VIEW FROM THE MIDWEST: NOVEMBER 1, 2007

Ohio State Shows It’s Light Years Above Penn State

By Paul Smith / smith@collegeblitz.com

The driving distance between Columbus and State College, Pa. is 317 miles. Through the air, it's about 255.

Right about now, though, even the bluest and whitest Penn State diehard will tell you, the distance between No. 1 Ohio State's football program and Penn State's cannot be measured continentally.

"Light years," longtime Nittany Lions season-ticket holder, suburban Pittsburgher Dave Tompkins said Sunday after witnessing the unbeaten, No. 1 Buckeyes' 37-17 dismantling of his Lions before the second largest crowd in Beaver Stadium history.

Perhaps somewhere an eloquent electronic print or electronic journalist could have provided more color. But Mr. Tompkins' was a perfect fit.

The pregame scenario Saturday was a virtual clone of that of two years before when Penn State's hearty, unyielding defense cut down a Buckeyes team 17-10, an Ohio State team seeking that one final step that got it back in the national title chase after very tight early-season home loss to eventual national champion Texas.

The 110,134 "white-out" banshees had descended upon Happy Valley Friday night, focused on a thunderous disruption of Ohio State's offense and thinking the Nitts' bold defense, anchored by linebacker Dan Connor, the prototype of the long-lasting "Linebacker U" Penn State imagery, could burst the Bucks' bubble again.

A tear-inducing plea from 80-year-old Lions coach Joe Paterno to a crammed Recreation Hall Pep Rally Friday night served as what Lions fans hoped would be a major launching point toward yet another Penn State upset in its first Beaver Stadium game against a top-ranked team since the Lions hosted Notre Dame in 1989.

When Penn State rebounded from an opening-drive Ryan Pretorius field goal to whip through the Buckeyes' surprised defense, leading to Rodney Kinlaw's 2-yard touchdown run and a 7-3 Lions lead, all the theatrics were in place.

The 12th man-induced tremor from the Big Erector Set rattled seismographs from Carbondale to Carnegie.

But the Bucks could have played inside a Boeing hanger full of roaring 767s and not lost that collective competitive chip on their shoulders that will be a season-long companion.

Receiver Brian Hartline, who didn't post his usual numbers but managed to create a lot of confusion in Penn State's secondary, building openings for the other receivers, could have spoken for anybody sporting the Buckeyes' colors.

"Everyone is giving us a lack of credit, just because of our schedule, supposedly," Hartline told The Columbus Dispatch's Ohio State beat reporter Ken Gordon. "I'm sure somehow they'll figure out Penn State isn't that good or something. But we're all right, we'll keep chugging."

Back home, coach Jim Tressel had dutifully installed access codes to the big football workout center as a constant reminder of the infamous morale-crushing "Desert Debacle" (a 41-14 upset by Florida in the national championship game Jan. 8) -- 41-14 and 1-08-07.

Despite the 8-0 start to 2007, the national media was reluctant to sing the Buckeyes' praises.

By the time Ohio State stopped proving its case, the Lions (6-3 overall, 2-3 in Big Ten play) were splattered all over the gridiron. It was a dismantling at times surgical, at others brutal, despite three crowd-induced false-start penalties. It was the chance for the Buckeyes to make a statement in front of an A.B.C. national T.V. audience and the Southeastern Conference, Pac 10 and east coast yahoos be damned. Mission accomplished on all fronts.

Ohio State (9-0, 5-0) possessed the football for nearly 38 of the 60 minutes and punter A.J. Trapasso would never have been called once had coach Jim Tressel not installed him as the Buckeyes' kickoff specialist.

The Columbus Dispatch termed it thusly: "Ohio State put Penn State in a blender and turned it on."

Quarterback Todd Boeckman earned Big Ten Offensive Player-of-the-Week honors by clicking on 19-of-26 passes for 253 yards and all three Bucks' offensive touchdowns.

The Buckeyes rebounded from the Lions' T.D. drive to methodically march 80 yards through a defense that was giving up less than 300 yards and 15.2 points per game, with Boeckman hitting Brian Robiskie for a nine-yard score to give Ohio State a permanent lead.

The Lions' defense slowed down Ohio State's offense somewhat, but when the Bucks' Jake Ballard capped a smartly-executed 91-yard march with a 15-yard T.D. reception from Boeckman with 9:53 left in the second quarter, the massive crowd began to get the idea this wouldn't be another Happy Valley moment.

"That was big, real big," said Tressel, who is 71-14 in his seven-year Ohio State career. "Because if you only go up by six (on a field goal), that's almost a moral victory for the defense."

From there, the Buckeyes' quiet confidence soared. Tressel's collectively astute staff -- defensive coordinator Jim Heacock, offensive whiz Jim Bollman and the underlings seemed to outmatch the legend on the other sidelines, Joe Paterno.

The Ohio State x's simply knocked the Penn State o's up and down the field the rest of the way, rolling up 456 total yards and limiting Penn State to 263.

Boeckman was pure third-down magic, at one point converting 9 of 11, six with crisply-thrown passes to Hartline, Robiskie, tight end Jake Ballard and Raymond Small, who caught only two balls, but for 66 yards, one just missing being a 77 yard touchdown on a great open-field tackle by Justin King.

No matter. The Bucks scored shortly thereafter on Boeckman's third T.D. pass, a 25 yarder to Ballard with 6:10 left in the third quarter that gave the Buckeyes a 24-7 lead that caused numerous heads to sag on the Penn State sideline.

"The more you go out there and the more reps you get," Boeckman told Gordon, "the more confidence you're going to get. It's very nice to go up here in a hostile environment like this and to get a 'W'."

It was also an impressive start to a very demanding stretch run that includes home games against Wisconsin (7-2), then Illinois (6-3) before going to Ann Arbor for yet another confrontation of Biblical proportion.

As The Dispatch's columnist Bob Hunter pointed out in so many words, the Buckeyes need not feel their top ranking is part of a clean-up on Aisle 7 at the local Wal-Mart, while the S.E.C. snickerers stifle yet another giggle.

"It doesn't matter," Tressel told Hunter in what quite possibly might be a tell-tale insight to the Buckeyes' true feelings. "We have to prove whatever we are at the end of 2007.

"So (that's) what, nine games out of 12 we're through? We have a lot to prove, beginning with game number 10."

That would be the Wisconsin Badgers, never an easy target. You can be sure Tressel will see to it the Bucks' defenders will have visions of bowling ball running back P.J.Hill, scrambling Tyler Donovan and mercurial wideout Luke Swan dancing in their heads all week, not to mention a defense that held high-scoring Indiana to 3 points in Madison this past Saturday.

The battle against skepticism, particularly among the S.E.C. crows, will be season-long. "It's no big deal to us," Boeckman told Hunter. "We keep on winning and that will take care of itself."

Bucknotes: In recording their 19th consecutive Big Ten victory, Ohio State tied the all-time league record...Linebacker James Laurinaitis, talking to Hunter, described the Penn State atmosphere thusly: "It's a hard place to play...the atmosphere was unbelievable...It is an exciting trip, and this is a great place to play college football. To come in here and get a win is a big deal." ... A testament to how tough the environment is: Penn State had won four of the previous five games against the Bucks in Happy Valley...One minor area of concern for O.S.U.: a 97-yard T.D. kickoff return by A.J. Wallace, the second yielded by the Bucks' special teams this year. Northwestern's Stephen Simmons returned one 94 yards for his team's only points in a 58-7 Ohio State win Sept. 22.