COLUMBUS — The regular season is half over for Ohio State, yet it feels as if the Buckeyes are just finding themselves.
The 12th-ranked Buckeyes (5-1, 2-0 Big Ten) have inched their way up the rankings a bit since that ugly 35-3 loss at Southern California in mid-September.
“We can’t lose,” fullback Brandon Smith said Tuesday. “We’ve been saying this is a playoff for us, at this point in the season. The way things shake out in college football, we’ve just got to keep winning.”
Since the loss, the Buckeyes have won three in a row, including their first two Big Ten games. Chris “Beanie” Wells is back from a foot injury, and freshman Terrelle Pryor has taken over at quarterback. Even though they have not won convincingly, they at least believe they’re building some momentum for a stretch run.
Punter A.J. Trapasso considers last Saturday night’s 20-17 victory at Wisconsin a stepping stone to bigger and better things.
“We had a lot of confidence coming into this season, maybe (we were) a little bit overconfident thinking we were just going to run over teams,” Trapasso said. “We were exposed a little bit (at USC) but we’ve bounced back pretty well, and handled some rough games — especially this (past) weekend.”
Going into the season, the Buckeyes had 17 starters back and more than 40 fourth- or fifth-year seniors on the roster. No one expected much upheaval from one week to the next.
Instead, there has been almost continual change.
Two or three fresh faces have been blended in on the offensive line, three backs filled in for Wells at tailback while he was sidelined, and the defense does not have set starters on the line or at one of the cornerback spots. Nothing was more radical than changing from second-year starter Todd Boeckman, a big pocket passer, to Pryor, a 6-foot-6 sprinter.
So rather than fine-tuning, the Buckeyes have been revamping. It may take quite a while longer until things settle down.
“I would attribute some of that to just figuring out our offense, getting people used to playing new positions and trying different things,” Trapasso said. “We went into the season with the mind-set of doing one thing offensively and now we’re midway through and we’re doing something that seems to me completely different.”
The Buckeyes are adapting. They’re also growing in confidence.
“We are moving in the right direction at this point,” Smith said.
This week’s challenge will be provided by Purdue
(2-3, 0-1), which has lost three of its last four while giving up lots of yards and not showing much consistency on offense.
But the Boilermakers present a change of pace from Wisconsin. Where the Badgers ran the ball right at the Buckeyes and didn’t stretch the field much, Purdue is the epitome of a spread offense.
Coach Jim Tressel repeatedly referred to the problem of “shifting gears.”
“We have to kind of get ready for a different mode,” he said.
Getting ready for a spread team after playing a traditional running team wears on the coaching staff, perhaps more so than the players. Like hitters facing a hard-throwing reliever after facing a knuckleballing starter, the Buckeyes need to prepare for the change of speed from what they saw at Camp Randall Stadium.
“That’s the hardest thing about coaching and playing defense in college football. I think that’s where the NFL’s kind of got it made,” Tressel said. “Every Sunday you turn it on and everything looks the same, but you turn on a college Saturday and there’s 17 different offenses being run and those defensive coaches have to be prepared for that, the players have to understand conceptually what people are trying to do.”
Right now, the Buckeyes are still trying to figure out what they do.

BUCKEYES PERISCOPE

Buckeyes Buzz

The Buckeyes’ 20-17 victory at Wisconsin was one bruising contest. Almost three full days after the game, fullback Brandon Smith said he and his teammates were still sore.
“Everybody’s feeling a couple bumps and bruises, a couple of muscle aches,” he said. He attributed all the black and blue marks to two teams “running more straight at each other, banging into each other.”
Case in point, WR Dane Sanzenbacher and TB Dan “Boom” Herron both sustained concussions due to violent collisions during the game. When coach Jim Tressel announced the winner of the defensive “hit of the week,” he joked that Wisconsin might have had at least a couple better candidates.
Sanzenbacher and Herron will be out a minimum of a week with their head injuries.
Several players who missed the Wisconsin game will likely miss this week’s 3:30 p.m. kickoff at home against Purdue.
Freshman OL J.B. Shugarts (shoulder), LB Austin Spitler (concussion) are doubtful for Saturday’s game. There was no update on TE Rory Nicol (ankle).

Scarlet, gray and green

Ohio State’s recycling program has collected more than 150 tons of recyclable material at Ohio Stadium over the last 11 home dates.
More than 16 tons of recyclable materials were gathered during the Troy and Minnesota games. In the 2008 season alone — in just four home games — the total is over 42 tons.
The program exceeded expectations in its inaugural year in 2007 by amassing 119 tons, including 81 tons inside Ohio Stadium.
While all waste is collected together in Ohio Stadium and sorted, fans have contributed to the success outside the Horseshoe. At each home game, tailgaters receive white plastic bags to encourage collection of bottles, cans, paper and cardboard.

Tresselese

On play-calling inside the Wisconsin 20: “I’m trying to think. I’d have to sit down and look at it on the film. Our red-zone day, typically where we study ourselves and our opponents, is Wednesday. I was just looking at a little bit of Purdue in the red zone … and they’re going to blitz you. And so according to what you think you’re going to see and sometimes you’re right, sometimes you’re wrong, according to how you execute, sometimes it looks like it was a good idea, sometimes it doesn’t. And I guess the reality is, the ones that worked, those were good decisions and the ones that didn’t, should have changed the call.”

Be like JoePa

Asked about the play of OL Steve Rehring, Tressel said he saw limited action for an unusual reason.
“Rehring only got in a dozen or so plays … he missed an 11-play drive,” Tressel said with a grin. “He had to go to the restroom, and so he probably would have played closer to half of the time, but he missed an 11 and then he missed like a 10-play drive.”
A reporter said, “That’s a long bathroom break” to which Tressel responded, “Well, there were multiple.”

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