Midseason Recap

Sitting at 7-0 overall and 4-0 in the conference things are looking good for the Ohio State Buckeyes to date. The Buckeyes took care of business to date as to be expected, but some daunting challenges lie in wait the final five weeks of the season. The Buckeyes travel to 7th ranked Penn State this coming weekend followed by home dates against Wisconsin (4-3) and Illinois (3-4) before traveling to 5th ranked Michigan (6-1) and 3rd ranked Oklahoma (8-0). 'We have to be better in the second half if we want to get to where we want to be.' said head man Aaron Jones. Offensive leaders for the Buckeyes to date are Senior quarterback Jared Gary who is 72-143 on the season for 963 yards with 9 td's and 3 picks. Junior receiver Tim Brown has only 12 catches but 249 yards and 4 td's. The main man is senior running back and Heisman frontrunner Greg Matthews who has 1,055 yards and an amazing 16 td's on the season. Part of the reason for Matthews jaw dropping numbers has been the downright pathetic play from the quarterback position. Incoming freshman quarterback Dave Jackson has Buckeyes fans drooling for the first time since Terrelle Pryor first suited up for Ohio State. Despite Gary's flaws, he is the 4th rated qb in the Big Ten. Matthews is second in the conference in rushing yards but has 10 more touchdowns than anyone else and his 8.3 ypc is best in the NCAA.

Defensively the Buckeyes are headlined by sophomore strong safety Ronnie Love who has 3 picks on the season, 2 of which he took the distance. Sophomore d-end Chance Robinson leads the team in sacks with 4.

As a team, the Buckeyes post the 3rd highest scoring offense at 36.7 ppg and the 3rd best defense, highlighted by their stout rush defense which has surrendered an NCAA best 257 yards. Ohio State is also +8 in turnover differential, good for 5th in the country.

It'll be an interesting second half to the campaign, in 5 weeks we'll know just where this version of the Buckeyes stand with 3 of their next 5 against top 10 teams, all on the road.