On Saturday Ohio State makes its first road trip of the season.
The Buckeyes travel to Champaign, Illinois and Memorial Stadium to take on the Fighting Illini and play once again for the Illibuck trophy. Illinois is one of those teams that is a bit of a cipher in this early part of the season. They’ve only played three games and come into the game with the Buckeyes at 2 and 1. In their opening contest they lost to Missouri, 23-13, in a game where they led at halftime. (Missouri, incidentally, hasn’t lost a game this season.) In the last two games the Illini have spanked Southern Illinois and beaten Northern Illinois 28-22.
Mikel Leshoure
It’s tough to draw a lot of meaningful guidance from those games, but it is clear that Illinois prefers to run the ball. They have a big, mobile running back, Mikel Leshoure, who is 6-1 and 230 pounds. Leshoure has run for 100 yards in each of Illinois’ three games, has scored three touchdowns, and has broken some big runs. The Illini quarterback, Nathan Scheelhaase, is a rangy freshman who is the second leading rusher on the team. With Leshoure and Scheelhaase leading the way, Illinois ranks 18th in the FBS in rushing yards per game. The passing attack, however, is a little less robust, averaging 130 yards per game to rank 112th in the FBS. On the other side of the ball, Illinois’ defense seems to be improved over last year, when they gave up an average of 30 points a game.
How will it play out? Playing on the road in the Big Ten is tough, and Ohio State always draws a big, hostile crowd and a fired-up opponent looking to make a statement. In such situations, senior leadership is crucial; fortunately, Ohio State has a number of upperclassmen who knows how to perform on the road. I think the key for Ohio State will be avoiding turnovers and avoiding special teams mistakes. Ohio State’s goal will be to get ahead early, force Illinois to abandon its running game, and make Illinois’ freshman quarterback carry the load. If they can accomplish that they will put themselves in position to win the ballgame.
Beating Illinois on the road will be a challenge, but it is a challenge the Buckeyes have to overcome if they want to contend for the Big Ten championship.
Is any sport more troubled in that regard than cycling? From reading new reports you get the sense that cyclists are human pincushions who are willing to subject themselves to almost any kind of drug or other form of hare-brained treatment in hopes of gaining a slight advantage over competitors and then somehow avoiding detection by the sport’s regulators.
In addition to all of the federal and state races on the ballot in November, central Ohio voters will cast their ballots on Issue 4, a 2.8 mill property tax levy to support the Columbus Metropolitan Library system. I strongly support Issue 4, and I hope Franklin County voters will, too.
Who is Mazlan Othman, you may ask? Why, she is a Malaysian astrophysicist who heads up the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs, and therefore is the perfect person to deal with the issue of alien first contact. She explains that, when aliens first communicate with Earth, “we should have in place a coordinated response that takes into account all sensitivities related to the subject,” and the UN “is a ready-made mechanism for such coordination.” One can only imagine what kind of meaningless, politically correct drivel the slow-moving UN political processes would produce as Earth’s “coordinated” response to an alien contact.
Today’s contest will be one of those games where Ohio State really can’t win. You’re expected to pulverize your opponent. If you don’t, questions get asked. If you do, pundits criticize you for playing a patsy and give you no credit for the victory. So, about the best you can hope for is that you notch a win, escape without an injury, and get some game experience for your back-ups.
I’m sure Colbert thought it was a great opportunity to enhance his “brand.” He got to take his act to Capitol Hill and get some free publicity “testifying” before an honest-to-God congressional panel. I’m sure the Democratic Representative who is the chair of the subcommittee, Zoe Lofgren, thought it was a great way to get her subcommittee some air time. 
There is no point in sitting politely and diplomatically through the rantings of a paranoid madman and thereby giving them credence, so I applaud the walkout of the United States and many other countries. Because our nation is the host country for the United Nations we have to allow Ahmadinejad and other foreign leaders on our soil, but that doesn’t mean we have to listen to his lunatic diatribes.
Doesn’t this incident aptly capsulize what is wrong with our modern political process? The head of the Ohio Democratic Party says something that should be the source of personal humiliation and deep regret. Instead, it is touted as a reason to contribute to the cause of the Democratic Party. Haven’t we reached a new low when the head of a major political party attempts to capitalize on using the Queen Mother of Curses in a political speech? And doesn’t the quick development of the “Swear Jar” fundraising effort indicate that this resort to brainless vulgarity was an intentional, “hey look at me” gimmick?
