In recent years, Ohio State fans have had plenty to celebrate against rival Michigan.

It seems like Jim Tressel never lost to the Wolverines and so far Urban Meyer is 1-0. So some of the newer fans don't realize it used to be tough to defeat that Team Up North.

Flashback to 1975 and Woody Hayes' Buckeyes were undefeated and ranked first in the nation. Trailing 14-7 halfway through the final quarter and it didn't look good.

Yet, Ohio State scored twice in the final seven minutes to pull out a 21-14 victory in Ann Arbor.

Pete Johnson rushed for two touchdowns and caught another one from seven yards out, while Cornelius Greene threw for one score (to go with two interceptions).

The Buckeyes lost a tough game to UCLA in the Rose Bowl and lost any shot at the national title.

I couldn't find any video from this game, so I give you what I can find from the Rose Bowl.

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With every coach trying to one-up the other on Student Appreciation Days at spring practice, it seems we get a YouTube clip every day.

Now Ohio State mascot Brutus is getting into the action and in a way that he might regret (and avoid in the future).

Dude got laid out.

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With a storied tradition like Ohio State's, it's tough to pick some of the Buckeyes' most memorable games.

But let's start at the 1984 Fiesta Bowl when the Buckeyes took on Pittsburgh when the Panthers still mattered.

Leading most of the game, the Buckeyes still had to rally to take down the John Congemi-led Panthers. Pitt scored 16 points in the fourth quarter to take a 23-21 lead with 2:39 remaining in the game.

Somehow Mike Tomczak guided OSU on an 89-yard game-winning drive that was capped by a 39-yard toss to Thad Jemison with 39 seconds left for a 28-23 win.

Let's not forget the strong performance by Keith Byars, who rushed for a touchdown and returned a kick for a TD.

OSU finished 9-3 and ranked eighth in the Coaches Poll.

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Ohio State football is one of the hottest tickets of all of college football — even for the student body.

So the annual Student Appreciation Day is a great way to build some excitement during spring and give the student body an up-close view of the action.

This year, OSU coach Urban Meyer has put out a video encouraging the students to show up and watch the only program that went undefeated last fall.

The video references a surprise, but defensive coach Mike Vrable has already ruined by his recent tweet.

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It wasn't Ohio State's best performance, but it's very clear that Urban Meyer has found a budding star at quarterback in Braxton Miller.
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It's only the first week of the season, but Ohio State's Devin Smith may end up with the best catch of the season. Watch for yourself.
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With the big, but not-so-shocking, announcement Monday that Urban Meyer will come out of retirement and coach The Ohio State University, it was only natural to get Phil on the show and talk about the Buckeyes.

So this is our "Urban Meyer Special." The regular show will return Thursday morning.
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Sure, Ohio State and Penn State will set offensive football back a couple decades Saturday, but that doesn't mean we can't talk about it. Derek Aschman of the Penn State blog Nittany Lions Den was kind enough to answer a few questions before this much-anticipated field goal extravagaza.

1) Is there any way to gauge where this Penn State team is emotionally after the past two weeks? Obviously the whole Sandusky thing and subsequent Paterno resignation is a distraction and then a close loss to Nebraska. What kind of team shows up in Ohio Stadium Saturday?

This Nittany Lion squad has the best senior leadership of any team since 2005.  This has shown throughout the year in close wins against Iowa and Purdue as well as last minute wins against Temple, Indiana and Illinois.  Even rallying from being down by seventeen to Nebraska was a product of great leadership. That being said, there is not a team in America that could ignore Modern Warfare 3 being released everything that has occurred here in Happy Valley.  Mike McQueary was the only offensive coach on the sideline, and Joe Paterno is Joe Paterno.  Every website is slandering people these players love.  Even tonight I see the athletes tweeting about South Park’s rendition of State College.  There simply is no way this team could go on unaffected. Still, getting on with the question, I think the team has pulled themselves together in an unbelievable way.  The biggest problem this Saturday, in respect to the scandal, is with coaching.  At the end of the day Penn State is down two coaches and has no offensive guys left on the sideline.  If Penn State pulls themselves together, Tom Bradley will deserve much of the credit.


2) Outside of Devon Still, who's been dominant this year, I don't know much about this Penn State defense. What other players are standing out this season for the Lions?

What this Nittany Lions’ defense lacks in star-power, they gain in team chemistry.  Devon Still is definitely an impressive physical specimen though, and OLB Gerald Hodges played lights out through October.  Hodges’ speed and ability to shed blockers has made opponents’ east-west running game a nightmare.  The most underrated player on the defense, in my humble opinion, is S Drew Astorino.  Astorino has no business being a Division I player given his size, but he plays smart and fast, and creates as many problems in the backfield as anybody.  With Hodges likely to play spy against Braxton Miller, expect Astorino to blitz at select times throughout the game and be a nuisance to any screens or flares to the outside.

3) Matt McGloin's numbers aren't fantastic, but he's steady. Can he make enough big plays through the air to open up some room for Silas Redd on the ground?

No. Look, I love McGloin’s passion as much as the next guy, but he is not going to make any big plays.  Luckily for him, he has a great batch of wide-receivers who can make him look good.  Derek Moye is a tall receiver with good hands, and is as good as any WR in the conference.  Justin Brown is big and able create separation as well as anybody, and Devon “Moo Moo” Smith has lethal speed on crossing patterns. What makes McGloin affective is that he knows his strengths and he knows his many limitations.  Specifically, he throws nearly every ball to a place where only his guy, if anybody, can catch it.  Often times it’s over-thrown, but rarely is it in an area where a defender can get a hand on the ball.  The rest of the job comes down to the receivers, who have not always had the best hands this season, to make the grab and gain some yards.

4) Penn State has won a number of close games this year until the loss to Nebraska. Has there been one factor that has helped the Lions keep winning close games?

Heart.  The defense doesn’t allow big plays, even though they’re on the field most of the game, because they play with tremendous heart and chemistry.  On the flipside, the offense is unspectacular and knows it.  Still, when time was running out against teams such as Temple and Illinois, the offense has stepped and somehow made the plays that were necessary. None of the games have been pretty thus far, but tremendous heart and leadership has led to a lot of Ws this season for the Nittany Lions.

5) Give me a prediction. Does Penn State come out with a win Saturday?

Predictions…hmmmm… Penn State struggles against scrambling quarterback and all defenses.  Sadly, Ohio State is pretty good in both of those places, which doesn’t bode well for Penn State.  Ultimately, I think those factors, as well as the off-the-field distractions surrounding the program, become too much to handle.  Ohio State gets a few points on the board and Penn State’s anemic offense doesn’t get it done against a very good Buckeye defense.  I know I’ll get yelled at for saying this, but my objective guess is 10-6 Ohio State. no comments

It appears Terrelle Pryor will get a shot at his NFL dream in 2011 after all.

However, he's going to have to sit out the first five games if any team is willing to draft him in Monday's NFL Supplemental Draft and then keep him on the roster during the suspension.

Why can't Pryor be in uniform for the first five games?

It seems the almighty NFL is going to apply the NCAA's five-game suspension to Pryor for his actions at Ohio State—none of which broke any laws.

According to the NFL:

"... Pryor made decisions that undermine the integrity of the eligibility rules for the NFL Draft. Those actions included failing to cooperate with the NCAA and hiring an agent in violation of NCAA rules, which resulted in Ohio State declaring him ineligible to continue playing college football.

"Pryor then applied to enter the NFL after the regular draft. Pryor had accepted at the end of the 2010 college football season a suspension for the first five games of the 2011 season for violating NCAA rules. Pryor will be ineligible to practice prior to or play in the first five games of the NFL regular season after he signs."

So now the NFL is the NCAA's daddy.

In reality, Pryor would have been lucky to see the field anyways in the first five games, much less the entire season. So call this a public perception suspension for the NFL. So now Pryor has to wait five games before he can wear a baseball cap backwards and hold a clipboard. no comments

It's time to get nasty.

We're talking SEC nasty. Or is that Big Ten nasty?

A year ago it would have been easy to answer that question. Thanks to Jim Tressel and Ohio State's players making money selling everything from autographs to memorabilia, the Big Ten has jumped right into the middle of the conversation.

OSU's fans are as passionate as any in the SEC, so therefore you get a fanbase who wants to do things for their team that don't always jive with the NCAA.

Let's not forget that the SEC has a long history of playing in the gray area of NCAA rules...and sometimes just obliterating the rules.

So with all that we know of today, which one is dirtier.

Let's do a comparison.

History of Cheating: SEC

Since 1990, more than half of the SEC football programs have faced NCAA sanctions for major violations.

The SEC has a history of "questionable" recruiting practices, which includes allegations of paying players and helping top prospects get the necessary score on the SAT. Just read what Terry Bowden said about the Auburn program when he took over in 1993.

Bowden claims there was a detailed system of paying star high school players around $10,000 to $15,000 if they signed with Auburn. He also alleged the pay-for-play program was run by connected Auburn Board of Trustee Bobby Lowder.

Bowden also pointed the finger at legendary Auburn coach Pat Dye.

Auburn isn't alone in the SEC.

How about Charley Pell with Florida in the early 1980s?

Pell was fired in 1984 amid serious allegations from the NCAA, which eventually determined the coach and his staff committed 59 infractions. Florida was place on two years of probation.

Tennessee served a two-year sentence following violations by former coach Johnny Majors, and of course there was Jackie Sherrill at Mississippi State.

While Sherrill was never found guilty of any NCAA violations, Mississippi State was placed on four years probation after he left.

This is just a short summary of issues with the SEC.

Many of the SEC's biggest boosters are so wealthy they don't mind slipping a player some spending money or direct them to a good deal on a car.

History of Cheating: Big Ten

While the SEC's violations are well documented, the Big Ten has a history of skirting the NCAA's rules as well.

Michigan State also has a storied history of cheating, going back to the days of Duffy Daughtery. The Spartans were found guilty of major violations in the 1950s and was eventually placed on probation for three years.

The Spartans continued to have some issues under George Perles. In 1994, it was discovered that Michigan State had some issues with grade tampering. Perles was fired during the 1994 season and the president made the Spartans forfeit their five victories for that season.

Of course, now there are the recent transgressions of Ohio State's former head coach Jim Tressel, as well as current and former players (read on for more).

Like the SEC, not all of the issues are NCAA related. no comments