All-Tressel Era Team- Defense

DE- Will Smith (Thaddeus Gibson, Simon Fraser)
DT- Tim Anderson (Quinn Pitcock, Kenny Peterson)
DT- Darrion Scott (Mike Collins, Marcus Green)
DE- Vernon Gholston (Cameron Heyward, Thaddeus Gibson)
LB- A.J. Hawk (Cie Grant, Marcus Freeman)
LB- James Laurinaitis (Matt Wilhelm, Anthony Schlegel)
LB- Bobby Carpenter (Robert Reynolds, Ross Homan)
CB- Chris Gamble (Derek Ross, Dustin Fox)
CB- Malcolm Jenkins (Chimdi Chekwa, Ashton Youboty)
S- Mike Doss (Donte Whitner, Kurt Coleman)
S- Will Allen (Donnie Nickey, Nate Salley)

Will Smith: 2003 All-American, 2003 Big Ten Defensive POY, and national champion

Tim Anderson: 2003 All-American and national champion

Darrion Scott: Two-time All Big Ten defensive lineman and national champion

Vernon Gholston: 2007 All-American and 1st team All Big Ten defensive end

A.J. Hawk: Two-time All-American, 2005 Lombardi Award winner and national champion

James Laurinaitis: Three-time All-American, Nagurski, Lott and Butkus Award winner

Bobby Carpenter: 2005 All-American and national champion

Chris Gamble: 2003 All-American and national champion

Malcolm Jenkins: Two-time All-American and 2008 Thorpe winner

Mike Doss: Three-time All-American and national champion

Will Allen: 2003 All-American and national champion

All-Tressel Era Team- Offense

I have compiled a list of what I believe to be the best players for Ohio State this past decade under one of my favorite coaches of all time, Jim Tressel (I state that PROUDLY, for all of you negative nancies out there). I will start with the offense, along with a brief list of the starters accomplishments while they attended The Ohio State University.

QB- Troy Smith (Terrelle Pryor, Craig Krenzel)
RB- Maurice Clarett (Beanie Wells, Antonio Pittman)
FB- Jamar Martin (Brandon Joe, Zach Boren)
WR- Michael Jenkins (Ted Ginn, Anthony Gonzalez)
WR- Santonio Holmes (Brian Robiskie, Dane Sanzenbacher)
TE- Ben Hartsock (Darnell Sanders, Jake Ballard)
T- Rob Sims (Tyson Walter, Alex Boone)
G- Alex Stepanovich (Adrien Clarke, Doug Datish)
C- LeCharles Bentley (Nick Mangold, Mike Brewster)
G- Justin Boren (T.J. Downing, Bryce Bishop)
T- Shane Olivea (Kirk Barton, Jim Cordle)

Troy Smith: 2006 All-American, Walter Camp, Davey O'Brien and Heisman Trophy Winner

Maurice Clarett: 2002 Freshman of the Year and national champion

Jamar Martin: 2001 Team Captain

Michael Jenkins: All-Big Ten receiver and national champion

Santonio Holmes: 2005 First Team All-Big Ten receiver

Ben Hartsock: 2003 First Team All-Big Ten tight end

Rob Sims: 2005 First Team All-Big Ten receiver

Alex Stepanovich: 2003 First Team All-Big Ten and national champion

LeCharles Bentley: 2001 All-American and Rimington Award Winner

Justin Boren: Two time All-Big Ten guard

Shane Olivea: Two time All-Big Ten tackle and national champion

The defense- which is nasty, by the way- will be posted soon.

Let the Countdown Begin

With almost 100 days until the 2011 Ohio State Buckeyes take the field against Akron, it seems fitting that I start writing up on some college football!

With all of the negative attention surrounding the program, this will be a good outlet to come and read strictly about football, not NCAA sanctions and lawyers and gold pants - unless it is about kicking Michigan's rear end come November.

My first post since after the big win over Arkansas in the Sugar Bowl involves the newly aligned Big Ten Conference and how teams have fared against the Buckeyes this past decade. Who had been the biggest pain for Ohio State this past decade? Who has gone the longest without beating the big bad Bucks in Big Ten play? Read on, my friends.

The last time they beat the Buckeyes was...

Indiana- 1988 (22 years! The longest drought in Big Ten play)
Illinois- 2007 (Do we really need to recall who ruined 2007's undefeated season?)
Iowa- 2004 (I remember 33-7 like it was yesterday)
Michigan- 2003 (HA HA! It's been 2,737 days since Michigan last beat OSU)
Michigan State- 1999 (In their defense, the Spartans were very good in '99)
Minnesota- 2000 (The Bucks were #5 in the country and lost a shocker on homecoming)
Nebraska- ? (Have yet to compete in the Big Ten. OSU is 2-0 all time vs. the Huskers)
Northwestern- 2004 (Sigh. Before their OT win, the last time the Cats won was 1971)
Penn State- 2008 (In the Tressel era, the Lions have won three times in the series)
Purdue- 2009 (Aside from '09, Purdue also beat OSU in 2000 and 2004 the past decade)
Wisconsin- 2010 (In the 2000's, Wisky has been a HUGE rival- winning four times)

And the winner for the biggest pain in the ass for Ohio State in the new millennium is - drumroll - the Wisconsin Badgers.

Under Barry Alvarez, Wisconsin made a consistent habit of beating Ohio State - especially in Columbus. No coach was better in his tenure at one school at beating the Buckeyes in the friendly confines of Ohio Stadium. Alvarez led his team to three straight wins in Columbus between 1999 and 2004, and ended OSU's 19 game winning streak in Madison back in 2003. Throw in last season's heart breaker up in Madison, and Wisconsin could very well be the biggest rival to the school NOT named Michigan.

Runner-up in the competition category is Penn State, who has won two Big Ten titles at the Buckeye's expense since Tressel took over the program in 2001.