I’m always watching college football, and the Big Ten specifically, with an eye toward players I could reasonably project into a Browns uniform one day. It has always made sense to me that the home team should draft and sign more Big Ten talent. They’re accustomed to playing in this weather for one thing, and fan familiarity counts for something too.
The new Browns have been decidedly averse to Ohio State players, for whatever reason seeming to ignore the rich history there, from Groza to Schafrath to DeLeone to Houston to Warfield. The current roster has just one OSU player, rookie tackle Reid Fragel, recently signed off the Bengals waiver wire, although picks from elsewhere in the conference...Joe Thomas comes to mind...haven’t worked out badly.
The Browns have drafted just two OSU players (WR Brian Robiskie, 2nd round, 2009 and TE Darnell Saunders; 6th round, 2002) since Bill Belichick took an inexplicable flyer on Craig Powell on his way out of town in 1995. And there have been a few other high-profile misses by the Browns on Big Ten players. Courtney Brown of Penn State and Michigan’s Braylon Edwards were a No 1 and a No. 3 overall pick respectively. That might have gone better.  Ditto Tom Cousineau.
Ohio State comes off the bye week with a road trip to Champaign Saturday for a noon kickoff against the 
Ohio State registered a first round knockout Saturday in West Lafayette, scoring 28 first quarter points against Purdue, before finishing off the punchless Boilermakers 56-0. Braxton Miller threw four touchdown passes in the first half, and took the rest of the day off, as the Buckeyes went to halftime with a 42-0 lead and coasted home to their 21st consecutive victory.
The 4th-ranked Buckeyes take their 8-0 record and their 20-game winning streak on the road to West Lafayette this weekend to play the Purdue Boilermakers, a program that has given Ohio State fits over the last decade. Somehow, Purdue manages to cause more trouble for the Buckeyes than they should, given the talent differential, but this year’s game figures to be the exception to that rule.
Ohio State scored touchdowns on six of its seven first half possessions Saturday night, to blow out an overmatched Penn State team 63-14, in front of 105,889 at Ohio Stadium. The Buckeyes have taken some flack this year for not looking like Alabama, Oregon or Florida State, all despite having not lost a game since the 2011 season. But after Braxton Miller ran for two scores and passed for three more in less than three quarters of work, Ohio State may have at least worked their way back into the national title conversation.