VIEW FROM THE MIDWEST: SEPTEMBER 28, 2007

Buckeyes Open Big Ten With a Blast of Northwestern

By Paul Smith / smith@collegeblitz.com

COLUMBUS — Anthony Gonzalez, Ohio State Class of '07, is a handy spare part for the Colts. Ted Ginn, Jr. skipped his senior year to be a standout special teamer for the Dolphins. Stan White, Jr., '07, is learning the National Football League's stringent tight end requirements as a Bengal.

Three prime time offensive producers gone.

Half a dozen questions, so few preseason answers...

"Where are you going, Brian Robiskie?" the mantra went, "Buckeye Nation turns its lonely eyes to you."

To the end zone, it turns out.

Often.

Three touchdowns Saturday, five in this season's 4-0 start, including a game-decider at Washington the previous week.

After a 58-7 nuking of outmanned Northwestern before 105,178 sun-splashed Bucknuts, Robiskie caught touchdown passes of 42, 28 and 19 yards from Todd Boeckman in the game's first 15 minutes and 58 seconds to pretty much suck the competitiveness out of the Wildcats (2-2), who eventually found themselves down 45-0 at halftime.

"You get a big smile on your face when you see those guys that open," Boeckman told The Columbus Dispatch. "If they're that open, just try to get it to them as quick as you can so the (defensive backs) can't get there."

Boeckman, another preseason question mark, is rapidly turning into an exclamation point.

Against the Wildcats, he put up mini-monster numbers, throwing for four touchdowns -- the last being his 48-yarder to Ray Small on Boeckman's last play early in the fourth quarter -- among his 14 completions in 20 attempts.

But the real offensive impactor was Robiskie, a promising, but supposedly not fully polished junior from Chagrin Falls.

"Brian is a kid who really studies the game," Ohio State coach Jim Tressel told Cleveland Plain Dealer columnist Bill Livingston. "He's very disciplined in his route running. He's long (6-feet, 3-inches, 195 pounds) and he's got excellent hands, excellent hand-eye coordination. He can reach out and pluck the ball out of the air in a lot of different ways."

On Saturday, Robiskie showed why his name should enter the leaguewide conversation with Michigan's Mario Manningham, Dorien Bryant of Purdue and others, his cumulative yardage total to 431, a staggering 21.6-yard per-catch average.

Ohio State being Ohio State, there are always what some would call LaScala moments, where the latest Pavarotti wannabe's stunning version of La Donna e Mobile was viewed as brilliant, but hey, the young tenor's voice showed signs of cracking.

Turns out the two biggest Robiskie critics carry the same last name.

Robiskie.

His father, Terry Robiskie, used to coach the Cleveland Browns' wide receivers, so Brian comes by his football acumen in the most honest of ways.

And Brian eyed his jewel of a performance and, like his father, found at least one flaw.

As he ran a deep pattern in the middle of the first quarter, he couldn't shake talented Northwestern cornerback Sherrick McManis, who picked off Boeckman's pass at the goal line.

A slight one-word glitch in an aria...a too-blue stroke in a masterpiece painting.

But it is such striving for perfection that helps Robiskie from too deeply absorbing the scores of newspaper stories about his latest accomplishments.

"I put the interception on me," he said to Livingston. "I'm sure I'll hear about that from my father. He rides me sometimes, but he always tells me what I did right."

Which has been plenty this year. His 68-yarder at Washington the previous Saturday put a charge into the Bucks' early second-half efforts as they went on to rout their Pac-10 rivals 33-14.

The Buckeyes left house critics with precious little to work with against the Wildcats, who, in a sadist schedule twist, now must face Michigan in Evanston this Saturday.

Besides the Boeckman-to-Robiskie combination, the Bucks rushed for 191 yards, including 100 from supersoph tailback Chris "Beanie" Wells, who ran 36 for a third-quarter touchdown and is on line to produce the 23rd 1,000-yard rushing season at Ohio State.

The defense contributed five sacks of Northwestern's promising young C.J. Bacher, one of which produced a 25-yard touchdown fumble return by defensive end Vernon Gholston.

But the most noticeable part of Saturday was the efforts of Boeckman and Robiskie...and a defense that limited N.U. to 120 total yards, zero rushing.

"We played with a lot of intensity today," Ghoulston said. "We obviously made a couple mistakes, but we played hard...

"After four games we are starting to find out what we are capable of. We have a great defensive line and are really starting to find out who we are."

Obviously, the bigger tests lie ahead. This Saturday's opponent, Minnesota, is in total rebuild mode. But then comes a visit to Purdue, never an easy one for the Buckeyes, who lost in West Lafayette in 2005.

The late-October/November stretch includes a visit by Michigan State, then a roadie at Penn State, where the Bucks have won exactly twice in 10 tries, then a giant challenge from visiting Wisconsin, one of the preseason league favorites.

Then much-improved Illinois follows the Badgers into the Horseshoe. Then...

Like you have to ask. And it's in Ann Arbor this year.

"Ohio State's offense is going to come after you with a balanced attack," Northwestern coach Pat Fitzgerald said. "On defense, it's not like they are reinventing the wheel, but for some reason we were just not ready for it."

You can be sure a who's-who list of Joe Tiller, whose "basketball-on-grass" offense is a test for any Purdue opponent, ex-Tressel assistant Mark Dantonio, who has quietly put together a 4-0 start at Michigan State, plus Joe Paterno and Lloyd Carr will be ready.

That's when we find out for sure where the '07 Bucks are headed.

But it again is clear the Buckeyes bring some serious weaponry to the storied Big Ten battlefields and even the deepest critic can allow a little elbowroom for optimism.

Bucknotes -- Beanie Wells rolled an ankle on the first Ohio State offensive play in the second half, but said "It's fine..." ... Tressel's O.S.U. career record is now 66-14, good for an .825 percentage, the league's best...The Buckeyes have now won 22 straight regular season games dating back to Oct. 8, 2005, where they lost at Penn State 17-10.

Contributing mightily: The Plain Dealer's Bill Livingston, The Columbus Dispatch's indomitable trio of Tim May, Ken Gordon, Bob Baptist and The Ohio State University sports information office.