- Saturday, September 1, 2012

- Ohio Stadium - Columbus, OH

- Miami University at Ohio State

- 12:00 p.m. (ET)

- TV: Big Ten Network (BTN) -



A new era of Ohio State football begins this Saturday as the Miami Redhawks visit Columbus to provide the opposition for Urban Meyer’s OSU head coaching debut. BTN will televise the game nationally at noon, and shortly thereafter Buckeye fans will get their first glimpse of an offensive system radically different from the one they have grown used to seeing on fall Saturdays.

The new, up-tempo offense figures to be the most conspicuous departure from recent history at Ohio State, but the defensive coaches have implemented some changes as well, and there will be lots of fresh faces in Scarlet and Gray on that side of the ball.

Ohio State has won 33 consecutive home openers, the last loss coming against Penn State in 1979. The Buckeyes have twice dropped season opening games on the road since then, both times in the now-defunct Kickoff Classic, in 1986 vs Alabama, and in 1999 vs Miami (FL).

The Buckeyes are 4-0 vs Miami, the last meeting a 34-14 home victory in 2005. Ohio State is ranked 18th in the AP poll coming in to the opener, and Miami is unranked.

Urban Meyer becomes the 24th head coach in Ohio State history to take to the sidelines in a Buckeye opener. In his 11th year as a head coach, Meyer’s career record is 104-23 (.819), plus those two national title notches on his belt. Miami is coached by Don Treadwell, who is in his second season in Oxford. The Redhawks were 4-8 in 2011.

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“Telling Quotes” is a weekly recap of the Big Ten’s top stories using five quotes from around the conference (with a moderate Ohio State lean).

Ohio State fans had a boring summer.

It’s hard to get through the dog days of the offseason when there aren’t weekly updates to the growing witch hunt against your favorite school. It’s hard to stay engaged when day after day is filled by a deafening silence.

What noun are we taking and adding “-gate” to now? How many “tat” jokes does it take to get to the center of my grasp on sanity?

Unfortunately an uneventful summer has its drawbacks too. The offseason went back to being the uneventful nine months it used to be. But when the clock strikes noon this Saturday, it’ll all be over.

It’s finally game week. Let’s get going.

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This season’s conference-and-BCS predictions are brought to you by the opening and closing of college football’s probationary prison gates, as offenders coming and going impact various conference races. Out in Pac-12 country, the Southern Cal Trojans are out of jail and title-eligible again, ready to again play for the sport’s highest stakes. In the Midwest Ohio State and Penn State are going downstate; the caveat being neither would likely have been favored even to win their respective divisions. Down in Orlando, Central Florida fans will swelter in Brighthouse Networks Stadium and watch maybe the best outfit in Conference USA play out the string without eligibility for the title.

There are swinging doors located at the coaching offices as well. More than one-fifth of the FBS schools take first-year head coaches into the 2012 season, including brand names like Ohio State, Arkansas and Penn State, where for the first time since 1965 someone other than Joe Paterno will lead the Nittany Lions. A number of the schools with new coaches- Rutgers, Arkansas, Houston- are expected to compete for their division or conference titles, giving back to the races an unpredictability that the sanctions take away.

On to the predictions:

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The curtain is about to go up on the Urban Meyer Era at Ohio State, and the air of anticipation is matched by a fair amount of uncertainty about what to expect. The 2012 Buckeyes have loads of young talent, and their success will hinge on how quickly they adapt to the new coaching regime, and how soon some younger players develop at key positions. I’ve tried to anticipate some of the questions fans may have about this year’s Buckeyes, and throw out my own answers below for your consideration.

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