We are on the cusp of yet another college football season. Even though I'm not quite ready to pass on the Bengals season yet [I should wait until after the first game, right?] I am rather excited about the Buckeyes.
It's been the best of times/worst of times for Ohio State fans the past couple of years. Two consecutive years appearing in the National Championship Game resulted in embarrassing losses. Even though I question how fair it is to be able to play for the title at home [LSU] it's still no excuse for the Bucks. And even though there's a lot of animosity towards OSU for their lackluster performances, the rest of the country had their chance to make it there and failed. Jim Tressel, OSU's coach, has built a consistent program. And this brings us to the dirty little secret:
The Buckeyes could very well make it to a third consecutive championship game.
Sure, the big test is in a few weeks at Southern Cal. But the Bucks are returning 18 starters on offense and defense. They have big game experience. They'll also use freshman phenom Terelle Pryor like Florida used Tebow a couple of years ago. If they get by USC, they should be playing for all the marbles in January.
And now that Time Warner Cable finally made a deal with the Big Ten Network, I'll be able to watch all of OSU's games on TV. It could just be a year to remember.
By the way, I will admit that I'm extremely interested to see how UC's football team performs this year. Not sure Bearcats football will ever surpass my passion for the Buckeyes, but they hardly ever play each other anyway.