You can have your Colonel Neyland Stadium, gloriously cut into the foothills of Tennessee's Great Smoky Mountains, your echoes awakened at the foot of the "Touchdown Jesus" mural on Notre Dame's Hesburgh Library, your Ghosts of the immortal Bear at historic Bryant-Denny stadium, your Trojan horses galloping around the football perimeter at the Los Angeles Coliseum or Boola-Boola vs. Ten Thousand Men of Harvard in tradition bound Cambridge or New Haven.

All terrific football scenarios. But in this environment, inside this building -- Ohio Stadium -- you see the 7 Saturdays-each-fall culmination of a life rite worthy of comparison to Quebec province and hockey, Mexico/Italy/Germany/Italy and soccer, the inner city and hoops combined.

This is Ohio, this is Ohio Stadium, and really, as Keith Jackson has often said, "On the banks of the Olentangy, life stops for 3 hours while the local warriors get it on with their rivals."

One Friday night, St. Ignatius High School had beaten St. Edward in a fabulous matchup of northern Ohio's best before 15,000 at Lakewood, a game broadcast on a 50,000-watt outlet that reaches 40 states. Such scenarios, with even larger crowds, unfold all across Ohio.

The next day brought a virtual statewide afternoon lockdown. Virtually all eyes — except a few wayward apostates in the Toledo area, who look northward for their entertainment — were focused on the massive 101,568 remodeled, but tradition-bound structure they call "The Big Horseshoe."

And with good reason. The Ohio State Buckeyes always draw virtually unanimous statewide attention, understand, with traffic backups the rule on I's 71, 70, 270, High Street, Indianola Avenue, all the state and U.S. highways leading into the state's capitol city.

But Oct. 18 brought a special urgency, because the state's crown athletic jewel, the defending N.C.A.A. Division I-A football champion Ohio State Buckeyes, had had their 19-game winning streak snapped at Wisconsin a week earlier.

Straight ahead lay a classic Big Ten smashmouth special with then No. 9 Iowa.

How would the beloved Buckeyes respond? The fourth-largest crowd in Ohio Stadium history -- 105,044 -- and a TV audience of millions wanted to know.

Well, as one-time Philadelphia Eagles coach Mike McCormack was fond of saying, "It wasn't a Rembrandt, but we'll take it."

Take it was exactly what the No. 8 Bucks (6-1 overall, 2-1 in Big Ten play) did.

Benefitting from three turnovers from a brilliantly-coached, zero-defect Iowa team that prides itself in putting its opponents through a physical cement mixer, Ohio State outpounded the No. 16 Hawkeyes (5-2, 1-2) 19-10, riding the emotions of the crowd.

This despite an offense that looked straight out of a sandlot — "Stinky, you go down to the fire hydrant, turn left sharp there across Gargoyle St and I'll hit you — watch out for the potholes!"

For the day, the Bucks managed a grand total of ...

One hundred eighty-five (185) yards total offense.

"We're trying," Ohio State coach Jim Tressel said. "Against a defense like Iowa's, if you line up and run the same things, you're in trouble."

The 185 represents was over 100 less than O.S.U.'s sluggish season average that had landed the Buckeyes, according to The Cleveland Plain Dealer's Bruce Hooley, at No. 109 in Division I-A, pretty scary when you notice there are only 117 teams at this level.

"Offensively, I thought we improved as the day went on. I think that's important," added Tressel, the third-year coach whose teams have won 26 of their 32 games in his tenure.

But everything, of course, is relative. And nothing in these parts gets more scrutinized that O.S.U. football. And this is the state capital, mind you. Unpopular tax bills, state supreme court rulings, outrageous rate hikes. Nothing.

Tressel, a native Ohioan, knows this. But he also knew the Buckeyes, thanks to a lady named Michelle Clarett, who appears to be equal parts invidious and vindictive, would have to downshift offensively because of the absence of Madame Clarett's son, Maurice, whom you may remember played a rather large role in O.S.U.'s 2002 title run.

The joyride was sadly punctuated with roller-coaster attitudes from the brilliantly-talented running back, who was goaded by outside sources into considering leaving the university and head straight for the N.F.L. And now, of course, the tragically-misguided young man is suing the university.

The lackluster running back rotation -- Lydell Ross, Maurice Hall and Brandon Schnittker — was willing of spirit, but the flesh was another story. Positive yards were rare, first downs virtually nonexistent. Forty-two rushes, 56 yards, much of it coming on desperate scrambles by quarterback Craig Krenzel.

Cement grinder indeed. "You saw two of the better defenses in the country out there," Tressel assessed. "It was a Big Ten football game out there. Don't be disappointed. That was a good football game."

Correctamundo, if you were a defensive purist. But as stern and severe as the Bucks' D was — Iowa's high-powered offense only managed 219 yards after strafing Michigan's proud defense for nearly 400 two Saturdays ago, Ohio State won this game with its special teams. A T.D. punt return and blocked punt provided 14 points. Simple as that.

"I think it was special to win this game this game after (losing 17-10 at Wisconsin a week earlier)," said defensive tackle Tim Anderson, who combined with ends Simon Fraser and Will Smith and fellow tackle Darrion Scott to force the Hawkeyes' talented Nathan Chandler into 14-for-27 passing, for only 153 yards and one interception.

All this without suspended linebacker Robert Reynolds, a talented run stuffer and blitzer who sat out after his immature post-hit semi-choke of Wisconsin quarterback Jim Sorgi.

"We wanted to go out and play for him," said linebacker A.J. Hawk. "He's hurting right now. We wanted to win this one for him."

But then again, Iowa played without starting center Brian Ferentz, Coach Kirk Ferentz's son and a major league drive-blocker, who jammed his knee in practice and was replaced by relocated Eric Rothwell,  whose snaps were an all-day adventure. Few openings greeted the Hawks' outstanding senior running back, Fred Russell.

"It's disruptive to your tempo when you have to make change," said Kirk Ferentz.

So while the Buckeyes' offensive struggles continued, the defense continued to be national-championship calibre and the special teams proved decisive.

"It really doesn't matter to us," said Hawk, whose up-the-middle sprint flattened Chandler for one of the Buckeyes' four sacks of Iowa's quarterback. "We know whenever they get the ball, we're up to the challenge. We want to make the stop — we don't want to think about (offensive shortcomings)."

Iowa was still within 17-10 in the fourth quarter when Rothwell's wayward shotgun-formation snap sailed over constantly-harassed quarterback Nathan Chandler's head and out of the end zone with 3:03 left to give O.S.U. a 19-10 lead.

This essentially killed any Iowa hopes of completing a comeback after the Hawks had pulled within 17-10 when field-goal kicker Nate Kaeding took a pitchout from holder David Bradley and sprinted toward the right corner of the south end zone, giving the 2,000 or so Iowa fans a chance to make their presence known.

But two failed Rothwell/Chandler center-snap exchanges created two Iowa turnovers, that killed promising drives. And the last one was the killer, as the inexperienced Rothwell was dealing with the full scream of the Ohio State 98% of the crowd.

"That (shotgun) was a mistake as far as the approach we took," Chandler confessed. "We were trying to stay with our regular snap count, but we probably needed to go with our silent snap count at that point. Those fans were involved and it was tough for the guys to hear me."

Ohio + Football + Involvement, Chandler learned like hundreds of other quarterbacks before him = Massive Home Field Advantage.

But as tough as the crowd and the Bucks' defense was, you had to keep coming back to the kicking game, a blast of fresh air after O.S.U. blew a first-and-goal opportunity to score an early T.K.O. when Ironically, the pride and joy of the punt-block/field goal-block, long-return happy Hawkeyes.

The Bucks' first points came from a 53-yard wind-aided Mike Nugent field goal, the second-longest of his career after a 23-yard drive that basically consisted of a key Krenzel pass over the middle to Drew Carter.

Their two touchdowns? A follow-up 54-yard punt return by standout wide receiver Michael Jenkins after the Bucks defense had snuffed the Hawks deep in Iowa territory...and a blocked Bradley punt by split end Roy Hall halfway through the third quarter that Donte Whitner fell on just across the goal line.

For Jenkins, whose outrageous catch with just over a minute left last year at Purdue kept the Bucks' miracle season alive, it was a chance to show his versatility.

"I took it north and south," he said. "That's one thing (assistant coach Mel Tucker) stresses, to get up field and get 10 yards...The guys threw some great blocks."

After Kaeding, the league's best field-goal kicker and likely first or early-second-round pick, had banged through a 36-yard field goal with 2:45 left in the half to assure Iowa's presence in the competition, came the mid-third quarter disaster — the punt block and touchdown — that nearly had Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz covering his eyes in disbelief.

"When you let the guy come up the middle like that, boy, that's a bad thing," said Kirk Ferentz with a grimace.

"To me the story of the game was we just didn't get the job done on special teams. And that's a tough one to live with."

It's worse, of course, when a special-teams unit that had allowed a microscopic 5.4 yards per punt return, yielded Jenkins' killer return in the opening minutes.

But that's Iowa's issue to work out. For the Buckeyes, the major question, with high-powered Michigan State and Purdue visiting the Horseshoe and a roadie at Michigan, the question is simple. Is defense enough?

Hawk told The Columbus Dispatch's versatile columnist Bob Hunter, "I think so."

But with Wisconsin's home loss to Purdue and the No. 13, first-place Boilermakers, who possess the Big Ten's only unbeaten record visiting Columbus Nov. 15, "I think so" isn't exactly Aristotelian in convincing inquisitors.

In a state in a state of perpetual football madness, it is a question that will linger over lunch counters, checkout lines, water coolers and church vestibules.

The final five games — @ Indiana (virtually sure win), @ Penn State (probable), then Michigan State, Purdue and @ Michigan — will certainly lock in the country's most rabid football community.