One quarterback is a veteran with a steady arm. The other is less experienced, and his scrambling ability gives the offense a different look.
Ohio State’s Todd Boeckman and Terrelle Pryor? Yes, them too.
The No. 12 Buckeyes settled on Pryor weeks ago. But now the defense faces a quarterback question, with Northwestern not saying who will lead its offense today.
“I would expect that we would see them both,” Ohio State coach Jim Tressel said. “I would expect the (Northwestern) coaches will do the best they can possibly do to utilize both the guys, at whatever mixture they need to have their best opportunity to move the football and score points.”
C.J. Bacher is Northwestern’s starter, a senior who is among the Big Ten leaders in total offense (third, 243 yards per game) and passing yards (fourth, 212.5). He’s led the Wildcats to a 7-2 record, their best in three years.
But with Bacher sidelined last weekend by a hamstring injury, Mike Kafka took over and rallied the Wildcats (3-2 Big Ten) to a 24-17 victory at Minnesota, their first against a ranked team since 2005. The junior rushed for 217 yards, a record for a Big Ten quarterback, and threw for another 143 yards directing Northwestern’s spread.
Northwestern coach Pat Fitzgerald said Bacher will start against the Buckeyes
(7-2, 4-1) if he’s healthy, and Bacher was upgraded to probable after Thursday’s practice. But the Wildcats need Kafka’s mobility, too, especially after backup running back Omar Conteh was knocked out of this weekend’s game with a knee injury.
Leading rusher Tyrell Sutton, an Akron Hoban product, is already out for the year with a wrist injury.
So who’s it going to be? Bacher? Kafka? Both?
“Obviously we’ll play to the young men’s strengths,” Fitzgerald said. “C.J. can run the ball better than people give him credit for, and Mike can throw better than people give him credit for. Both young men are very talented, and give us the opportunity to really run the offense the way that we think we can.”
No matter who’s under center, he won’t have an easy task. Ohio State leads the Big Ten in pass defense, and is third against the run. The Buckeyes have one of the best linebackers in the country in James Laurinaitis, and safety Kurt Coleman and cornerback Malcolm Jenkins have three interceptions each.
Ohio State’s offense has been spotty as Pryor develops as a passer, but the running game is strong behind running back Chris “Beanie” Wells.
Pryor is a phenom, a big, mobile quarterback out of the Vince Young mold. But he’s also a freshman, and he was despondent after the Oct. 25 loss to Penn State, saying he cost the Buckeyes the game and, possibly, a fourth straight Big Ten title.
It was Pryor’s fumble that set up Penn State’s go-ahead touchdown, and the Nittany Lions sealed the victory with a last-minute interception.
“This is going to be a great challenge for him. This is part of maturing as a person and as a football player,” tight end Rory Nicol said. “TP is going to be a great player, and we’ve totally got his back. He knows that. It’s time to move forward.
“It’ll be exciting to see how he bounces back,” Nicol added. “In his mind, I’m sure he’s got big things going on. He wants to have a big game.”
Wells hasn’t been as explosive as he was last year, missing three games with a foot injury. But he’s still averaging 112 yards rushing per game, and rumbled for
168 yards against Wisconsin.
He had only 55 yards on 22 carries against Penn State, but Tressel said Wells got in more practice time during Ohio State’s bye last week than he had the three weeks before that.
“This is going to be a huge challenge for us, the biggest challenge that we’ve had all year,” Fitzgerald said. “We’re going to have to play our cleanest and most effective game of the year for us to just compete to have an opportunity.”
That’s not just coach-speak, either.
Ohio State routed the Wildcats the past two seasons, winning by a combined score of 112-17. Actually, the whole “rivalry” has been lopsided, with the Buckeyes winning eight of the last nine meetings and all but 15 since the teams began playing back in 1913. One game was a tie.
There could be one good omen for Northwestern. Its one victory came in 2004, when Ohio State was coming back from its bye. The Buckeyes did not play last week.
Or not.
The Buckeyes still have a slim chance at another outright conference title. But they have to win out and get help from Penn State and Michigan State, who play each other in the season finale.
Even if Penn State keeps winning, it would at least end up in the Rose Bowl. If the Nittany Lions make the BCS title game, Rose Bowl officials could opt to stay with a Big Ten team, as they did last year.
“We saw a little highlight today of the way they reacted to that win. That meant everything to them,” Nicol said of Northwestern’s 2004 victory. “And the way we walked off that field, kind of in embarrassment, just a terrible feeling. Unfortunately, we’ve felt it twice this year so far, and it’s on us to kind of go out with a bang.
“Let’s everybody recommit, and get this thing going the right way.”
AP sportswriter Rusty Miller contributed to this report from Columbus.

BUCKEYES PERISCOPE

BUCKEYES BUZZ: If everything falls right for Ohio State, the Buckeyes might end up playing USC in Southern California … again. Only this time in the Rose Bowl.
Deja vu. If the Trojans win the Pac-10 and don’t get into the national championship game, they would most likely end up in Pasadena. Same goes for the Buckeyes, who need three more wins and for Penn State to get into the BCS title game for the season to come up roses.
Uh, you may recall this game has already been played once this year. The Trojans showed no mercy in winning 35-3 in L.A. back on Sept. 13.
But don’t for a second think that the Buckeyes wouldn’t relish a chance to: a) play in a Rose Bowl and b) get a second shot at USC.
“It’d be great to go to the Rose Bowl,” punter A.J. Trapasso said. “There’s a lot of scenarios. Me, personally I wouldn’t mind going to the Rose Bowl at all. It’s something my dad used to talk about when I was younger, growing up. How the tradition was. The Michigan-Ohio State and UCLA-USC winners usually ended up playing each other out in California. We’re looking forward to any opportunity to get out there.”
Even though a rematch might be a tough sell to ticket-buyers and in particular to TV executives, the Buckeyes would like to erase that ugly memory from earlier in the season.
“A little redemption match, if you will,” Trapasso said.
Tight end Rory Nicol said the Buckeyes have never really gotten over the earlier beating.
“It’s a great possibility, isn’t it?” he said. “Yeah, I’d love to play USC again. They’re a great team. I’m not saying USC’s not a good team. But I want to play against the best. I don’t want to play against some team that’s not going to be competitive.”
That would hardly seem to be a worry after what has happened to the Buckeyes in their last two bowl trips — and the last time they played the Trojans.
KICK RETURNERS: Coach Jim Tressel said Thursday that some minor shuffling has taken place when it comes to the deep men on kickoffs. The Buckeyes are looking at several different kinds of return teams, with the personnel changing for each.
“If we were two-deep it would be Lamaar (Thomas) and Boom (Dan Herron) to start with and Mo Wells and Brandon Saine next,” Tressel said. “If we go with kind of a three-deep, which is a single guy and two wing guys as we would call them, it would be Lamaar as the single guy and Boom and Brandon Saine, then Mo Wells can do any of those three as the backup. We’ll use both of those this week.”
BALLGAME BRUNCH: The actual, local time for kickoff of Saturday’s game at Northwestern is 11 a.m. That’s so the game can be shown at noon on ESPN2 in the Eastern time zone.
For players who have had games start as early as high noon and as late as 8 p.m. and almost every other time in between, that requires some adjustment.
“The crazy thing about this game is that we’re going to get to Northwestern and wake up at 6 a.m. and be playing a game at 11,” Nicol said.
— The Associated Press 

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