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No. 14 Ohio State (3-1) vs. Minnesota Golden Gophers (4-0)

Date: Saturday, September 27
Time: 12:00 PM ET
Place: Ohio Stadium – capacity 101,568
TV: Big Ten Network will televise the game. Thom Brennaman will call the play-by-play with analysis from Charles Davis and Glen Mason. Charissa Thompson is the sideline reporter.
Radio: WBNS-AM 1460 The Fan in Columbus is the flagship station for the 73-station Ohio State Radio Network. The Jim Tressel Pregame Show airs 30 minutes prior to kickoff. “Big Daddy” Paul Keels will call the play-by-play and will be assisted by former Buckeye Jim Lachey in the booth and Marty Bannister on the sidelines.
Weather from 10 TV: Mostly cloudy skies and a game time temperature of 70 degrees.
Latest Line: Ohio State is an 18 1/2-point favorite. The Over & Under is 47 1/2.
Series History: This is the 48th meeting between the two schools. Ohio State owns a 40-7 record against Minnesota. The Buckeyes have won five-straight games, including a 30-7 decision at the Metrodome last year.

So, Coach Tressel has been riding the offensive line hard in practice and the usually subdued Senator Sweater Vest is yelling and screaming to light a fire under these guys.

With left guard Steve Rehring still out with an injury, center Jim Cordle will once again slide over to take his place, and true freshman Michael Brewster will make his second start snapping to another true freshman, Terrelle Pryor.

Oh, and some guy nicknamed Beanie is also back in the starting line-up after missing the last three games with a toe injury. Not sure how much he will play, but the over & under for the amount of carries he will get is 15. Redshirt freshman Boom Herron will also share the workload.

There has been a shake-up on the defensive line. Doug Worthington is back in the starting line-up at tackle and Cameron Heyward moves from end to take over the other tackle spot. Sophomore Thaddeus Gibson now gets the nod at one end position along with Lawrence Wilson.

With Minnesota liking to spread their offense out, Curtis Terry and Robert Rose will also see playing time on the defensive line.

Offensively, it will be interesting to see how the offense runs this week with Beanie in the line-up. I think it may be possible to see Beanie on first and second downs, with Herron or others coming in on third down, especially in long yardage situations.

One encouraging note form last week on designed pass plays is that Pryor moved around to buy more time, but never really had “happy feet.” His first option was to throw the ball, not run.

While Minnesota’s defense has improved from last season with 10 seniors or juniors in the starting line-up, the Gophers are more vulnerable to the pass.

In Minnesota’ season-opener, Northern Illinois’ Chandler Harnich passed for 326 yards and two touchdowns against the Gophers, who needed a touchdown with 22 seconds left in the game to defeat the Huskies 31-27.

One week later, Bowling Green quarterback Tyler Sheehan tossed for 261 yards and a score in the Falcons’ 42-17 loss to Minnesota.

Granted, Ohio State is going to establish the run first, but it will also be a good opportunity for Pryor to toss the ball around the field, especially with the Buckeyes traveling to Madison to take on the Wisconsin Badgers, next week. And with Beanie back, Pryor won’t have to run as much.

Minnesota will mix the run with the pass and has a mobile quarterback in sophomore Adam Weber, who threw for 235 yards and a score with one interception, last week. For the season, Weber has completed 71.8 percent of his passes for 967 yards with seven TDS and one INT.

Freshman running backs DeLeon Eskridge (47 att., 204 yards, 5 TDs) and Shady Salamon (22 att., 122 yards, 2 TDs) are the two that will get the bulk of the carries after Duane Bennett tore his ACL vs. Bowling Green.

Analysis and Prediction

On paper, Ohio State’s offense should not have much trouble moving the ball against the Gophers, but that remains to be seen. With Terrelle and Beanie, we also need to see more Ray Small.

On the defensive side of the ball, the Buckeyes have registered just six sacks in four games. In order for a defense to be effective, you have to get consistent pressure on the quarterback. Against USC, Mark Sanchez was to sit back in the pocket and pull out his Blackberry to text message his friends before finding an open receiver. Hopefully the changes in the defensive line will work.

Ohio State 31, Minnesota 10

Tags: Football by Matt Barker, Publisher & Editor of BuckeyeBanter.com
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Right: OSU’s offensive coordinator and line coach, Jim Bollman, during his playing days at Ashtabula’s Harbor High School in 1973.
Star Beacon Photo

While we have no use for Frank Costanza, his metal pole, or his Festivus holiday, we do have this week’s installment of “Airing of Grievances.” This one has been submitted Foster Marshall of Chicago, Ill.

Please Note: I will do my best to edit this, but bear in mind, I have never spent one day as an English professor. – Matt

Yesterday, I was reading this article over on The O-Zone, and all I can think is, “Are you kidding me!?”

I am so glad I am not a beat reporter in the room asking these questions to the players. After hearing some of these answers, I can just see myself turning redder and redder in the face as I go along asking each follow-up question with an ever-rising tenor in my voice.

“So, this is the first time the O-Line has been yelled at during practice? So, Coach Bollman never yells at you? What does Bollman do?”

Shortly thereafter, gooey cranial fluid and spongy gray matter would be splattered all over the walls and the ceiling, while covering the reporters along with the surprised interviewees.

Being slightly calmer now, let me start by saying that on one hand, I could not be happier reading this article and hearing how Coach Tressel appointed himself as Coach Bollman’s assistant since the
USC disaster. John Porentas’ (editor of The O-Zone) article is superb in describing several of the steps that Tressel is personally taking to get the sum parts of this team fixed.

But the list is long. The Pryor-for-Boeckman exchange, a new face on the O-Line (albeit due to an injury to Steve Rehring), defensive end Cameron Heyward moving to tackle and Thaddeus Gibson now at end, and lots of freshman in the two-deep. (Herron, Sabino, etc.)

Tressel is currently working personally with the offensive line, and with his emotion and intensity on the sidelines during the Troy game, along with his one-on-one attention with players during game, it’s all a response to those fans demanding him do something. As they say, “In Tressel, we trust.”

But seriously, what does it all mean?

What kind of schoolgirl coaching are we getting from Bollman? To hear it from the likes of Jim Cordle and Alex Boone, the offensive line never gets yelled at and has been doing whatever they want.

Since the USC game, Coach Tressel has been joining Coach Bollman in conducting practices for the offensive line.

Boone had this to say:

He’s [Tressel] done it every day. We thought it was going to be a one-shot, one-time deal, but he’s down there all the time. He’s down there yelling at us to move, keep going, finish. It’s a lot better.”

…and Cordle added this nugget of wisdom:

We were kind of like, ‘This is our O-line and we’ve known each other, we can just play the way we want to play. Coach Tress is showing us that ‘No, you’re going to play the way I
want you to play,’ which is nice because that’s how I think a lot of us are. We need to get yelled at to play better.”

What!? Cordle is saying this is “our O-Line” and “we can just play the way we want to?” Are you kidding me? And what’s this about “needing” to get yelled at to play better?

Seriously? Screaming and yelling is going to create the motivation to make you play better? ‘

Personally, I would have thought that some of the “fire” would have been created when the Ohio Bobcats’ defensive line was pushing you guys around. I also thought that there should have been sufficient motivation from the manhandling they received from the USC defensive line and their linebackers.

Finally, where has Tressel been in all this? I know he’s the head coach and all, but this is astonishing.

Three words: Entitled. Soft. Coddled.

Three more words: Fire. Bollman. Now!

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On Tuesday following practice, several of Ohio State’s players were made available to answer questions from the media, and one of them was senior left tackle Alex Boone.

One thing is for sure, Boone is not shy and he will speak his mind when given the opportunity. An Outland Trophy candidate, Boone is projected as a first-round pick in the 2009 NFL Draft next April.

Boone spoke about Ohio State fans booing quarterback Todd Boeckman, and this is what he had to say:

I think one of the most disappointing things, and a lot of guys didn’t want me to say this, but I think I’m going to have to, is the fact he went out there and he did what he could – a lot of the seniors were very upset when he got booed. I think that shows a lot of disrespect from the fans. I think a lot of guys – this kid took us to a championship last year. How could you boo him?”

He didn’t play so great against USC, but who did? None of us did. We all got smashed, and people started booing him and everybody kind of got mad about that. He made the read and he threw the ball and it was a little short and all of a sudden people are starting to scream. And the O line was like maybe we thought somebody hit him or something happened, and then I’m watching the film and people are like, ‘Man, can you believe they booed him?’ That’s not right and I don’t think that’s fair. People should give him another chance. And stand behind your team, you know.”

Personally, I was appalled that Boeckman was booed after he badly short-hopped his intended receiver, Brian Hartline, in the second quarter against Troy for his only passing attempt of the game.

On the next play, Terrelle Pryor came back in and threw a 33-yard pass to Brian Robiskie, only to be nullified on a penalty when Robiskie briefly went out of bounds before catching the ball. Ohio State was then forced to punt, leading 7-3.

But seriously, Ohio State’s offense has sputtered because Boone and the other four offensive linemen on any given play has performed less than favorably.

It’s really hard to pinpoint the problems in the O-line, whether it’s poor technique, not firing off the ball like they should, overall lazy play, or a combination of the three. If this were a test, I would checked the box, “All of the above.”

Yes, Beanie Wells can make a mediocre offensive line looked good because of his burst of speed through the line of scrimmage and his ability to break tackles. You are not going to being him down by arm-tackling, and it almost always take more than one defender to bring him down. That can’t be said for the other three backs.

One thing is for sure, and that’s if the offensive line was playing like they are capable of then Boeckman still might be the starting quarterback. Unfortunately, Boeckman is not real mobile and has a hard time sensing pressure when the pocket collapses. Of course when given time to throw the ball, he does well.

Another problem for Ohio State quarterbacks is that the Buckeyes two main receivers are not speed merchants. According to Rivals.com, Robiskie was clocked in the 40-yard dash at 4.52 seconds. Hartline, meanwhile, was timed at even slower 4.59 seconds when both were seniors in high school four years ago.

The offensive line needs to block, the quarterback must read the defense and react, and the receivers need to get open. Those three things have to happen in order to throw the ball downfield.

Surprisingly through four games, Ray Small leads the Buckeyes with 14 receptions, but averages just 6.6 yards per catch, which is not very good when you’re the offense’s main vertical threat. By the way, Small was timed running a 4.45-second 40-yard dash in high school. The problem is, Small has gone through Coach Tressel’s revolving door on the dog house one too many times this season.

Another option Tressel should consider is getting freshman Lamaar “Flash” Thomas more playing time at wide receiver, who’s a burner with 4.4 speed. He’s played in two games and has just one reception so far this season.

The old adage always applies, speed kills. Ohio State has it, but the coaching staff needs to utilize it better on the offensive side of the ball. What may work against Big Ten opponents doesn’t seem to against the big boys out of conference.

Oh, Pryor runs a 4.4 forty, too.

Tags: Football by Matt Barker, Publisher & Editor of BuckeyeBanter.com
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While most Americans are pondering their choice between Barack Obama and John McCain for president come November, college football fans can vote their head coach for the Liberty Mutual Coach of the Year Award.

Unlike Obama and McCain, Tressel has no running mate that has hair plugs or is some rifle-toting woman from an Alaskan outpost, he’s his own man. And as they use to say in Chicago, “Vote early and vote often.”

The Liberty Mutual Coach of the Year is awarded to the college football coach who best demonstrates sportsmanship, integrity, responsibility, and excellence on and off the field.

In 2008, four head coaches will be named a Liberty Mutual Coach of the Year in each NCAA division: DI, DIAA, DII, and DIII. The award process will take place over the course of the college football season, and fan votes will influence the outcome.

Acts of responsibility take place all around us and deserve recognition. That’s why, three years ago, Liberty Mutual created the Liberty Mutual Coach of the Year Award. It recognizes that academic standings mean as much as division standings, and that how you win is every bit as important as winning itself.

More than just a trophy, the Liberty Mutual Coach of the Year Award provides each winning coach with $50,000 to donate to one or more charitable organizations of his choice and a $20,000 grant to donate to his school’s alumni association to enhance student scholarships and activities. As of last year, $300,000 has been donated to charity, and $100,000 given to alumni associations.

Voting began on September 17 and runs through December 6 with the fans making up 20 percent of the decision-making process, with 55 percent coming from College Football Hall of Fame panel, and another 25 percent coming from the national media.

Not only can you vote for Tressel, but for other Ohio coaches from the various levels of NCAA football competition like Jon Heacock (Youngstown State, DI-AA), Rick Chamberlain (Dayton, DI-AA), Al West (Central State, DII), John Snell (Baldwin-Wallace, DIII), Jim Bickel (Capital, DIII), Greg Debeljak (Case Western Reserve, DIII), Larry Kehres (Mount Union, DIII), among others.

Last year’s winners include Ron Zook (Illinois, DI-A), Jerry Kill (Southern Illinois, DI-AA), Bill O’Boyle (Chardon State, DII), and John Gagliardi (St. John’s, DIII).

Please note that you can vote daily until December 6, with the winners being announced on December 31.

To vote, click on the banner at the top of the article.

Tags: Football by Matt Barker, Publisher & Editor of BuckeyeBanter.com
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Right: Oh no, it’s my wacky dentist thinking he’s Jim Tressel again. “Let’s go with a root canal on tooth nine, room three…”
Matt Barker Photo

It’s that time of the week where reporters from all over the great state of Ohio convene to the Jack Nicklaus Museum on Olentangy River Rd. to hear to legendary head coach Jim Tressel speak and answer questions during his weekly press conference.

Every Tuesday, “Jungle” Jack Hanna brings various aninals from the Columbus Zoo, and Jared “The Subway Guy” caters the event with his tasty sandwiches. It’s fun for the whole family!

Without further ado, Coach Tressel’s opening statements:

Welcome, everyone, to the Big Ten season. We had a good ball game this past weekend. As we talked about last Tuesday, Troy is a tough football team. They’ve traveled everywhere and played in every venue you can possibly play in and against every ranked opponent from Number 1 to Number 10 and we knew it would be a battle and it was a four-quarter battle. Nice, hot day. A little bit of a tester to everyone, and it was good to come away with a significant win.”

Then Coach Tressel announces the players of the game vs. Troy, though the main two should come as no surprise:

Defensively, Kurt Coleman was the defensive player of the game and Kurt came up with the big interceptions and played just a good, tough game out there. The ball was spread all over the field. There was a lot of running, a lot of hitting, a lot of coverage involved and Kurt did an excellent job from that standpoint.

The offensive player of the week was Terrelle Pryor for the first time going in and carrying the load and having to make decisions, change plays, make plays, decide not to throw it somewhere, which we always say is as important as where you decide to throw it and he was 10 for 16 and had another 66 yards rushing and I thought showed good poise out there in a tough ball game where Troy’s defense was an aggressive one and came after him and he obviously made some plays.”

Shortly after that, Coach Tressel talks about Minnesota, and one of the first things he mentions is their turnover margin, which I document in my preview of the Golden Gophers:

Obviously, Minnesota has done a great job first and foremost with the turnover margin. It’s 13-2 in their favor. So if you’re at a 13-2 turnover margin, you’re going to have a lot of wins. They’ve also done a nice job with their special teams. Their punter is excellent. He’s created great field position for them, he’s a senior, a veteran, good hang time. Their cover units have been good. Their return men are good. Their kickoff return, in particular, has been very, very good. They put a lot of pressure with the punt rush unit. And so the things that really sway games, which are turnovers and special teams, they’re doing very, very well. Offensively and defensively you can see that they are growing in their system. Coach Brewster but together a great staff. He’s got Phil Roof as his defensive coordinator who is an outstanding Coach. He’s got Mike Dunbar who many of us know from years when he was at Northwestern and did a great job coordinating their offensive as well and I remember when he was the head coach at Northern Iowa he had great teams. So they’ve got excellent plans, excellent staff. Offensively their quarterback is tough. He’s efficient. He took every snap in their season last year, which — that’s amazing when a guy can — he was a redshirt freshman and took every snap in their season and he continues to somehow find Number 7. Decker is a great player. He knows how to get open. He knows what you’re doing. They’ve done a good job on their offensive line. They did get someone banged up at tailback earlier but they didn’t lose a step. As they moved forward from that.

Defensively, they’ve brought in a system within their second year as a staff when Coach Roof came in that applies a little bit more pressure, I think has done a great job in being sound. They’ve faced a lot of different kinds of offenses. Northern Illinois was one whole different style and then they go to Bowling Green and it was all four wides, five wides and they handled that. Then Montana State was back at home and they were kind of a combination of both Northern Illinois and Minnesota. They had a little bit of both. And then Florida Atlantic, which was a team that beat them a year ago, they thrashed pretty good 37-3 this past Saturday evening, and they really stymied Florida Atlantic’s offense, which a year ago scored a bunch of points on them.”

The first question from a reporter was that it was little out of character for Coach Tressel to shift away from a sixth-year senior for a true freshman, and he was asked what Terrelle gives him offensively that maybe he wasn’t getting before?

I thought that as Terrelle came in and grew to learn the system and in large part, thanks to Todd because Todd embraced him from the moment they came on campus, he helped him all summer long, you know it’s a little different era now where the freshmen come in in June and they go to all those workouts that the seniors hold on their own, they have seven on seven and they learn terminology and all of a sudden we’re in preseason and he’s rooming with him and talking him through things and in between every snap, all preseason, all August and September long, and the fact that he, from a knowledge standpoint, was so far along, probably further along than I’ve ever seen a freshman quarterback, and then you add the dimension of what he can do with his feet maybe makes up a little bit for when you’re a little shorthanded at running back compared to what you thought you were going to be, so you add all the different things together and whether it’s in character or out of character, what’s most important is we do what we think is the best thing that can help us at the moment, and, you know, so that’s what we felt we needed to go with.

Boeckman, who took two snaps all game vs. Troy and attempted just one pass, which he badly short-hopped to his intended receiver, was booed after that play by the Buckeye faithful in attendance. While I have not made any statement regarding that incident until now, I think it was wrong on so many levels. Coach Tressel was asked if he heard the boos and what he thought about it:

Yeah, that’s disappointing. I know we’re allowed to do what we want to do, but Todd Boeckman is a first-class guy. You guys were all in the post-game. I mean, he’s first-class. He cares about his team. Would he rather than out there? Absolutely. Does he want to try to find a way to get out there more? Absolutely. Did he not throw a good ball one time Saturday? Absolutely. But he’s thrown some pretty good balls and he’s been a part of the fans having a lot of things to cheer about over the last five years, but that’s part of the deal and it’s disappointing, but we’re certainly not going to sit and scold anybody because we’ve got enough problems of our own.”

Coach Tressel was then asked about the quarterback situation and whether or not Terrelle was his guy now or how will that will shake out?

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.”

Later, Coach Tressel was asked about his offense and his assessment of it, which includes the status of Beanie Wells.

I think we’re trying to play with a little bit more velocity and quickness than I felt we were playing with earlier in the year. I think that we’re learning a little bit more about who we are. Now, it takes a little bit of a side-step. 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.”

So he’s still day-to-day?

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

With that, the follow-up question to Coach Tressel was what does his return mean?

You know, I think it adds to our arsenal. He’s a good back. He can do some things so exactly how that will unfold, I don’t know that we’ve gotten into that predicting yet because it was Monday, and now he’s got to put the full pads on today and we’ve got to whack him a little bit and all those things, but I know this, I was encouraged at how he looked and how he said felt and so I guess that’s to be seen.”

Tags: Football by Matt Barker, Publisher & Editor of BuckeyeBanter.com
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Right: Sophomore quarterback Adam Weber has completed 71.8 percent of his passes and averages 241.8 yards per game.
AP Photo/Paul Battaglia

MINNESOTA, 4-0

Quickly, can you name the Big Ten school that has gone the longest without a Rose Bowl appearance?

That would Minnesota, who last played in Pasadena 47 years ago when the Golden Gophers defeated UCLA 21-3 back in 1962, led by the first African-American named All-American at the quarterback position, Sandy Stephens.

But that was the golden age of gridiron glory for Gopher football as Minnesota won a national championship in 1960, and made consecutive trips to the Rose Bowl in ’61 and ’62. The last time the Maroon & Gold laid claim to a Big Ten championship was in 1967.

While the 60s may have been the pinnacle of Minnesota football, last season was definitely a low point after the Gophers sustained the most losses for one season in school history by going 1-11 during the 2007 campaign.

Second-year head coach Tim Brewster has the Gophers moving in the right direction, quadrupling last year’s win output already with a record of 4-0. Granted, those wins were not against the big dogs of the BCS, in fact, none of them were, but victories against Northern Illinois (31-27), Bowling Green (42-17), Montana State (35-23), and Florida Atlantic (37-3) are positives.

Minnesota’s win over Florida Atlantic last Saturday was the most impressive to date. The Owls were the Sun Belt Conference champion a year ago and returned 17 starters. FAU defeated Minnesota in 2007 by the score of 42-29.

As the Gophers play their 29th and final year at the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome before moving into TCF Bank Stadium, an on-campus facility seating 50,200 fans next season, it has been “Home Sweet Dome” for Minnesota so far in 2007, going 3-0 in a place more known for it’s Hefty bag in right field as the home of the Minnesota Twins.

Last Saturday at the Metrodome, 6-foot-3, 220-pound sophomore quarterback Adam Weber threw for 235 yards and a score on 19-of-24 passing with one interception while DeLeon Eskridge, a 5-foot-11, 190-pound backup running back, who was subbing for the injured Duane Bennett, rushed for 78 yards on 19 carries and two TDs to lead the Gophers past the Owls.

Minnesota’s 5-foot-10, 185-pound freshman running back, Shady Salamon, scored the game’s first touchdown on a 3-yard run before both teams traded field goals.

The Gophers took a 16-3 lead into halftime when Weber connected with Eric Decker on a 31-yard pass play with 4:58 left in the second quarter.

Eskridge had 1-yard touchdown runs in both the third and fourth quarters to give the Gophers a 30-3 lead, and 6-foot-1, 205-pound junior outside linebacker Simoni Lawrence closed out the scoring by returning an interception 50 yards for a TD with 9:47 remaining.

Weber, who threw 19 interceptions a year ago, has just one pick through four games this season. He’s 79-of-110 (71.8 percent) passing for 967 yards and seven TDs.

As a team last season, the Gophers ranked last in the Big Ten in turnover margin (-15). So far in 2008, Minnesota is a plus-11.

Decker, a 6-foot-2, 215-pound junior wide receiver, who hauled in 67 passes for 909 yards and nine TDs last year, is by far Weber’s favorite target with 32 receptions for 464 yards and four touchdowns in 2008.

Bennett, who tore his ACL against Bowling Green and is out for the year, was at the top of the depth chart at running back when the season began. Now Eskridge (47 att., 204 yards, 5 TDs) and Salamon (22 att., 122 yards, 2 TDs) are the two backs who will get the bulk of the carries the rest of the way.

Defensively, the Gophers are led by 5-foot-10, 194-pound junior free safety Tramaine Brock with 28 total tackles. William VanDeSteeg, a 6-foot-4, 256-pound defensive end, leads the team with six TFLs and shares the top spot with Lawrence and Barrett Moen, a 6-foot-3, 275-pound defensive tackle, with 1.5 sacks. Traye Simmons, a 5-foot-11, 175-pound cornerback and Kyle Theret, a 5-foot-11, 185-pound free safety both have two interceptions.

Minnesota had four very winnable games to start the season before they travel to Columbus to take on the Buckeyes in both team’s Big Ten opener on Saturday. While the Gophers enter Ohio Stadium with a record of 4-0, they may not win another game the rest of the season.

One thing is for sure, if Minnesota wants to be competitive during conference play, the defense has to vastly improve. Last season, the Gophers finished dead-last in the Big Ten and near the bottom among all 119 Division I-A teams in all four major statistical categories. Minnesota ranked 109th in scoring defense (36.7 ppg), 114th in rushing defense (229.3 ypg), 115th in passing defense (289.3 ypg), and 119th in total defense (518.7 ypg).

So far in 2008, Minnesota is 35th in scoring defense (17.5 ppg), 42nd in rushing defense (109.75 ypg), 94th in passing defense (245.0 ypg), and 65th in total defense (354.75 ypg) against teams who have a combined record of 4-9.

Those numbers are better, but the competition for the Gophers will be a lot tougher the rest of the way.

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QB Terrelle Pryor

Pryor, making his first collegiate start at quarterback Saturday, was 10-of-16 passing for 139 yards with four touchdowns, plus he gained 66 yards on 14 carries. It was the first time since 1978 that the Buckeyes started a true freshman at quarterback since Art Schlichter in 1978. Pryor also broke Schlichter’s freshman record for most touchdown passes in a game.

SS Kurt Coleman	RB Boom Herron

Junior safety Kurt Coleman intercepted the first pass of his career in the second quarter and later picked off the second pass of his career in the third quarter. He finished with seven tackles. Freshman running back Boom Herron had a career-high 94 yards rushing on 20 attempts.

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