Written by Tony Lastoria

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The 2008 Ohio State Buckeyes football season kicks off this weekend when they take on Youngstown State in an in-state matchup.  While there is little doubt the preseason #2 ranked Buckeyes will dispatch of the overmatched Penguins, many questions loom for a team a team coming off back-to-back BCS Championship game disasters.  What does the 2008 season hold for the Bucks?  We asked our panel of writers for their thoughts on the eve of the team's opening contest.

The 2008 Ohio State Buckeyes football season kicks off this weekend when they take on Youngstown State in an in-state matchup.  While there is little doubt the preseason #2 ranked Buckeyes will dispatch of the overmatched Penguins, many questions loom for a team a team coming off back-to-back BCS Championship game disasters. 
 
The Buckeyes are widely considered one of the top four or five title contenders going into the season, but they have quickly become the team everyone outside of the state of Ohio wants to lose.  But some of this is unfair as the Buckeyes just ran into a buzzsaw against Florida two years ago, and last year were really a year ahead of themselves and used a weak schedule along with the rest of college football lacking any clear dominant teams to get back to the title game again. 
 
So with the start of a new season, so begins the anti-Buckeye battle cry.  Can the Buckeyes go undefeated with arguably their toughest road schedule to date in the Tressel Era? Can the Buckeyes go to Pasadena and beat USC? Does Rich Rodriguez even have a chance against The Sweater Vest this year? Does Beanie Wells win the Heisman? Can Todd Boeckman stay mistake free and guide this team to a championship? If given the chance, can the Buckeyes put an end to all the talk that the SEC owns them? 
 
TheClevelandFan.com panel opines on that and more in our 2008 Buckeyes Roundtable: 
 
Mike Furlan:  Returning most of your starters is generally a good thing.  Everyone comes back one year better, one year stronger, and one year smarter.  Unfortunately, not changing personnel can lead to deficiencies turning over from year to year, and that is what I fear most with this year's Buckeyes.  Ultimately, how the Buckeyes adapt to cover last year's deficiencies that will make the difference as to whether this will be a good year or a great year. 
 
Make no mistake about it, the combination of Ohio State's outstanding offensive line coupled with Beanie Wells and last year's defense (returning 9 starters) is enough to win the Big Ten.  Frankly, the Buckeyes second unit on both sides of the ball is probably the second best team in the Big Ten. In order to win a National Title and validate Laurinaitis', Jenkins', Boone's, and Robiskie's decisions to return to Ohio State the Buckeyes are going to have to improve in the passing game.  They can beat the Big Ten on the ground, but they will need balance in order to keep USC and an unknown championship game opponent honest. 
 
This means that Todd Boeckman will have to show more composure, take better care of the ball, and hit open receivers against elite defenses.  He did not do that last year.  This means that the Buckeyes' coordinators are going to have to do a much better job mixing it up, developing better routes and gameplans to capitalize on the safeties that will be cheating into the box.  This also means that the Buckeyes are going to have to find some speed at the receiver position to force the safeties to maintain their "over the top" responsibilities.  Dane Sanzenbacher is the new #3 receiver this year and raw speed is not among his many virtues, so I am hoping that the Buckeyes find a way to get either of the freshmen burners (Posey and Thomas) or Brandon Saine involved in the receiving game or else the Buckeyes will continue to find themselves with 8 or 9 men in the box and unable to capitalize against man coverage on the outside against elite corners. 
 
In the end, I think a Big Ten championship is inevitable, but I am skeptical about anything beyond that.  I will need to see the Buckeyes staff make solid adjustments through the season before I am willing to predict a national title.  Championship talent is there at every position, but lately the staff has been very predictable and slow to adapt to on the field deficiencies.  I am going to temporarily put my home team bias aside and predict a "disappointing" 12-1 season. 
 
Jesse Lamovsky:  Ohio State's September 13 match-up with USC might be the game of the year, but make no mistake- even if the Buckeyes beat the Trojans they're far from home free to the BCS title game. Stiff tests abound within the Big Ten schedule, particularly road dates at Wisconsin (with an 8:00 start making that already-tough game even tougher), at Michigan State, and at Illinois, where the winds at Memorial Stadium figure to be especially tricky in mid-November. Even aside from the USC clash, the schedule should be considerably tougher than last year's. 
 
And that's bad news to a program that, depending on how the season shakes out, may need to go undefeated to get its third straight crack at the crystal football. With nineteen starters back from last year and Lawrence Wilson healthy after missing almost all of 2007 with a leg fracture, the Buckeyes are loaded for bear, but history has shown how difficult it is to run the table, no matter how dominant the personnel, and with as many as four eminently lose-able road games on the docket, it's going to be especially difficult this year. I like Ohio State to beat a USC team that looks a little short on offensive playmakers, and I really like them to beat rebuilding Michigan- quite possibly by the largest margin since the 50-14 wipeout in 1968- but I don't expect the Buckeyes to get through the regular season unscathed. One of Wisconsin, MSU, or Illinois will play spoiler. 
 
Predicted Record and Bowl: 11-1, Rose Bowl 
 
Dan Wismar:  I've got this figured out. Stay with me. The Buckeyes are one of the two best and most talented teams in the country. Therefore they should be playing in the BCS Championship Game. If they lose to USC, they can't get there. If they lose to a lesser school (the rest of the schedule) they can't get there. Therefore, they will go undefeated. How's that for some circular illogic? 
 
I know it's crazy to predict a perfect regular season. It's only happened twice at OSU in the last 50 years. And sure, there's a chance they'll stumble at Wisconsin, or possibly at Illinois, but those are both flawed teams that would need every little thing to go right to pull off an upset. 
 
The season hinges on the USC game, of course, and it's one of those games that you just relish watching for the sheer enjoyment of college football at its most dramatic. Over half of the first team All-American defense will be playing in that game. The sum total of talent on the field that night will be amazing. Both defenses will be stingy. The Trojans are a bit greener on offense than the Buckeyes are though, and I think the difference in the game will be the quality and experience of the Ohio State offensive line. That, and the fact that OSU has Chris Wells and USC doesn't. That should be enough to outweigh the Trojans home field advantage, and the Bucks will carry the day, say...27-21. 
 
Michigan will be sky high on Nov. 22, no matter how their season has gone to that point. I have higher expectations of them than many others do, but Rodriguez knows why he's there...and it's to win this game. It won't happen this year, though. Not in Columbus, and not with so little offensive firepower in Maize and Blue. Buckeyes 28-13. 
 
I'm already on record as predicting that Oklahoma will provide the opposition in the championship game, and since I've gone this far, I might as well predict victory for Ohio State. Because if I can't do it this year, I'm not sure when I could. 
 
Jeff Walcoff:  When a team has a running back as good as Chris Wells and a defense as experienced and talented as the Buckeyes will this season, it's hard to lose too many times on the collegiate level. But just as Illinois got to them in 2007, someone in the Big Ten will again this year, whether it be Wisconsin at night, the Illini again, or another team off the radar. 
 
Once a supposed Heisman candidate during the '07 season, Todd Boeckman was largely exposed in the National Championship game against LSU as a middle-of-the-road quarterback who throws the types of ill-conceived jump balls you see more often by QBs at mid-level programs. In most games on the '08 schedule when the Buckeyes have their opponents well overmatched, Boeckman will look good -- even great -- most of the time, as his shortcomings will be adequately hidden by capable, experienced receivers and a stellar running game. But when the defense has that bad week or Beanie misses some time, Boeckman simply isn't the Craig Krenzel- or Troy Smith-type of quarterback who is trustworthy to grind out a win with the game on his shoulders. 
 
The Buckeyes will have another exciting, mostly successful season and Beanie just might win the Heisman. But a loss to USC and another setback somewhere else on the schedule will leave the team out of the championship game for the first time since '05. 
 
Final Record: 11-2 
Bowl appearance: Rose Bowl 
Will lose to USC and beat Michigan 
 
Hiko:  Obviously, the season hinges on the beginning - the USC game.  I really believe that Ohio State has just as much chance to win in Los Angeles as the Trojans do.  The programs are very similar - very rich in history and success, nestled in the heart of a High School football hotbed, and a National Title contender year after year (due in no small part to the overall relative weakness of their conferences). 
 
Should Ohio State win in LA, I see them focused and determined and finishing the season 12-0.  Should they lose to USC, I still see a very good season, but one Big 10 loss, perhaps to Illinois, Michigan State, or Wisconsin (all road games) and a final record of 10-2. 
 
As for Michigan... ha!  That team is gonna be a disaster this year.  Rich Rodriguez will be lucky to make it into the 2009 campaign. 
 
Since I have decided to boycott Bowl Games, I have no thoughts on where OSU might go and how they might do.  The Bowls are crap of the first order, and, until College Football can get its head out of the sand and get real playoffs implemented, the only reason I care about those games is for betting purposes.  The College Football season ends in November. 
 
Tony Lastoria:  I actually believe Ohio State will go to Los Angeles and beat USC and also take care of business at the end of the year and beat an overmatched Michigan team handily.  It is what happens between those two big games which has me more a little nervous.  There is no question that Tressell always has his troops ready to play against Michigan as well as in early season big game matchups, but the one Achilles Heel for him is the team usually has a slip up game somewhere in the middle of the season.  Whether it is Illinois last year, the near-loss to Illinois the year before, Penn State in 2005, Northwestern in 2004, Wisconsin in 2003, or all the close-misses in 2002, this team will have a game or two that they go in as big favorites that come down to the final minutes. 
 
The game on the schedule that actually scares me the most is the one where they go to Illinois on Nov 15th.  For whatever reason Illinois has given the Buckeyes fits the last two years, and I expect this to be the toughest game of the season to win.  With what I expect to be an undefeated 10-0 Buckeyes team going into this game, and with Michigan looming the week after, this is a dangerous game and the one game on the schedule I see the Buckeyes standing the most chance at losing.  Since I think they will lose one game along the way this season, I'll go ahead and predict this is the game they lose. 
 
Question is, if the Bucks were to lose, but then beat Michigan again the following week and finish 11-1, do they get "voted" into the BCS Title game again?  My thinking is "yes" and mostly because they will have proven themselves with a convincing win against USC on the road and several key conference road wins at Madison and East Lansing.  There is no question this team has the talent as they have many 2009 NFL first day picks set to start on both sides of the ball, have a Heisman candidate at running back in Beanie Wells, a staunch defense led by arguably the premier defensive player in college football this year in James Laurinaitis, and a master at the control switch in The Vest.  This season could be won or lost based on the play of quarterback Todd Boeckman who was shaky the second half of last season and showed he could be rattled when put under pressure. 
 
Final Regular Season Record: 11-1

Big Ten Champs, Lose to Georgia in the Orange Bowl