By: AP via Cleveland.com —
COLUMBUS, Ohio — What’s brewing today with the 2008 Ohio State Buckeyes …
BUCKEYES BUZZ:@ Rory Nicol says he doesn’t have time to think about anybody else but himself and his teammates. It’s almost an indoctrination for a college athlete.
He said coaches try to get players to focus, focus, focus to the point where they have little time or energy for anything outside their sphere.
“We’re like these trained dogs. We’re trained to think about ourselves,” he said. “But that’s the best way to go about things then there’s no distractions. I don’t worry about what (Illinois LB) Brit Miller is saying about me. I could care less what he thinks. I care that when I play on Saturday that I do my best and that this team wins because, obviously, there’s some animosity between us and Illinois.”
Nicol said he’s not alone in making the correlation to canines.
“Malcolm (Jenkins) refers to us as ‘We’re dogs’ and ‘We’ve got killer instincts,’” he said.
TRESSELESE:@ Tressel on QB Terrelle Pryor’s progress on his footwork and how it affects play selection: “Typically the play selection is based upon what the defense is doing and if they work, usually your feet are right or the protection is right or the route was run right. And we may have — we may have tailored down some because we had a little bit of time to study ourselves and which are we doing better, what can we block well enough, et cetera, et cetera, but then when you get into the course of the game, if they’re doing what they’ve shown, which interestingly enough, Northwestern came out and they’d run a tight defense the whole nine games leading up and they played stack defense the whole game. Hadn’t played it all year, but that’s what happens sometimes. So you have to get adjusted to that. The coverages didn’t change much, but their front totally changed and our guys had to adjust to that and you have some growing pains as you’re going through a significant change, but what we do in the course of the game is based on what they do.”
TAKING THE BALL FIRST:@ Fans may have wondered why Ohio State has frequently had the ball first to start games this season.
The answer is twofold. First, the Buckeyes captains have won eight of nine coin flips — each time calling tails.
Second, after winning the coin flip, Ohio State has been electing to take the ball instead of deferring to the second half. Tressel said the reason is a rule change that moved the kickoffs back from the 35 to the 30.
“We didn’t start doing that until last year, and that was because kicking from the 30, we thought that you have a chance even with an average return to be out to the 25,” he said. “When the ball was being kicked from the 35 and so many balls were going as touchbacks, we didn’t necessarily think that that’s an advantage starting on the 20, so we thought, well, let’s begin the game with some field position. We’ve won the toss a lot this year. It’s amazing.”
LIST-MAKER:@ LB James Laurinaitis was announced Wednesday as one of three finalists for the Lombardi Award, given annually to the best front-seven defender in college football.
Laurinaitis, a finalist a year ago when LSU’s Glenn Dorsey won, is joined by USC LB Rey Maualuga, Texas DE Brian Orakpo and Alabama OL Andre Smith.
Ohio State players have won the award more than those from any other school. The winner will be announced on Dec. 10.
Laurinaitis was also selected as a semifinalist for the Lott Trophy, which goes to an athlete based on athletic performance and personal character. He was a finalist last year.
Four finalists will be announced Nov. 26, with the winner revealed Dec. 14.

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