75 Days Till Kickoff

This is my first post in quite some time, but with Ohio St in the off season and my fellow bloggers discussing the latest embarrassments and disappointments of the Cleveland franchises, I've had some time off. I get this feeling of anticipation every year around this time once the realization sets in that the Tribe is out of contention. I absolutely cannot wait for football season to start. I'll provide a much more in-depth Buckeye preview once the season gets closer, but for now I just wanna take a quick look at the schedule and overall outlook of this year's squad. Let's get after it.

Going into this year's season, things are looking awfully familiar to the start of the '08-'09 campaign, with a little lower expectations. The non-conference schedule offers three gimmie games (Navy, Toledo, and New Mexico St.) and one showdown with Sothern Cal. This year the game with SC is at home, so it might not quite be as bad as the beat down they put on us last year, but I'm certainly not holding my breath for a W in this one. Both teams have some big losses to overcome, but both programs are known for reloading with superior talent year after year.

Sticking with the recurring theme of looking a lot like last year, the rest of the Big Ten isn't too strong. As long as Ohio St. can avoid slip ups at home against Illinois and Wisconsin, they should breeze through conference play, save for a late season date in Happy Valley on November 7th. With Daryll Clark and Evan Royster back, the Lions' expectations are through the roof, and you'd have to think anything other than an appearance in the title game will be a disappointment for JoePa and his boys. The toughest test of all will be at michi...HAHAHAHA, I can't even get through that.

Back to seriousness, this season seems fairly easy to predict. The Bucks get smoked by USC early on to dash any pipe dreams of a National Title, then we roll our conference foes and take on Penn St. for the Big Ten title and a Rose Bowl berth. But of course, as is the case in all sports, anything could happen.

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