once he's healthy again.

The Gophers do appear to have a decent secondary, but with so much focus being placed on stopping Pryor and Beanie/Boom from gnawing up huge chunks on the ground, the Brians are also poised to contribute in a big way. Robo, especially, should be hungry to atone for the dropped 90 yard touchdown strike that Pryor gifted to him last Saturday. Beyond those two, it's nice to know that in only his first career start, Pryor was checking down to his tight ends and fullbacks, often the third and fourth options on the play. If he continues doing that, the offense will continue to grow, making even a mediocre line shine and the Buckeyes will be a very difficult team to stop. A dash of Posey wouldn't hurt, either.

On the defensive side of the ball, the key is to get to Weber. Hit him early and get to him as often as possible to disrupt him because he is good enough to make the Buckeyes pay -- especially down the middle of the field -- if he's given time to operate. Expect a big performance out of Gibson, making his first start at defensive end. I'll also be keeping a close eye at Heyward in the middle to see if the new spot is working out for him.

The secondary will have to know where Decker is on every play. If they take him out of the game, that will go a long way towards taking Weber out as well. This is also a good opportunity to put Jenkins on Decker in man coverage and turn up the blitz dial a little bit. This defense needs to get that swagger back and a heavy dose of blitzing may do just that.

Kick coverage is also huge in a game like this because nothing keeps a team in games they don't deserve to be in like a couple of quick returns and the Gophers have the horses to do just that.

Ultimately, the Gophers are just catching the Buckeyes at the wrong time and I expect that to be fully reflected in the final score.

NOTES: The Buckeyes are outscoring foes 38-0 in the fourth quarter of games this season... The quarterback/running back combination of Pryor and Boom has put up 416 yards on the ground this season, good enough for 2nd-best nationally... The Buckeyes are 5-0 against the Gophers under Tressel... Despite the USC pounding, the Buckeyes have held their opponents scoreless in 10 of 16 quarters played to date.

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PREDICTION: Ohio State 38, Minnesota 13

One guy wins all of the big ones, but always drops a small one. The other guy takes care of the small ones, but has trouble with the big ones.

Which one would you rather have?

Sticking with today's theme of technical troubles, I ran across this 404 page on NCAA.com of all places.

For those not wearing pocket protectors or just finding their way to the internet, 404 is of course the error code returned when a page (or image or other asset) cannot be found on the server. The pages sites use to handle this can be informative, clever, funny or just downright strange -- there are even galleries of some of the finer examples out there.

And here is the staid NCAA with Adam Morrison on their 404 page.

On the ground.

Most likely crying.

Awesome.

I'll give a similar disclaimer as Jason - with the site being down I was forced to put this together in the wee hours of this morning so sorry if my eye boogers cause any grumattikul errors or lack of wit.

Anyway, it seemed like a good time to catch up on a few recent hoops happenings since I know many of you tune out to that side of OSU athletics until closer to tip off.

On the recruiting front, Matta recently picked up two more recruits for the already stacked 2010 class in the form of Lenzelle Smith Jr., a 6'3" guard out of Chicago and Jordan Sibert, another 6'3" guard hailing from Cincinnati Princeton.

Smith is rated the #3 junior in Illinois and chose OSU over Illinois, Kentucky, Virginia and Marquette. He averaged 14 points and 7 boards per game last year leading his Class 4A team to a state runner up finish.

Sibert saw his stock rise with a strong AAU campaign for the All-Ohio Red juggernaut featuring fellow 2010 Buckeye recruit Jared Sullinger and now finds himself listed as the 18th best overall prospect by Rivals and 3rd best shooting guard.

The 2010 class now stands at five members, three are five stars (Sibert, Sullinger, DeShaun Thomas) with Smith (4) and 6'5 Cameron Wright (3) out of Cleveland. Matta's next target is fellow AAU All-Ohio Red stud Adreian Payne, a 6'9" baseliner from Dayton. He's like Hansel, he's so hot right now. (Am I supposed to believe I'm the only one who thinks Zoolander deserved a Oscar?)

Draft Express posted their top 5 Big Ten pro prospects. Not so surprisingly, Evan Turner holds down the #2 spot though I was definitely shocked to see David Lighty in the #3 hole.

OSU recently unveiled the Schott's new fancy scoreboard and a 970 foot LED board ringing the rowdy confines of the suite level. Bob Baptist also has the details on the new practice gym set to be built on to the west side of the Schott.

Apologies for the rather meager post this morning, but work is still owning me and the site was down for a good 6 hours or so from late afternoon on. Naturally, we suspect hackers that are out to stymie the program and its propaganda-makers, particularly these guys or this guy -- we're not sure yet (but the FBI is on it). Though to be fair, the 2nd suspect thinks an Etch A Sketch is the computer that knocked off Kasparov, so he does have some coverage there.

Of course, on the football front, big news out of practice as Tressel took over some of the offensive line coaching duties and allegedly did some very uncharacteristic yelling and getting in guys' faces. Good. This is one of the many changes he's put into place since the waxing at USC and you have to start to wonder about Bollman's future. I don't know about you, but if my boss came over and started doing my work for me because of quality concerns, I'd be polishing up the old resume.

We're hearing that practices are more intense than they've been in quite some time at the WHAC. And folks are looking good. We believe this, because our practice source doles out superlatives like he does $100 bills. Here's what he had to say:

Practice was very intense. The older offensive linemen didn't participate in it much, but there was a pretty strong circle drill featuring the younger fellows. All the running backs participated, but didn't do much. Beanie looked fine, if a bit uncomfortable with the one big shoe, but no one so much as touched him in practice, so it's hard to judge whether he's really game-ready. Robiskie practiced extensively, so I'm not sure a hurt shoulder really excuses his non-attempt at that Pryor toss on Saturday. That's a real mystery to me. Most of the session was comprised of work on the perimeter - throws to wideouts, coverage schemes, etc. There was very little between-the-tackles work, and what there was wasn't at full go.

As for Pryor, he just looked fabulous. He threw lots of outs, some fades - a wide variety of throws he'll need in a game, so maybe they're opening the playbook a bit more for him. Tressel was in his ear almost the whole practice, yelling at him to "keep [your] feet," stay perpendicular to the line of scrimmage, always be in a good mechanical position to get rid of the ball, etc. I think his mechanics have come a long, long way from preseason. He's smooth, conversational with the other guys, and looks comfortable out there. Some of the guys are really taking to him. Pryor and Tressel seem to be developing a good rapport.

That, and the word is Small really was dinged up last week and it wasn't anything disciplinary. Guess I missed on that one

We thought we'd bring in the Gopher bloggers that have been running some smack on the Buckeyes for a better part of the last week to get their perspective on what it would take for Minnesota to pull out a victory in Columbus this weekend. PJS from The Daily Gopher was kind enough to provide these five keys.

Hey Ohio State fans, I know you're a littly grumpy. After all, the lowly Gophers of Minnesota think they might be able to come into the 'Shoe and win the Big Ten opener. So, instead of outright predicting a Minnesota win, I'll instead play nice and give you a handful of keys to victory Saturday for the maroon and gold.

1) Poise Under Pressure: This includes everything from staying calm during tough situations to not letting the crowd noise impact the offensive line. Sophomore quarterback Adam Weber, who has been nearly perfect in four games, needs to make quick, decisive reads. He needs to look off safeties and not keep his eyes glued on one receiver (Eric Decker). Through four non-conference games last year, the Gophers had turned the ball over 13 times. Through the 4-0 start in 2008, the Gophers have turned the ball over just twice!

2) Establish DeLeon Eskridge: E-Ridge, as we call him at TDG, is a freshman running back out of St. Paul who was rushed into a starting role after Duane Bennett went down for the season. Eskridge has stepped in to some success, despite a beleagured offensive line. While many think the spread coast offense Minnesota runs is pass-heavy, it's actually ball-control oriented. Through four games, the Gophers have attempted runs 155 times, mostly all out of the shotgun. Weber has passed just 110 times. So, getting E-Ridge off to a nice start is paramount to victory. Against FAU last week, E-Ridge carried the ball 19 times for 79 yards and added 6 catches for 61. And the week before that, in his first real significant action as a college player, E-Ridge ran 24 times for 119 yards and three touchdowns.

3) Defensive Opportunism: The biggest difference between this year and last for the Gophers has been on the defensive side of the ball. Instead of operating like an extra permeable sieve, the Gophers have been relatively stout. Tim Brewster's influx of JUCO athleticism on defense has paid immediate dividends in the way of increased pressure on quarterbacks, a better secondary and in the creation of turnovers. The defense has forced 13 turnovers in four games, and the Gophers have capitalized by scoring nine touchdowns off of these turnovers. If the Gophers are to win, they need to make Pryor look like a freshman. Some names to look for: Big Play Traye Simmons has two interceptions. And linebacker Simoni Lawrence, the type of athletic linebacker Minnesota hasn't had in a quite some time, single-handedly took over a posession against FAU last week with a blitz and sack from the edge and then a 50 yard interception return.

4) Beyond Eric Decker: Tim Brewster has a tendency to say tremendous a lot, and he likes to shower his players with superlatives. But when he says Eric Decker is one of the best receivers in the country, he's not exaggerating. The junior multi-sport athlete has caught 32 balls for 454 yards through four games and scored four touchdowns. The problem is, no one behind Decker has emerged as a true number two threat for Adam Weber. Weber's only interception this year came when he locked on Decker in the red zone and tried to force him the ball. Offensive coordinator Mike Dunbar has been creative in finding ways to get Decker the ball despite the attention paid to him by opposing defenses. But if Decker is to have the type of day the Gophers need to pull the upset, Weber will need one of his other receivers--Ralph Spry, Ben Kuznia, Brandon Green or tight end Jack Simmons--to step up. Through four games, Minnesota's second leading pass-catcher is Duane Bennett. And he only played in the first two games. That has to change.

5) Coaching: This is, by far, the biggest game in Tim Brewster's coaching career. A win will catapult the Gophers into the national spotlight and make them a chic pick to compete for the Big Ten title. A close loss will help Brewster make the argument this team is improving. A blowout loss will make the fair-weather Gophers fanbase take two steps back. How will Brewster respond if the game is tight? He has been routinely aggressive, going for fourth down conversions and not settling for field goals. Will this continue in a big game? How will he handle time management? And, perhaps most importantly, will he and his staff be able to put the right gameplan in place to frustrate Pryor and move the ball against the OSU defense? Minnesota fans still have many questions about Tim Brewster. He has a chance to answer some of them Saturday.

As we noted yesterday, the biggest news from this week's presser came in the form of Tressel saying Beanie is currently listed as probable after looking better than expected in Monday's workout.

Yesterday Beanie ran every snap he was asked to run, looked to me better than I thought he might look, says he feels wonderful. So you don't know exactly who the cast of characters will be, but I think we've got a pretty good indication of what we feel like each of our people can do and that's helpful.

Pressed on the issue of this possibly being the same "day to day" song and dance we've heard before, Tressel clarified:

No, I'm calling him probable. How about that?

That's certainly good news to Buckeye fans but part of me still has some doubt. As we discussed yesterday, I'm having a hard time thinking it wouldn't be best for him to sit out Saturday anyway with eyes on being closer to 100% at Wisconsin but conversely I think it's a great idea to get him in there with Pryor a week before the showdown in Camp Randall. Obvious benefits include creating some continuity between Beanie and TP, getting a feel for what plays might be best suited for that tandem and also to see how Beanie looks before putting all our eggs in his basket leading up to that tough road tilt.

Finally, on the Beanie front, Tressel's spin was that the pain/issue was just as much as adjusting to a more protective cleat than it was adjusting to the injury:

What they've said, what the training report said today is that they feel as if it's to the point now that it's just a comfort in the rebuilt shoe more than a comfort in the injury, and so when you're used to wearing those little streamlined, Mo, what do they call those fast things you used to wear? (Mo Hall: "Speed TDs") Speed TDs, and all of a sudden you're in a hiking boot, you've got to get used to that.

Tressel also reacted as you'd expect to the boos directed at Boeckman (or Tressel pending your viewpoint) before breaking down the planned participation for practice snaps which, also as you'd expect, show Pryor is the clear starter. Of course, he also noted that few seasons go by where a team doesn't need at least a secondary contribution from the backup:

Well, the thing we talked about yesterday is that many times in a conference race, a team that's going to be the champion is probably going to end up with more than one quarterback making a difference and what that percentage will be, who knows. Terrelle took probably -- I think we took 15 snaps yesterday, Terrelle took 10 of them with the group. Today we'll probably have, I don't know, 60, 70 snaps, and he'll take 45 of them, that type of thing. But Todd's going to work like crazy and keep getting better and if I knew for sure how it was going to unfold -- but, you know, unless there's just something unusual at practice this week or whatever, if the game were today, Terrelle would start it and we'd go with the flow.

Tressel also awkwardly discussed what I think is an admission that maybe some guys got playing time based on evaluations but maybe those evaluations were incorrect and/or other players might have stepped up to earn more time while also citing injuries as obvious reasons for personnel shifts:

You never know how things are going to go and that's why you always try to live by that old adage of you don't start from where you left off, you start over and you handle what happens as you start over and injuries happen. That's just part of the -- last year, I think the same five linemen might have started all 13 games or however many we played and that's unusual and there have been years before that that, man, it didn't seem like the same five were ever starting. So when injuries occur and that's part of the deal and hopefully you've been evaluating closely what guys have been doing throughout the course of the preseason and so forth, and you make decisions based upon, I think this is best for the team and we've all had those things and we said, whoops, maybe that wasn't the best decision and you change gears.

Senator Speak 101, right there. Dude is a magician.

In discussing Pryor, the Vest offered up some encouraging comments. When asked about TP's decision making compared to a veteran, the response was favorable:

The thing that's best about his decision making is that when he errs he knows exactly why. Sometimes I've had guys come off the field and say, why did you throw it there? I don't know. And he's not that way. He knows where everyone is. He's got a great ability to keep his head up, a calmness about him to see, and he had one throw that probably shouldn't have thrown and he knew the minute he let go of it.

And even more encouraging words on Pryor's ability to work through his progressions:

He did a good -- someone asked over at the Quarterback Club, they said, are you going to throw it more to Brandon Smith and Rory Nicol late in the play like you did last week? And I said, well, the good news was those were checkdowns, it was no, no, no, checkdown. So he did that two particular times that I thought were excellent.

We already touched on his impressive ability to scramble while still surveying the receivers and Tressel certainly felt the same, especially on the first TD to Hartline:

Yeah, and he's got a lot of confidence in his feet to move him laterally, but yet still stay in a throwing position. So many times you see a quarterback start into a running mode and then he can no longer see or deliver as accurately, and he has an ability to stay perpendicular to the line of scrimmage and still keep his eyes up the field and I'm not sure he ran that play the whole week in practice. Now, he had run that play through preseason in a couple different formations that week in practice, but we were, what, second and 25 and then third and 15 or whatever it happened to be and we thought it was conceptually one that he really understood and he kept it alive and put it on the money.

On the injury front, Tressel noted Tyler Moeller will be back but Austin Spitler and Steve Rehring will not. Also, there was much speculation that Ray Small must've found his way back to the doghouse after barely seeing the field versus Troy but Tressel indicated Small was "banged" and he'll be fine.

Hopefully, I summarized all the useful parts but if you want the full transcript, you can find it here.

Most of you have probably seen the NBC/Fox joint-venture Hulu by now. If you haven't, I'm not sure what's holding you back. Where else on the web can you catch the A-Team, Springer and countless other movies and television shows -- all free?

They also feature some sports footage including classic NHL and NBA. From a Buckeye perspective, they have the full LSU game, which I'm sure everyone's dying to watch again and this Fields of Glory feature on Ohio Stadium:

With a great sense of pride and honor, we give this week's award to one of 11W's all-time favorite Buckeyes, Antoine Winfield. In his fifth season as a Viking and 10th overall, Winfield recorded only his 2nd career sack this past weekend.

His numbers were not staggering, registering only 2 tackles, however his sack on Jake Delhomme with just over a minute left in the half was a momentum changer. On a 3rd and 8, Winfield came on the corner blitz untouched, blasting Delhomme and jarring the ball loose, leading to his 19 yard touchdown jaunt to tie the score.

The Vikings held Carolina to just 204 yards of total offense and 3/11 on 3rd down, earning their first victory of the season in a 20-10 win.

The fumble recovery for six wasn't his only impact on the day as Winfield helped hold Steve Smith to just four catches. Smiling the whole time, too.