By Doug Lesmerises (Cleveland Plain Dealer) -- JACKSONVILLE, Fla. - Updates from Ohio State's Gator Bowl preparation in Jacksonville, Fla. * There's some hope for the OSU offense to come together for this game and build off what was a better offensive performance against Michigan in the last regular-season game of the year. Asked if the Buckeyes would put two quarterbacks on the field together at the same time, as they did in the Fiesta Bowl during Terrelle ... Read More

From: OhioStateBuckeyes.com via NBC4i.com -- PONTE VEDRA, Fla. -- Coach Luke Fickell led the Ohio State Buckeyes through a two-hour workout Wednesday at the University of North Florida’s Hodges Field. The session was held under superb blue skies. Temps were moving toward the 60-degree range and it was brisk at times, but not enough to keep the players from a working up a good sweat. And the sweating started early, as Fickell and the coaches had the players ... Read More

By Garry Smits (Jacksonville.com) -- Urban Meyer has coached some fine college quarterbacks and two of them are currently starting for playoff-bound NFL teams. He’s already comparing Ohio State freshman Braxton Miller to the likes of Alex Smith, Chris Leak and Tim Tebow, quarterbacks who led Meyer’s teams at Utah and Florida to BCS bowl victories and in the case of Leak and Tebow, two national championships. “I’m putting a lot of pressure on [Miller] already but he’s special,” Meyer ... Read More

By Doug Lesmerises (Cleveland Plain Dealer) -- Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla. -- Nothing was going to keep Ryan Shazier out of this Gator Bowl, apparently. Not a school choice, not a coaching change, not a sprained knee ligament. He was going to be part of Ohio State vs. Florida one way, and on one side, or another. Ohio State's freshman linebacker has spent the past month since he was injured in the Michigan game rehabbing his left knee and ... Read More

By Doug Lesmerises (Cleveland.com) -- Columbus — The aftereffects of a bowl ban helped persuade one of the best players in college football, USC quarterback Matt Barkley, to pass up a shot at being a top-five pick in the 2012 NFL Draft to return for his senior season. Forced by NCAA sanctions to watch bowl seasons the past two years, he said at a Thursday news conference he had some unfinished business to take care of with the ... Read More

By: Chad Hobbs (Examiner.com) -- To go along with a terrible economy and unemployment rates, fans of Ohio sports pretty much would like to forget 2011. From a sports perspective, with the exception of the Columbus Clippers, there wasn't a whole lot to cheer about. However, when it is all said and done, the majority of Ohio sports fans will see light at the end of the tunnel. It all started at the tail end of 2010 and snowballed ... Read More

By: Bob Fisher (MansfieldNewsJournal.com) -- To say we Michigan fans are enjoying the current problems at Ohio State would be an understatement. Some OSU fans are surprised the Buckeyes got hit with a one-year bowl ban among other sanctions. Michigan fans are surprised it wasn't longer. The University of Southern California received a two-year bowl ban in 2010 because of one football player -- Reggie Bush. Ohio State had multiple players committing violations, plus a coach who knowingly played ineligible players and knowingly ... Read More

From: ToledoBlade.com -- Don't shed any tears for Ohio State University's football program or its athletic director, Gene Smith. The sanctions handed down by the NCAA are lighter than deserved -- and Mr. Smith is lucky he still has a job. Last week, the governing body of college sports put Ohio State's football program on probation for three years. It banned the Buckeyes from participating in a bowl game next season and took away nine football scholarships over ... Read More

By Brian Kollars (SpringfrieldNewsSun.com) -- The in-laws came up huge with an amazing gift. If you drive past our house, you’ll see a small leg lamp in the window, a replica of the cussing dad’s big prize in “A Christmas Story.” Our teenager is appalled that I would display this fine piece of craftsmanship in such a prominent space but, hey, she doesn’t pay the mortgage. Ohio State football fans got a big lump of coal last week ... Read More

BY MATT MARKEY (ToledoBlade.com) -- COLUMBUS -- The air in the room was tight with tension, anxiety, apprehension, and a dose of fear of the unknown. When Urban Meyer had his first meeting with the Ohio State players on the same day he was announced as their new head coach, his initial words were not what they had expected. No rah-rah stuff, no litany of the things they would do differently, and no fire, no brimstone. He walked in the room and told ... Read More