Buckeyes Must Win

The USC game is a must win for Ohio State. If the Buckeyes lose this one at home they will start to see the program continue down a path whereby it will be a long time before the Bucks compete for another national championship. Players don't want to play for a team that cannot win a big game and recruiting outside the state of Ohio is imperative for the future of Buckeye football.

Coach Tressel has been dependent upon in state football players at the Ohio State University. During the Tressel era only major players Will Smith, Michael Jenkins, Chris Gamble, and Santonio Holmes were not home stat bred players. All were receivers with the exception of Smith. The rest of them including current NFL players AJ Hawk, Bobby Carpenter, Will Allen, Mike Doss, Ted Ginn, Matt Wilhelm and the list goes on were home bred players. Great idea but with the downturn in the economy more and more families are leaving the rust belt for warmer southern climates. Hey if you can't live comfortably and be comfortably employed might as well head south and at least enjoy the weather. It's a scary trend for Big Ten football.

Unlike Ohio State, Pete Carroll just has to look out his back door for talent in Southern California where high school football is as talented and competitive as anywhere else in the country. It comes down to simple mathematics. With a population base in Southern California alone which is almost twice as great as the entire state of Ohio players are competing against more players and have to be far more competitive if they want to play so off season workouts are more intense, practices are more intense and the result on the football field is the proof.

This game will have huge ramifications on Ohio State Football. There used to be a day when a Buckeye recruiter could go into Southern California and recruit major star players away from USC but that has not happened since John Cooper got current Carolina linebacker Nail Diggs. The other football rich regions including Texas and Florida don't have much appeal to future Buckeye recruits since the Longhorns and Gators defeated the Buckeyes in their most recent match-ups although the Buckeyes did go into Austin back in 2006 to whip Texas. Right now the speed isn't there for the Buckeyes to compete for a national title something that is expected in Columbus and for that to happen a win over the Trojans is a must because Tressel will have to get his speed from somewhere and Southern California is a desirable region for speed.

If the Buckeyes cannot defeat the Trojans in the shoe than the problem might get bigger and uglier for the sweater vested head coach in Columbus because his biggest most hated rival has something the Bucks don't have. A victory over the Florida Gators in the past two years which at least gives Michigan and Rich Rodriguez a relentless recruiter something when he heads into speed country down in Florida.