By: Doug Lesmerises (Cleveland Plain Dealer) -- COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Former Ohio State defensive linemen Doug Worthington and Thaddeus Gibson were perfecting an agility drill with OSU strength and conditioning coach Eric Lichter on Tuesday. They were two of the dozen or so Buckeyes striving for every little edge in speed and strength while preparing to work out for NFL teams. Not Aaron Pettrey. Though he's one of four Buckeyes -- along with Worthington, Gibson and safety Kurt Coleman -- invited to the NFL ... Read More

By: Doug DiLillo (TheLantern.com) -- The senior leaders on the Ohio State football team ended their careers at OSU with a triumphant Rose Bowl win, but their work isn’t over. Several of the top seniors and junior Thaddeus Gibson have spent their time after the bowl victory not by celebrating but by preparing for the next step of their football careers. The process of moving from college football to the NFL involves intense training to prepare for the NFL Combine and Ohio State Pro Day. ... Read More

COLUMBUS - Joe Montgomery, a former New York Giants running back who played for Ohio State (1994-99), has sued the Buckeyes, claiming an 11-year-old falsely-reported medical report was used by the NFL to deny him workers' compension last year. The report said Montgomery suffered from high blood pressure and hay fever. In other Ohio State news: In ESPN.com's Way-Too-Early College Football Top 25, writer Mark Schlabach puts the Buckeyes at No. 2 entering the 2010 season, just behind National Champions Alabama. The Buckeyes might finally ... Read More

By: Jim Naveau (RecoredPub.com)-- COLUMBUS — The standards have been set so high in Ohio State football that it seems like there are only two kinds of off-seasons anymore. There are the off-seasons where people talk about winning a national championship. And then there are off-seasons where people really, seriously talk about winning a national championship. Call them a Category One off-season and a Category Two off-season. With the possibility of as many as 16 starters returning from the OSU team that beat Oregon 26-17 in ... Read More

By: Kevin Baxter (LATimes.com) -- The phone call came three years ago this month. Kurt Coleman remembers it as if it happened yesterday. It's hard to forget the night your father called to tell you he was dying. "It was Dec. 3, 2006," said Coleman, Ohio State's All-Big Ten strong safety. "And he basically just said 'I have cancer.' I started laughing. Why are you joking? "And he was like, 'No, I'm serious.' " It was breast cancer, a disease so rare among males it strikes ... Read More

By: Doug Lesmerises (Cleveland Plain Dealer) -- Los Angeles — Five senior starters should take the field for Ohio State in Friday’s Rose Bowl, but the Buckeyes could wind up having to replace several other starters in 2010 and having to rebuild one of the best defenses in the country. Already gone will be safeties Kurt Coleman and Anderson Russell, linebacker Austin Spitler and defensive lineman Doug Worthington and Todd Denlinger. At least four other defensive regulars have decisions about whether they come back ... Read More

By: David Leon Moore (USAToday.com) -- LOS ANGELES — Kurt Coleman wraps up his college career in the Rose Bowl on Friday hoping he can wrap up Jeremiah Masoli, LaMichael James and LeGarrette Blount. The all-Big Ten Ohio State senior strong safety knows the game might hinge on whether he makes one-on-one tackles in open space against Oregon's explosive playmakers. "It they break a tackle, they can go all the way," Coleman says. But the Buckeyes know that, on and off the field, Coleman has been ... Read More

From: Cleveland Plain Dealer -- Head Coach Jim Tressel On playing in the Rose Bowl Game…“I think they are anxious to play in the Rose Bowl. They have heard about the Rose Bowl their entire lives, or at least certainly their entire playing lives. Here at Ohio State is one of the goals that you have and now they are here and they have worked extremely hard. They know they have a very, very good opponent that they are being matched up with ... Read More

By: Doug Lesmerises (Cleveland Plain Dealer) -- LOS ANGELES -- Casey Matthews is the third son of former Browns legend Clay Matthews to play college football. Well, at least he is when he's still his dad's son. Coached by his father in both Pop Warner football and at Oaks Christian High School in Southern California, Casey said on good football days his father claimed him and on other days, he called him his mother's son. "It was mostly after practices," Matthews said during Rose Bowl ... Read More

By: Molly Gray (TheLantern.com) -- For the three Ohio State captains and defensive leaders, anticipation for Friday’s game is four years in the making. For Austin Spitler, Doug Worthington and Kurt Coleman, the Rose Bowl will be their last game as Buckeyes and they are ready to leave their legacy behind with a victory in one of the most historic and traditional games in all of football. “You wouldn’t want any other surroundings as your last game than the Rose Bowl and the tradition and ... Read More

By: Toledo Blade staff -- LOS ANGELES - It did not take long for the oft-repeated question to come up. For the Ohio State Buckeyes, it is their version of Groundhog Day or dj vu all over again. One of the first inquiries sent Kurt Coleman's way after the Buckeyes faced the media in Southern California sought an explanation from the OSU senior safety as to why the Buckeyes have been unsuccessful in the last three bowl games - two National Championship ... Read More

By: Doug Lesmerises (Cleveland Plain Dealer) -- BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. -- Ohio State's preparation for Oregon, which features maybe the quickest offense in the country, on Sunday night included an evening of gluttony. Diving into plates filled with 10 oz. cuts of prime rib, corn and mashed potatoes with gravy, the Ohio State Buckeyes were not jeopardizing their Rose Bowl plans with a traditional Rose Bowl meal at Lawry's on Sunday night. The guy who would know -- Ohio State director of football performance ... Read More

By: Jon Spencer (News Journal via StatesmanJournal.com) -- COLUMBUS, Ohio — "Fatigue makes cowards of us all." It sounds like something a famous general would have said, maybe Patton or MacArthur, or former Ohio State coach Woody Hayes. Actually, those words were uttered by a captain, Ohio State senior defensive lineman Doug Worthington, as he talked about the Buckeyes preparing for the Rose Bowl and an Oregon offense that always keeps its finger on the fast-forward button. The pace in Buckeyes practices has been brisk, ... Read More