Right: Jack Tatum (far right) was the honorary captain at last year’s USC game.
(Photo courtesy of The Lantern)

Yesterday, Buckeye Nation lost one of its greats when it was reported that former Ohio State defensive back Jack Tatum died of a heart attack at the age of 61.

Nicknamed “The Assassin,” Tatum was fiery competitor and was considered as one of the hardest hitters ever to play the game.

Tatum came to Columbus in 1967 from Passaic, New Jersey. He didn’t play football until his sophomore year at Passaic High, but eventually became a high school All-American during his senior season. In 1999, the Newark Star-Ledger named Tatum as one of New Jersey’s top ten defensive players of the century.

Since freshman were ineligible to play back in 1967, Tatum had to sit out with the rest of the players in his recruiting class that included quarterback Rex Kern, running back John Brockington, and middle guard Jim Stillwagon, among others.
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Right: Alabama’s junior running back Mark Ingram returns, looking to win his second Heisman Trophy and back-to-back national titles.
(AP Photo)

With the college football season just over a month away, it’s time for our preseason top 25 college football poll while we take a look at the NCAA Football Odds of who could be hoisting the crystal BCS National Championship trophy at the end of the year.

1. Alabama - They are the defending national champions and return nine starters on offense which includes Heisman Trophy-winning running back, junior Mark Ingram. They also just might have the best one-two punch at the tailback position with sophomore Trent Richardson. The two of them combined for 416 carries, 2,409 yards and 25 touchdowns last fall.

At quarterback, senior quarterback Greg McElroy returns after throwing for 2,508 yards while completing 60.9 percent of his passes with 17 touchdowns and four interceptions.

McElroy has two quality receivers to throw the ball to with juniors Julio Jones and Marquis Maze. Combined, the duo hauled in 74 passes for 919 yards and six scores.

The one problem Alabama has is on the defensive side of the ball as the Crimson Tide returns just two starters from last year’s team. In fact, only one of the top seven tacklers from the national champion team are back, and that’s junior strong safety Mark Barron.
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Right: Junior quarterback Willy Korn, a transfer from Clemson, arrived in Huntington this summer to compete for a starting job this fall.
(Lori Wolfe/The Herald-Dispatch)

This is the first in a series of articles that preview all 12 of Ohio State’s upcoming opponents for the 2010 season.

There’s a new sheriff in town, or is it marshall, as Doc Holliday replaces Mark Snyder, who spent five seasons as head coach at Marshall.

Snyder, a former assistant under Jim Tressel at Youngstown State then later at Ohio State, guided the Thundering Herd to a 6-6 regular season mark, but following an embarrassing 52-21 loss to UTEP in the 2009 finale, promptly resigned from the head coaching position.
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Massillon Washington’s Devin Smith became the 15th member for the class of 2011 today.

Smith, a 6-foot-1, 175-pound wide receiver chose Ohio State over Boston College, Cincinnati, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Michigan State, Nebraska, Notre Dame, Penn State, Pittsburgh, Purdue, West Virginia and Wisconsin among others.

As a junior, Smith caught 50 passes for 889 yards with 15 touchdowns.

With a recruiting class that’s expected to have about 22 members for the class of 2011, the Buckeyes have about seven more spots open.

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Right: Greg Beals becomes just the fourth baseball coach at Ohio State in 59 years.
(Ball State Photo)

Strike up the Flashdance music, Greg Beals is the new baseball coach at Ohio State.

Beals, who spent the last eight seasons at Ball State, will be named the Buckeyes’ new skipper in a press conference later this afternoon, according to various sources.

The Muncie (Ind.) Star Press reported this morning that “Beals sent out a text message to the Ball State players and coaches shortly after 6 p.m. Wednesday informing them of his decision to accept the offer.”

Beals just concluded his eighth season as head coach of the Ball State baseball program. During his time at BSU, Beals guided the Cardinals to three seasons of 35 wins or more as well as three Mid-American Conference West division titles. He has tallied an overall record of 243-202.

Before becoming the head coach at Ball State, Beals had spent the nine previous seasons as an assistant coach at Kent State, his alma mater.

A native of Springfield, Ohio, Beals attended Kenton Ridge High School and was a 22nd-round selection of the New York Mets in the 1991 Major League Baseball Draft, spending three years in the Mets’ farm system before he became an assistant at Kent State.

Beals replaces Bob Todd, who announced his retirement during the final week of the regular season. Todd spent 23 years as the head coach of the Buckeyes.

Beals becomes just the fourth baseball coach at Ohio State in 59 years. Along with Todd (1988-2010), there’s only been Dick Finn (1976-87) and Marty Karow (1951-75) since 1951, the same year legendary football coach Woody Hayes was hired.

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Pelini was raised in Youngstown, Ohio, and attended Cardinal Mooney High School. He played free safety for Ohio State under former coaches Earle Bruce and John Cooper from 1987-90 and was a starter during his junior and senior seasons.

Pelini served as a team co-captain in his senior year, along with Vinnie Clark, Jeff Graham and Greg Frey. He earned his bachelor’s degree in business marketing from The Ohio State University in 1990.

From 1991-2002, he was an assistant football coach on various levels with stops at Iowa, Cardinal Mooney, the San Francisco 49ers, New England Patriots and Green Bay Packers.

In 2002, Pelini landed in Lincoln as the defensive coordinator for Nebraska under Frank Solich. Pelini was the Cornhuskers’ DC for just one year after Solich was fired at the end of the regular season. Pelini was the interim head coach for one game and led Nebraska to a 17-3 win over Michigan State in the Alamo Bowl. Pelini later interviewed for the head coach position, but then-athletic director Steve Pederson instead decided after a 41-day search to hire Bill Callahan, who had just been fired by the Oakland Raiders.

Pelini went on to become the co-defensive coordinator at Oklahoma for one season before moving on to be the DC at LSU from 2005-07.

After the 2007 season in which Nebraska went 5-7, current athletic director Tom Osborne fired Callahan and after a nine-day search, Pelini was hired as the Cornhuskers new coach.

In two seasons guiding the Huskers, Pelini is 20-8 with two bowl wins.

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In this video, Coach DiNardo gives you three examples of how the Big Ten could be aligned with two divisions. There’s an east/west split, a north/south one, and then the third scenario he evenly distributes the winningest football programs into two different divisions.

While the first of his alignment ideas is a no-brainer, I think the second puts more demands in terms of travel. The third suggestion, though, seems to be right on.

Most people in the know have stated that Ohio State and Michigan should to be in the same division, but I don’t think that’s a necessity. The Buckeyes and the Wolverines can still meet every year without being paired in the same group. It just might mean, though, that the greatest rivalry in all of sports will be played in late September or early October instead of the customary end of November.

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Above: University of Nebraska-Lincoln president Harvey Perlman (left)
with athletic director Tom Osborne. (Huskers.com Photo)

Ever since Penn State was offered an invitation to the Big Ten and accepted back in 1990, it took the conference 20 years to finally get that vaunted 12th member. The University of Notre Dame was courted several times in the last two decades and nearly joined back in 2003, but today it was Nebraska.

The University of Nebraska-Lincoln Board of Regents met earlier this afternoon and one of the topics that was on the agenda was a “resolution regarding UNL athletic conference alignment.”

At its board meeting, the Regents adopted a resolution to submit an application for membership in the Big Ten Conference and, if approved, for association with its academic counterparts. The board voted unanimously 8-0 to submit that application.
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According to the official Facebook page of University of Nebraska Athletics, the university’s Board of Regents will meet today at 2:00 p.m. ET in Lincoln and one of the topics on the agenda is a “resolution regarding UNL athletic conference alignment.”

It’s assume that Nebraska will then announce that they have accepted an invitation to the Big Ten.

You can watch portions of this meeting at netnebraska.org and follow along on the Huskers’ Twitter page.

So, where do the Huskers fit in with the rest of the Big Ten as the conference will now go to two divisions.

The easiest way is to split the Big Ten, geographically speaking, is dividing the conference into East and West divisions. With that, you would have Penn State, Ohio State, Michigan, Michigan State, Indiana and Purdue in the East, with Illinois, Northwestern, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa and Nebraska members of the West.

More to come on BuckeyeBanter.com!

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Right: DUDE, LET’S PARTY! Former Buckeye defensive back Mark “Bo” Pelini, now the head coach at Nebraska, seen here enjoying the French Quarter in a Tribe hat and t-shirt.
(Deadspin Photo)

The World Wide Web blew up last night amid several reports that Nebraska could join the Big Ten as soon as Friday, according to various sources.

In today’s edition of the Omaha World Herald, Henry J. Cordes states that “the N.U. Board of Regents laid the legal groundwork Friday to consider a possible Big Ten move. The agenda for Friday’s regents meeting was amended to allow a discussion and vote for a resolution on conference alignment.”
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Right: Ohio State’s two-time All-American pitcher, Alex Wimmers, was selected in the first round by the Minnesota Twins.
(File Photo)

Ohio State’s Alex Wimmers, a junior pitcher and two-time All-American from Archbishop Moeller High School in Cincinnati, was selected by the Minnesota Twins in the first round (21st overall) of the 2010 Major League First-Year Player Draft, Monday night.

During the 2010 season, Wimmers was 9-0 in 10 starts with a 1.60 ERA for the Buckeyes. The 6-foot-2 right-hander struck out 86 while allowing just 23 walks in 73 innings pitched and did not yield a single home run as opposing batters hit just .218 against him.
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Right: Evan Ravenel (24), seen here playing for Boston College in the 2010 ACC Men’s Basketball Tournament at the Greensboro Coliseum against Virginia, is Ohio State’s newest addition to the program.
(Getty Images)

This morning, Ohio State head men’s basketball coach Thad Matta announced that Boston College transfer, Evan Ravenel, a 6-foot-8, 255-pound power forward will be joining the team.

Ravenel asked for and was given his release to transfer to another school after Boston College fired head coach Al Skinner in March. He was the third player to leave the Eagles program since the end of the season.

Due transfer rules, Ravenel will have to sit out next season, but will be eligible to play for the 2011-12 hoops campaign.

Ravenel, who hails from Brandon, Fla., was originally recruited by and had scholarship offers from Miami (Fla.), Penn State, Tulane, Alabama-Birmingham, Virginia Tech and Wichita State, as well as Boston College where he eventually signed.
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Right: Joel Hale from Greenwood, Indiana, is the 14th commitment for Ohio State’s class of 2011.
(Gridiron Report Photo)

Ohio State added yet another recruit to the mix for the class of 2011 when Joel Hale (not to be confused with TV star and comedian, Joel McHale) announced his intentions of attending The Ohio State University and playing football for head coach Jim Tressel, last night.

Hale, a 6-foot-4, 290-pound defensive tackle from Center Grove High School in Greenwood, Ind., had several scholarship offers from other schools as well that include: Cincinnati, Florida, Georgia Tech, Indiana, Iowa State, Kentucky, Michigan, Michigan State, Penn State, Purdue and Wisconsin.

Hale is considered one of the Midwest’s top defensive linemen. Currently he plays at end on his high school team, but is projected to be a tackle in Ohio State’s 4-3 scheme.

Hale finished his junior season with 50 tackles, 12 tackles for loss, four sacks and one interception for a touchdown.
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