No. 8 Ohio State Buckeyes (10-2, 7-1 Big Ten)

vs.

No. 7 Oregon Ducks (10-2, 8-1 Pac-10)

Friday, January 1

5:10 p.m. ET

Rose Bowl – Pasadena, CA

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Tags: Football by Matt Barker, Publisher & Editor of BuckeyeBanter.com
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Right: David Lighty scored 30 points against Cleveland State, last week. (AP Photo)

The 15th-ranked Ohio State Buckeyes travel to Madison to take on No. 23 Wisconsin, New Year’s Eve afternoon. Tip-off is scheduled for 2:00 p.m. ET, and the game will be televised on ESPN2 with Terry Gannon and Steve Lavin.

As always, you can hear the game all across the state on the 60-station Ohio State Buckeyes Radio Network with “Big Daddy” Paul Keels and former Buckeye Ron Stokes. WBNS outlets 97.1 FM and 1460 AM are the flagship stations in Columbus.

The Badgers are 10-2 overall with losses to Gonzaga, 74-61, and to Wisconsin-Green Bay in overtime, 88-84. Of Wisconsin’s 10 wins, the most notable came against No. 5 Duke (73-69) and No. 22 Maryland (78-69). The Badgers have rattled off four-straight wins, including a 79-43 victory over Illinois-Chicago their last time out on Nov. 27. Five UW players notched double figure point totals against UIC as 6-foot-10 junior foward Jon Leuer led all scorers with 17.

Wisconsin is led by Leuer, who is averaging 17.0 points and a team-high 6.5 rebounds per game. Second on the team in scoring is Trevon Hughes, a 6-foot senior guard who pours in 16.4 points per contest. Jason Bohannon is the only other Badger to average double-digits in scoring at 10.1 points per game, and is the team’s best three-point shooter at 42.9 percent from beyond the arc.
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Tags: Men's Basketball by Matt Barker, Publisher & Editor of BuckeyeBanter.com
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Right: Oregon defensive end Kenny Rowe leads the team in sacks and tackles for loss. (AP Photo)

In scouting Oregon’s defense, I found there’s really not much of one. UO has given up 24 or more points in five games. The Ducks have also given up 360 yards or more on four different occasions, 400 or more yards twice, and allowed a whopping 505 yards against Stanford.

In contrast, Ohio State only allowed 24 or more points three times, and has never allowed an opponent to gain more than 368 yards in any game this season.

And they say defense wins championships? Apparently that’s not true in the Pac-10. Two of the top four teams from that conference have already played in their bowl games and BYU drubbed Oregon State, 44-20, in the Las Vegas Bowl and Nebraska took Arizona to the woodshed, 33-0, in the Holiday Bowl. And those two teams that came just a few points away from winning the Pac-10 and earning a trip to the Rose Bowl. So what does that say about Oregon? The Pac-10? Overrated? Clearly both of those teams have no defense, either.
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Right: Junior quarterback Jeremiah Masoli leads the Ducks offense. (AP Photo)

While watching film on Oregon’s offense, it reminded me a lot of an offense that Ohio State has seen before. Running out of the spread, UO generally utilizes a single-back set with the quarterback in shotgun formation and three wide receivers plus a tight end.

The Ducks bread-and-butter play is the zone-read option, something the Buckeyes use as well. Michigan head coach Rich Rodriguez also uses it extensively.

Basically, the zone-read option starts out with the offensive line either moving to the left or to the right to block after the snap and the quarterback puts the ball into the belly of the running back. At the time, the quarterback then reads what the backside defensive end does, who usually goes unblocked. Sometimes, though, Oregon tries to isolate a defensive tackle.

Now the first options are for the quarterback to either hand the ball off to the running back if the defensive end stays at home and keeps containment, but if the defensive end follows the play with the offensive line, the QB then can roll out to the backside where the defensive end should of been and the quarterback can get outside on the edge. Click here to read more >>

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Right: Though he has Bill Belichick’s fashion sense, Oregon head coach Chip Kelly has guided the Ducks to a 10-2 record and a Pac-10 championship in his first year. (SI Photo)

Taking over the reigns from Mike Bellotti, Oregon’s current athletic director, first-year head coach Chip Kelly has guided the Ducks to a 10-2 overall record and a Pac-10 title even though UO got off to a “Rocky” start, if you pardon the pun.

Back on Sept. 3, Oregon took on Boise State on the famous blue Smurf Turf in the season-opener for both teams.

What happened during the game was not the big story that ESPN and other outlets reported, it’s what happened after the game that was talked about for days.

Following Oregon’s 19-8 loss to Boise State, Ducks running back LeGarrette Blount punched Broncos defensive end Byron Hout, knocking him to the ground. Later as he was leaving the field and headed toward the locker room, Blount went after a few BSU fans in the stands who were taunting him. Click here to read more >>

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Right: No, You’re Freakin’ Goofy! Jim Tressel speaks with Mickey Mouse at his side at Disneyland, Saturday afternoon. (AP Photo)

Two charter planes carrying a Buckeye contingent of 180 players, coaches, team administrators, managers and the like departed from Rickenbacher International Airport in Columbus at around 7 p.m. ET on Christmas evening, and safely landed in Los Angeles shortly before 9 p.m. PT. Charter buses then transported the team to the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza, which is located on the Avenue of the Stars in Los Angeles’ posh West Side neighborhood.

On Saturday, the Buckeyes conducted a two-hour practice at the Home Depot Center, some 30 minutes south of their hotel in Carson, Calif., which is home to the Los Angeles Galaxy and Chivas USA of the MLS, as well as a tennis stadium and a US Cycling velodrome. Later that afternoon, the Buckeyes left their hotel to spend the rest of the day at Disneyland in Anaheim. Click here to read more >>

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