As I’ve mentioned before, thanks largely to my wife, I’ve become a fan of Ohio State football over the past several years. At the alumni picnic we were at on Sunday, I introduced myself as “Buckeye by marriage” whenever anyone asked if I was actually an OSU alum. Well, now that the college football season is only a few weeks away from starting, its time for the fun to begin again.
As this Big Ten Preview from Sports Illustrated shows, it looks like it could be another big year for the Buckeyes:
In this writer’s eyes, Ohio State is the team to beat. On paper, the Buckeyes, with 18 returning starters, look an awful lot like their 2002 national-title edition, but more explosive on offense. If they can knock off Texas at the Horseshoe the second weekend of the season, they may go into Ann Arbor undefeated at the end of the year.
The season starts out easily enough on September 3rd against Miami of Ohio, but then gets very interesting with the first ever meeting between the Buckeyes and Texas Longhorns in Columbus on September 10th. If the Buckeyes win this game, they will be a serious contender for the national title behind USC.
The big game of the year, of course, is, and always will be, on November 19th against Michigan. Someone said to me at the first OSU game I attended that Ohio State could lose every game except the Michigan game and the fans would still be happy. Well, maybe that’s not entirely true, but there’s no doubting that the OSU Michigan rivalry is among the most passionate in all of sports.
The projected outcome of the Big Ten for 2005 should make Buckeye fans happy, but its all just talk until the games are played.
Go Bucs !
