Buckeye's and Big Ten Will Be Back on Top
by Jeff Fisher
(Salina, OH)
Growing up in northern Ohio football has always been a huge part of my life. The Browns are local favorite and aside from the years the team I spend every Sunday afternoon watching them. Although I love them everyone knows that its been torture to be a Browns fan, Ohio State has always been the standby.
The Buckeyes give people in Ohio a chance to actually experience what it is like to have a winning team. They have always had their share of disappointments but they give hope to an entire state of football fans. Jim Tressell's football history in Ohio as a coach is well documented, but his recruiting seems to me to be very local. My favorite part of the Buckeyes is the number of people actually from Ohio on the team. I know each college team has a number of local players on the roster but I believe the number of homegrown players on the roster goes to show the commitment of the university to the state itself.
The Big 10 has always been one of the premiere football conferences in the country and I believe soon once again will produce a long run of national titles. The speed of the SEC has caused a lot of problems for all the Big 10 teams in recent years the same way the size of the Big 10 used to cause problems for them.
The use of smaller track star like players has always been there but now that those players are no longer just out returning kicks and offenses are being built around them. The entire Big 10 conference is starting to make moves to mimic the offenses of teams like Florida and USC which will take some time to catch but I'm a firm believer that the Buckeyes will right back in the #1 slot within the next 2 years.