Eleven Warriors

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The depth chart is out for the YSU game and there's a bit of a surprise at the running back spot. Not only is banged-up Brandon Saine nowhere to be found, but Boom Herron appears to have jumped ahead of Maurice Wells for the 2nd running back spot. Who knew that with so many certainties heading into this season, there could still be a bit of intrigue?

Saine, who's been battling a hammy injury is still listed as one of the starting kick returners, so he's likely to play, but the staff obviously sees little need in using him any more than necessary against the Penguins. And why push a fast guy with a hamstring issue.

But the real story on the depth chart is the ascension of Boom Herron. Wells has been a dependable option and change of pace for Beanie and he really came on a little late last season. He's also a senior that's stuck around and said and done the right things after getting passed up by youngsters every year he's been on campus. You had to think Tressel would have showed some of that senior loyalty of his and put him in 2nd for the opener at least. Evidently not -- and I love Mo Wells, but I'm happy with the choice.

I've always thought his loyalty to seniors was at different times detrimental to the team's success. While in life, the right thing to do is to be fair and just to the guys that have stuck with you, when you earn a living based on how many wins you put up, sometimes you can't afford to make the sentimental picks.

Boom is going to get a golden opportunity to show what he can do and based on what has been coming out of camp, he's ready to seize it.

Other points of interest on the depth chart include:

• Pryor is in the third slot at quarterback, while Dane Sanzenbacher and Ray Small are listed as the backups to the Brians. If we're still a year away from seeing the Taurian Washington show, you gotta like that depth.
• The defensive line features three tackles and an end. It will be fun to watch this until Worthington returns.
• Homan and Rolle are 1 and 2 at WLB. No real surprises here. Laurinaitis will be backed up by Spitler while Freeman is spelled by Moeller, who, of course, may see the field in nickel sets.
• Andre Amos is listed as Jenkins' backup at the boundary corner spot, while Shaun Lane is listed as the backup to Chekwa at the other corner spot. If last season is any indicator (which it most likely isn't), the nickel was the non-boundary backup, which is slated to be filled by Shaun Lane (we still got your back, Famous).
• Jake McQuaide has won the long-snapper job and with it the title of Buckeye starter you know least about.

Our focus group demands more of this

We had a chance to review the suggestions for site improvements, both in the comments and from the batch we received via email and we have picked the two winners of the birthday contest. Both winners not only had good ideas, but also featured suggestions that we could implement right away.

Dirty6 wanted us to add the following feature:

This would be like…Like the article over at the OZone that tells you who to root for in the games with BCS significance? You know, something that says “Hey, this week the Colts play the whoevers, and the whoevers have a shit secondary so watch for AGonzalez to catch a few balls” and “On Monday night the Ravens play whofreakingcares and Troy Smith will start….”

This will be a new Sunday morning feature, so you can wake up, set your fantasy roster and then catch up on what Buckeyes have the best chance to blow-up that day in the NFL.

BrotherBuck was the other winner with this suggestion:

My idea might help in some of the other ideas I’ve seen in the contest. Have an amateur day. Designate a day of the week where reader’s can submit their own piece’s and through your selection publish it.

We'll be starting a Reader's Voice (got a better name for this, let us know) feature, where readers can submit something they've written and we'll publish one each week. BrotherBuck was kind enough to provide the very first installment, which we'll run on Wednesday. If you'd like to be next, submit your post (PDF, Word or text file) via email to us by Tuesday at 5PM ET each week. We'll have further instructions when we publish the first one on Wednesday.

Congrats all around. Both winners will receive copies of Buckeye Battle Cry 2008 and the Woody DVD.

It's a shame we could only pick two winners because there were several suggestions we liked:

• UFR: We'd love to add an Under Further Review. The problem is the time it takes to put one of those together. With full-time jobs and families, it's difficult, but we're going to play around with game tapes this year, so we'll see.
• Uploads of Buckeye Original Music: Another great idea, although I'm not sure we have the reader base to really see this one take off just yet. Still, if you have something you want us to share, email us.
• Announcer Critiques: We're going to try to work this into another post on Sunday. If all goes well, we're looking to provide the announcing highlight and lowlight of that weekend's Buckeye game.
• More YouTube Videos: We'd love to do this, but again it's a time thing. We have a lot of games on tape and DVD, but it comes down to whether we'd rather write about the Buckeyes or edit and upload videos and we have to go with the former. Perhaps this is something we can look into in the offseason.
• Picture Page: Between fan shots of athletes, Buckeye hotties, drunks and other photogenic creatures, this could be a real winner. We're going to look into how feasible it would be to create a gallery. In the meantime, if you have something cool, send it to us and we'll get something up. All makeshift style.
• Messageboard: Quite a few requests for this one and we're a little torn. On one hand, we think it would be great, but on the other hand, Keith found out that it didn't work at Buckeye Commentary, so we'll put this on the "someday" list.
• Post and Comment Rating: Another great idea, but we'll have to dig into the tech that would be needed to integrate something like this first.

Okay, enough with the navel-gazing...

Some highlights of the media session on Friday included Beanie dreaming of football as an Olympic sport and Hartline calling out Robo for not being able to run over the middle:

"He definitely couldn't play the slot," Hartline said. "I can. I can play on the outside, too."

And it looks like we have our Michael Irvin. Save for the whole drug and prostitute bits.

Pfef hit up the open practice a week ago and shared his take-aways. Sanzenbacher burning Washington and Cam Heyward practicing at tackle are intriguing.

ESPN sat down with Heacock on Friday and although there's not much in the way of news or quotes, I do respect the way he keeps going to bat for his tackles.

Mediacom has a deal with the Big Ten Network. If nothing else, this should give Time Warner holdouts hope that a deal can get done in the dying days. Hawkeye fans are pumped, while Buckeye and Badger fans are running out of time (TWC offered the same PPV deal to Wisconsin, by the way).

Anybody else ready?

Finally. The start of the greatest stretch of four months in the year is upon us. The days of talk about who will emerge and become the 3rd wide receiver, new linebacker or new fullback are finally coming to an end.

In five days, we'll know if it looks like Boeckman has taken the 2nd-year starter leap. We'll get a feel for what Pryor can do at this level and whether this defense will be as good as it's billed. Some of the other talented freshman will get their first chance to make an impact and prove that they deserve snaps this year.

The long spring and summer of speculation and information swapping is finally coming to a close. As we head into this first game week, here are five fearless predictions for the 2008 season:

1. Pryor will see the field in the first half against Youngstown State and his workload will increase from there.
Bauserman is the solid two right now and he'll follow Boeckman in terms of getting complete series the first game of the season, but Pryor will enter the game to take snaps in certain early situations. The Penguins will be the first of many opponents where Pryor will find himself as the best athlete on the field and that will start to show. I'm still not sold on Tress giving him complete series to run early on, but he'll have a progressively bigger impact on the offense as the season goes down.

2. DeVier Posey will post at least 400 yards receiving on the year.
I know, I know. Way to go out on a limb, right? 400 yards? That's insane! Well... it is when you consider that he's a true frosh on a deep and talented receiver corps and he'll be getting those yards with the Brians competing for passes. And he'll earn about 80% of that total the last 6 weeks of the year when he's emerged similar to the way David Boston did in 1996 (33 for 450). He's good for at least two or three bombs during Big Ten play, alone.

3. Beanie Wells will not win the Heisman Trophy.
He will get his numbers and once again make defenders look like approaching toddlers, but I just don't see enough close games requiring his extended service. He'll also lose touches because of all of the other playmakers on the team. And if that's not enough, if he's not splitting votes with Laurinaitis, he'll be faced with a national mood of "oh know, the Buckeyes in the BCS again" and that will tip some voters in other directions, especially if Tebow puts up his expected Nintendo stats again.

4. The defense will be truly sick.
It won't just be against Big Ten also-rans, this defense will attack and showcase the athletes in the USC and bowl game as well. They've been highly rated quite a few times recently, but they've been exposed as a paper tiger. All of the talent and experience will propel this group to some record-approaching numbers. The take-away margin will be in the healthy plus territory, they will block kicks and punts, the ends will take some pressure off of the tackles and the linebackers and secondaries will go down as all-time Buckeye greats for units. There will be shutouts and a few of them.

5. The Buckeyes will beat USC and go on to play in a third-straight MNC game.
I've swung from nervous as hell about USC earlier this summer to feeling stupidly confident, as of late. Both defenses will bring it on September 13, but Beanie, the line, Pryor and the overall experience of the Buckeye offense will be enough to overcome the home field advantage of the Trojans. From there, I think this team is experienced enough to remain focused throughout the rest of the schedule. Just like other championship teams, they'll need some luck and will have to overcome some crazy adversity in at least one conference game (looking your way, Madison) but they'll pull through.

What's in your five?

Fancy WCMH-4 graphic

In response to Gene Smith's open letter to OSU fans urging them to disconnect Time Warner in favor of other cable or satellite providers carrying the Big Ten Network, several local news outlets are reporting Time Warner has offered to show games covered by the Big Ten Network live and charge customers on a per game basis.

Time Warner Cable Executive Vice President Terry O' Connell's letter further indicated they'll let Smith set the price for the games and will allow OSU to keep all the revenue.

Of course, none of this is really up to Smith so he has forwarded the letter to the Big Ten Network honchos for review. Stay tuned...

Potokar: tough like Woody

Most of you know former Buckeye receiver Dan Potokar has been battling cancer for a good while now.

Back in late March, Potokar headed to Indy for extreme cancer treatment, so extreme that it was said he might not even survive the ordeal. Then, in late May, it was reported the treatment was successful and doctor's were optimistic.

There were even plans for Potokar to gain enough strength to play in Grove City's Alumni softball tournament in July.

Unfortunately, a note dated August 20th on Grove City's football site indicates Danny's aunt recently shared that the cancer has returned and is in his brain.

I'm confident we'll have some more updates here soon but in the meantime keep this kid in your prayers.

Laurinaitis, Jenkins, Robiskie and Boeckman were named captains for the 2008 season. I can't imagine anyone having too many beefs with those four.

Laurinaitis becomes the first two-time captain in seven years (and we're not printing the name of the last person to do that for fear of jinxing this season.)

I think it's safe to say that most of us consider Beanie Wells the preeminent running back in college football. His combination of size, speed and vision is rarely seen in running backs. Guys aren't compared to Jim Brown lightly but when Archie made the comparison last month, Buckeye fans didn't even flinch. He's just that good (and even SEC fans will admit that).

Striking a pose

After breaking Griffin's own Buckeye sophomore rushing record with 1,609 yards last season, he's a leading candidate to win the Heisman Trophy this season, which is fitting when you consider the pose represented on the hardware. The web's quintessential Heisman expert is all-aboard the Beanie wagon, so you have to figure he has a great shot to win it, right?

Wells rushed the ball 274 times last season, good enough for 5th all-time at Ohio State. Assuming he gets more carries his junior year and being free of injuries and with a better line, it's not out of the question to think he wouldn't be able to improve his 5.9 yards per carry to somewhere in the 6.5 range. With 300 rushes*, that's a 1,950 yard season -- certainly good enough to win the award, especially if the Buckeyes take care of business on the field.

But that boost in carries is not a given considering how many weapons this team has on offense. The Buckeyes will probably trot out more formations and personnel than at any other time during the Tressel era. Pony, pistol, 5-wides, Pryor -- regardless of how great Wells is, it's hard to envision him getting the ball as often as he did last season.

That and there certainly will be some Saturdays that Beanie won't even see the field in the second half due to blowouts. Sure, his 39 rushes against Michigan were the 4th-most in school history, but the 16 touches he got against Youngstown State and 12 he saw against Northwestern figure to be more common this season. Tressel is too much of a gentleman to pound teams with Wells when the Buckeyes are up 30.

The USC game does present a golden opportunity to make an early impression with voters, however. If he manages to put up 100 or more against this Trojan defense, that will go a long way towards boosting his candidacy, regardless of whether the Buckeyes win or lose. The Wisconsin, Illinois and Michigan games should also provide heavy workloads for him. Breaking 200 in a few of those key conference games does wonders for a campaign.

Ultimately, though, the Buckeyes will probably have to finish with 1 loss or less and Beanie will have to put up north of 1,900 yards (and hope Tebow doesn't match his soph numbers and Moreno doesn't top 2,000) to bring home the trophy and in doing so, he can both deny Tebow from matching Archie and also earn the school's 8th award, putting Ohio State alone in front of Notre Dame and USC.

Get the Picture does a nice job of wrapping up the various articles sprouting up about how to stop the spread. I'm reminded of the "Why The Option is All the Rage" callout on the cover of the Katzenmoyer '98 SI college football preview issue as I watch this arms race unfold.

Dennis Dodd makes a lot of sense when he points out that top talent will come home to pro-style schools when they see the approach not translating to prosperous NFL careers, but the quote from Dennis Erickson about getting guys that can run but aren't heavily recruited rings true as well.

What do you think? Will the spread eventually go the way of the option?

I was interviewed on the CFB Weekly blog radio show (my segment starts at the 40:50 mark) and though I think I'm coming off a little less d-baggy each time, I still can't run from that country grammar.

Quick reminder that you still have until 9PM tonight to enter the 2-year birthday contest. The feedback has been awesome, but we'd love to hear more about what we can do to get better.

* If he gets into '84 Byars (336 rushes) or '95 George (328) territory, it's over.

I know throwback jerseys are the preferred way for Buckeye fans to show love for legends of the past but feast your eyes on this baby.

You gotta admire a sweatshirt that maximizes every inch of frontal space with mad screen printing. A simple upper left chest emblem is for suckas.

Of course, to get the full effect, you better have a stout midsection to properly display the team picture and "National Champions" announcement along the bottom.

There's only one available. It's a Large, with a small stain ("half the size of a dime") and it's slightly used so expect it to fit like an Isotoner if you're over 170 lbs. Be the envy of your grandpa and snatch this puppy up before it's too late.

Joe clenches to hold in some liquid heat

We're counting down the weeks until kickoff by profiling a different Big Ten team each week. With Corey on his honeymoon, he handed me the keys to the weekly Sneak Peek. Today, we take a look at Great Grandpa Joe's Nittany Lions.

Most of the experts have PSU recording double digit wins this season which would be only the second time this millennium that Joe Pa reached the ten win plateau (11-1, '05). In fact, Joe Pa's program has gone just 55-42 since 2000 and that's including back to back 9-4 campaigns following the '05 run.

With the recent glut of Lions on the police blotter and the subsequent bad press, a disappointing 2008 season could force the university to finally rid themselves of their 137 year old coach and start anew. Lucky for Joe, the non-conference schedule features some serious cupcakes and they get a few key toss-up type conference games in Beaver.

COACHING: Paterno enters his 43rd year at the helm and currently trails Bobby Bowden by one W on the all-time wins list. With a soft schedule, he could regain the lead although no one should expect the Lions to pull any road upsets. According to Steele, Joe Pa's troops haven't beaten a ranked team on the road since a 2002 win over #19 Wisconsin. Further illustrating the decline is his nine straight losses to Michigan and a 13-25 road record in the last eight seasons. I know he's Joe Freaking Paterno but can you imagine if Ohio State held on to a coach with these stats?

OFFENSE: If the Lions receive decent QB play from Sr. Daryll Clark and/or So. Pat Devlin, they should put up some points with the conversion back to a spread offense. Helping the inexperienced signal callers will be an offensive line that returns five starters led by Sr. center AQ Shipley.

In the backfield, So. Evan Royster is a decent sized tailback who put up a solid 6.3 ypc in backup duties last season while redshirt frosh Stephon Green brings his 4.2 40-time and lots of hype from the spring game into fall camp. The duo gives PSU a solid power/speed combo but the real offensive strength projects to be at wide receiver.

Thus far, senior WR's Derrick Williams, Jordan Norwood, and Deon Butler have failed to live up the hype they came in with but the trio did manage to combine for 1,600+ yards and and 12 TD's last season. With the aforementioned return to the spread and inexperience at QB, I can only assume a big part of the game plan will be to get these guys the ball on short routes and look for big chunks of YAC, especially in man coverage against the lesser teams on the schedule.

DEFENSE: The defense projects to be solid but the defensive line has taken one kick to the cup after another with the loss of three defensive linemen in the last month.

First, Chris Baker and Phil Taylor were booted from the team in late July after Paterno felt the heat of an ESPN Outside the Lines piece that chronicled PSU's recent off-field troubles including on campus fights involving Baker and Taylor. More recently, Devon Still broke his ankle in practice requiring 8-10 weeks recovery time.

The good news is PSU has significant depth along the defensive line and should be able to overcome the losses in most matchups. On the outside, All Big Ten DE Maurice Evans will do his part to negatively impact opposing passing attacks.

The linebacking corps at Linebacker U#2 is a little thin on experience with the loss of Dan Conner to the NFL combined with Sean Lee's season ending knee injury suffered in spring ball. Sr. Tyrell Sales will be one starter with a pair of lesser experienced sophomores in Chris Colasanti and Bani Gbadyu expected to see plenty of action. These guys have talent but it will be up to the remaining d-lineman to free up the LB's to make plays.

In the secondary, an experienced if not overly impressive group is led by All Big Ten Sr. Anthony Scirrotto. This assumes the team captain doesn't partake in any more fights prior to opening kickoff.

KEY GAME: The conference opener at home against Illinois will be a big one. PSU should come in to the game 4-0 and will look to keep the momentum going against Zooker before back to back road games at Purdue and Wisconsin before hosting Michigan. Considering Joe Pa's road struggles, capturing the conference opener could be the key in avoiding an 0-3 (or worse) conference start.

BEST-CASE: If the Lions can hold serve against the Illini and capture one of the two first road games they could be on their way to 9-3 heading into the bowl game.

WORST-CASE: If the defense struggles to overcome the losses up front and the injury to Lee, that could put some pressure on the two QB's to outscore opponents. Road losses to Purdue, Wisconsin, Ohio State and potential home losses to an improved Michigan State team and Michigan (10 straight?!) and the Lions could be looking at a worst case of 7-5 heading into the bowl game.

I'm anxious to see how the season unfolds for this team and this coach. It will be a roller coaster if they stumble on or off the field. If they get off to a bad start in conference, you have to wonder if the press and fanbase will turn on the fossil running the show. It's a shame that most Buckeye fans now view Paterno the same way we did Lloyd, meaning we'd all prefer he stay forever because he's just good enough to be decent but not good enough to threaten OSU.

For those of you holding out for a Time Warner/Big Ten Network deal before the opener, you may want to look into changing your cable provider. At least that's the advice of Buckeye AD Gene Smith, who published a letter to fans today:

The letter opens:

Dear Buckeye Fans:
I am writing to update you on the status of negotiations between the Big Ten Network and Time Warner Cable. Today -- just 10 days from our kickoff against Youngstown State on the network -- there is no deal in place with Time Warner. This is especially disheartening because in addition to the Youngstown State game, the network also will televise our game with Troy University on Sept. 20 and very possibly the conference opener against Minnesota. That means three of the Buckeyes' first five games will be on the network, with the possibility of an additional conference tilt later in the year.

While negotiations are ongoing with Time Warner, it appears very unlikely that an agreement will be reached before the first game of the year, and anything beyond that is problematic.

Therefore, we feel compelled to let Buckeye fans know that there is only one way you would be guaranteed to get the Big Ten Network in time to see us take the field against Youngstown State. And that is to call one of the providers now carrying the network in the state: DirectTV, DISH Network, AT&T, Insight, WOW, Buckeye Cablevision and Massillon Cable TV, to name some of the largest

To stress his fierce urgency of now, he even invoked the rivalry:

It is a shame that due to Time Warner's decision, nearly all Michigan fans have the network, but Buckeye fans do not.

Are you still holding out or have you moved on to another carrier? I know Time Warner owns central Ohio, so to speak, but I'd love to see their market share numbers over the past two years.

The team held their annual kick scrimmage earlier and if the season goes how the scrimmage did, we could be in for some more heartburn when the team lines up for field goals. Pretorius was 5/8, including a miss from 35, Pettrey missed his first three before finishing just 4 of 8, while Buchanon was 1 for 4. He's young, but the numbers out of the other two are a bit disconcerting.

Backup punter Jon Thoma seemed to get the best of A.J. Soprano Trapasso. Oh, and the defense had three blocks -- two out of Coleman.

If USC has to look to Mitch Mustain to fill-in for Mark Sanchez, they may be vulnerable. A former beat reporter for the Trojans is saying that Mustain has lost his groove and may be supplanted by redshirt frosh Aaron Corp in the 2 spot.