OHIO STATE

National champ OSU will create buzz at B1G Media Days

Jon Spencer
Reporter

Last summer, after the first session of Big Ten Media Days, the headline on my story from Chicago read “Can (Braxton) Miller stay healthy for the Buckeyes?”

Less than a month later, we had our answer.

As we head back to Chicago armed with new questions Thursday and Friday, Miller and his twice-surgically repaired shoulder are in the process of switching from quarterback to receiver and the Ohio State Fair is about to unveil a butter sculpture of coach Urban Meyer to commemorate the team’s 2014 success.

Can’t wait for someone to ask him whether he’d prefer his likeness carved out of margarine.

Some possible storylines:

Will the Buckeyes give the Big Ten a repeat national champion?

On paper, they are clearly the best team, but so what? On paper, they were the fourth-best team in the first College Football Playoff and won it all.

You need to have a little luck to go along with all that skill and acumen, and I worry Ohio State might have exhausted its supply by dipping down to the third string to find one of its saviors.

But the team does have the best coach in the business, maybe any sport, and an embarrassment of riches on both sides of the ball, so why not?

Will the Big Ten be toasting its first Heisman Trophy winner since Ohio State’s Troy Smith in 2006?

The Buckeyes certainly improve those odds with no less than four candidates.

Handicappers seem to like TCU quarterback Trevone Boykin as the early favorite, probably because the last five stiff-arm awards have gone to a QB. After that, the top choices appear to be OSU tailback Ezekiel Elliott and whoever starts at quarterback for the Buckeyes.

Elliott burst his way into the public consciousness with a spectacular postseason, but some feel the almost obscene wealth of talent on offense will cut into his carries and cripple his chances.

Colleague Jim Navaeu, of The Lima News, doesn’t agree, pointing out that, when Eddie George won the Heisman for OSU in 1995, he played with a 3,000-yard passer in Bob Hoying and a Biletnikoff Award-winning receiver in Terry Glenn. Having all of those other weapons to divert attention might actually help Zeke.

Personally, I hope OSU defensive end Joey Bosa becomes the first pure defensive player to win the Heisman so we can watch him step to the podium in front of all the stuffed shirts, past winners and millions watching on TV and simply shrug.

Who has the toughest schedule?

Don’t laugh. When looking at what’s at stake, I believe it’s the Buckeyes.

Sure, their first 10 games look like layups, but from there, it’s like climbing Everest. Those last few hundred yards are a killer. To repeat as national champion, they’ll have to beat, in order, preseason top-5 Michigan State, arch rival Michigan, a Big 10 Championship Game opponent (probably revenge-minded Wisconsin), and two College Football Playoff foes.

All this talk of increasing the CFP pool to 8 or even 16 teams? Ohio State, in essence, could be walking that extended playoff gauntlet this season.

So who’s your quarterback?

Believe it or not, Urban Meyer won’t be the only Big Ten coach asked that question. He’ll just be the only one asked a million different ways and the answer will always be the same. A smirk.

Meyer will wait for the answer to be made for him, the way it was in Braxton Miller’s case. Maybe Cardale Jones will come down with a nasty case of Twitter finger. Maybe, and this is more likely, J.T. Barrett will pick up in fall camp where he left off before breaking his ankle against Michigan. He’s the most complete package at the position.

As someone snarkily pointed out on Twitter, OSU is so lethal on offense that one of its receivers would be Michigan’s best quarterback.

In a private moment, new U-M coach Jim Harbaugh would probably agree. He’s saddled with choosing between Iowa transfer Jake Rudock (yawn) and Shane Morris (bigger yawn).

Rutgers, Maryland and Northwestern all have quarterback competitions of their own to settle in camp.

But none of them will come to a conclusion anywhere near as dramatic as the battle in Columbus.

Can the Big Ten overtake the SEC for conference supremacy?

It’s probably a tad early to have this discussion.

To this day, there’s a once-prominent ESPN analyst who doesn’t believe the Buckeyes deserved to be part of the first CFP, largely because of the perceived inferior league it plays in. Funny, though, I haven’t seen much of him lately, and his name, quite frankly, escapes me. Mark something?

The Buckeyes helped change perception with the way they manhandled Oregon and Alabama — the latter in SEC country — to win the national championship.

But the rest of the league, with the exception of Mark Dantonio’s Michigan State Spartans, has to pick up the pace. Until then, the consensus will be that the SEC and Pac-12 are in front of the Big Ten in conference rankings.

Two things could help alter the rankings:

•The Big Ten wins more of the marquee non-conference games. Michigan State hosts Oregon and Air Force in back-to-back weeks, Michigan opens at Utah, Minnesota kicks things off at home against TCU, Northwestern opens by hosting Stanford, Ohio State has Labor Night to itself against formidable (at least last year) Virginia Tech, and Wisconsin meets ’Bama that same holiday weekend in Arlington, Texas.

•Michigan quickly turns it around under Jim Harbaugh: I don’t think there’s any question that’s going to happen. I don’t care how baggy his khakis or how clunky his interviews or how underwhelming the roster he inherited. The man can flat-out coach. The last two showdowns with heavily favored OSU were shootouts, and that’s with Brady Hoke at Michigan’s controls. If you think beating Michigan in Ann Arbor is going to be easy, with Harbaugh calling the shots and Michigan State barely in the rear view mirror, you must think the Buckeyes could win a national championship with their fourth-string quarterback.

Will any of the Big Ten coaches whine as much as Alabama’s Nick Saban did at SEC Media Days?

Not a chance.

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Gannett Ohio’s Jon Spencer will be heading to the Big Ten Media days Thursday and Friday. Follow his thoughts and reactions using the hashtag #B1GMedia or follow him at @jspencermnj