Football
The-Ozone Note and Quotebook
By John Porentas

Note and Quotebook

Shocked: Ohio State will enter the Michigan game with four games already in the loss ledger this season, three more than they had in the last two seasons combined. Buckeye senior cornerback Dustin Fox is amazed that those four losses are there.

"I am shocked, especially at Ohio State, you don't expect to lose four games in a season," said Fox.

"You expect to win every game."

Fox added that a win in the Michigan game would be good tonic for what currently ails the Buckeyes.

"We have to win this game and get it going again," he said.

On the Mend: Ohio State has been banged up the last couple of weeks, particularly in the secondary where safeties Donte Whitner and Nate Salley have both missed games, and cornerback Dustin Fox missed last week's game against Purdue. Earlier this week Fox said he would most likely play against the Wolverines, and in a bit of surprise, OSU Head Coach Jim Tressel said yesterday that safety Donte Whitner is now probable despite having knee surgery less-than two weeks ago.

"Donte looks great. He's been going through everything," said Tressel of Whitner's week of practice thus far.

"We've had guys on 'scopes', the best I've ever seen is like eight days. I've seen a lot of them at 10 to 12, and that's what this one would be I think," Tressel said.

Nate Salley is also expected to see action against Michigan as well.

Crossing the Line: A total of ten players on the Michigan roster are players who crossed the state line from Ohio to play for the Wolverines. Two of the those players, defensive end Pat Massey (Brecksville) and inside linebacker Lawrence Reid (Pickerington), are listed as starters.

Center Mark Bihl (Washington Court House) is listed as a second-team backup, as are place kicker Troy Nienberg (Glandorf), outside linebacker Shawn Crable (Massilon), inside linebacker Prescott Burgess (Warren) and outside linebacker Pierre Woods (Cleveland).

Other Wolverine players from the Buckeye state are tight ends Jim Fisher (Huron) and Mike Massey (Brecksville), and free safety Willis Barringer (Toledo).

The Difference Makers: You will see and hear a lot of analysis about the Ohio State vs. Michigan game, but OSU Head Coach Jim Tressel has distilled it down to just a couple of key factors when trying to figure out who will win the game.

"They (OSU vs. Michigan games) come down to the mistake factors, many times on special teams, and they come down to the big play factors," said Tressel.

"We all can think back to folklore of Mike Lanese diving and making a catch on third-and-sixteen, or Jim Laughlin blocking a punt to make the difference in '79. It's usually big plays and mistakes, maybe on the same play, a mistake by one team and a big play by the other."

Tressel summed it up this way:

"I think both teams just go out there and smash into each other and whoever makes the least mistakes typically wins, and whoever makes the most big plays typically wins."

Passing You-Know-Who: Wolverine freshman running back sensation Michael Hart is putting his name into the record books with some rather elite company. Hart's 1,311 rushing yards thus far this season is the third-best total for a freshman ever in the Big Ten. Only Darrel Thompson of Minnesota (1,376 yards in 1986) and Ron Dayne of Wisconsin (2,109 yards in 1996) have rushed for more yards than Hart as a freshman.

Hart has a chance to pass Thompson this weekend, and to put his effectiveness into perspective for OSU fans, Hart has now gained 84 more yards than the fourth-place rusher on the all-time Big-Ten freshman rushing list, some guy named Maurice Clarett.

Calling on the 12th man: Jim Tressel is staying up late every night this week, looking for an edge to help his team defeat the Wolverines. Tressel said that the fans in Ohio Stadium on Saturday can do their part to help the Buckeye cause as well.

"Our place needs to be loud," said Tressel.

"We need to make it very difficult to communicate.

"We need for them to feel that 12th man out there."

Michigan freshman quarterback Chad Henne will be a player that will be under considerable pressure on Saturday. Henne, who is currently the leading freshman quarterback in the nation with 2,188 passing yards, 762 yards more than second-ranked Erik Ainge of Tennessee, will be the object of much Buckeye fan wrath in Ohio Stadium.

"I think that affects a guy at any age," said Tressel.

"I think both quarterbacks going into the game are going to be wound up and excited, but they're going to get smacked around and they'll both settle down.

"Our home crowd and the noise and the atmosphere and the energy that's created here needs to make a difference."

Fancy Passing not a Passing Fancy: The Michigan air attack has been devastating this season. Not only has freshman quarterback Chad Henne excelled, but Michigan's receiving corps headed by Braylon Edwards, Jason Avant and Steve Breaston is one of the best in the nation. Jim Tressel says there are some things the Buckeyes absolutely must do to slow down the Wolverine air attack.

"You better get a little pressure on the quarterback, so he can't stand there all day," said Tressel.

"I think if we let the quarterback have as long as he'd like, no one is equipped (to stop Michigan's passing game) to cover too long. Those guys are good. They know what they're doing. They're not complicated, they just execute."

Crossing the Line The Other Way - The Wolverines have 10 players on their roster from Ohio, but the Buckeyes have just one player from Michigan on their roster, defensive end Vernon Gholstin from Detroit.

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