**Kirk Barton**

Message to the Band: The trip to Happy Valley in 2007 was a lot happier for the Buckeyes than the trip in 2005. Not only was the outcome of the game not quite what the Buckeyes were hoping for in 2005, but in 2005 the OSU marching band took so much abuse from Penn State fans after the game that they elected not to return to Happy Valley in 2007. There was a message delivered to the band from the OSU postgame from a member of the OSU football team that was on the field in both of those games.

"Real quick before I go on, I just want to say we dedicated this to our band, well, that's something I came up with because they couldn't come back after they had like piss bombs and blood balls thrown at them last year, so this is for our band," said OSU senior offensive tackle Kirk Barton, interrupting a football-related question to get out his message to the band.

"It was so bad they couldn't come back. Let them know we're thinking about them.

"It's not all Penn State fans, it only takes a couple, but it spoils the whole experience of college football for our band. Just let them know we're thinking about them."

What, OSU has an Offense?: The perception around college football going into the Penn State game was that OSU had a terrific defense and a very ho-hum offense, but after the Buckeye offense humbled a respected Penn State defense the OSU offense is demanding attention. The Buckeyes never punted in the game and scored seemingly at will. OSU Head Coach Jim Tressel was understandably pleased with the overall performance of his offense.

"They came out of the gate and we did a good job of controlling the tempo of the game with our offense. We did a good job on 3rd down," Tressel said.

OSU's offense was anything but one dimensional. The Buckeyes ran the ball well with both Chris and Maurice Wells having very strong games, but it was the passing game that really caught everyone's attention. Todd Boeckman was extremely sharp and probably surprised some people with his play. Don't, however, count his teammates in that number.

"Really I've always seen this quarterback in him, so it's not a complete shock to me," said wide receiver Brian Hartline.

"I think it's just kind of fun and funny that everyone else is starting to see it now. He's going to do huge things. He's a very good player. The biggest thing I take from him is how poised he is every single play."

Hartline said Boeckman's ability as a quarterback doesn't end with his ability to fling the pigskin.

"His ability to make poised decisions every single snap and his accuracy and consistency, that's the effect he's having with his lack of errors," said Hartline.

"He's very consistent and poised. Anything we show him he adjusts and does a good job with it."

Count offensive lineman Kirk Barton as a member of the Todd Boeckman fan club as well.

"He's not a caretaker. He's more of a franchise-type quarterback for us. That's how our view has always been of him, because he's got a rocket-arm and he leads the huddle and he's got good touch on the ball, too.

"He's not like a Trent Dilfer, Baltimore Ravens kind of guy. He's more of a Tom Brady, Payton Manning," Barton said.

OSU's offensive showing is certain to impress some people who were former doubters of OSU's number one ranking, but probably not all of them. To them, OSU's offensive tackle offers a great big "so what".

"The only people that matter are the people inside the program. That's what we keep stressing.

"The outside critics don't really matter. We just have to keep winning. I don't mean the voters. I mean the commentators, the Mark Mays, those kind of guys, they really don't matter. Our guys matter."

Sweet Redemption: The trip to Happy Valley was not a pleasant one for the Buckeyes as whole in 2005. Tailback Maurice Wells, who was a freshman that season , had a particularly bad day despite the fact that he didn't even play in the game.

Following that game Wells sprinted off the field, obviously upset with the loss. He was one of the first Buckeyes to reach the tunnel to the locker room, and just as he was starting to go under the stands had the misfortune to step into a rather large puddle of standing water. His feet slipped out from under him in the mud and he landed flat on his back in the water. While he was laying in the cold muck, a large number of Penn State fans who saw the incident really got on him. When he got up and went under the stadium, he was greeted by another rather large, loud, group of Penn State fans who were, lets say, just a little lathered up after their big win, and really said some pretty foul things to Wells.

Wells was obviously affected. His fists balled up, and it appeared he might do something stupid, but he managed to get control and made it to the OSU locker room without incident.

Two years later it was a totally different story. Wells left the field in victory with a big grin on his face having played one of his best games as a Buck yet.

"I remember that," said Wells when reminded of the event that took place in 2005.

"This is a 180 degree turnaround from two years ago, coming out here and putting a lot of points in the board and controlling the clock and winning the game. It's a big difference for us," Wells said.

Wells got praise for his performance against the Nittany Lions from fellow running back Beanie Wells.

"Mo runs with a lot more power than people think. He's fast and he has the power to go along with it," Beanie said.

"I think Mo is running with a chip on his shoulder actually. I think he's tired of hearing all the criticism about him and he's finally doing what he needs to do. I'm so proud of Mo."

Knockout Counterpunch: The Nittany Lions did something no other team has been able to do this season, score a touchdown on the OSU offense in the first quarter. The PSU score put them up 7-3, and to some extent put the OSU defense back on their heels. The defense got some help from an unexpected source, however, the OSU offense, which answered the Penn State score with their own touchdown drive.

"I think Coach Heacock did a great job of settling us down, then the next series the offense goes out and puts a touchdown on the board and that adds confidence down the line, seeing 10-7 instead of 7-3, and I think that did a great job of building us up," said OSU linebacker Marcus Freeman.

According to OSU wide receiver Brian Hartline, the Buckeye offense was anxious to get back on the field after the PSU score.

"I think you saw that fire in a lot of guys' eyes we haven't seen in a long time," said Hartline of the attitude of the OSU offense immediately after the Penn State touchdown.

"We knew we had a ball game on our hands and we came out striking. We kind of got pumped up with the situation at that point. We were excited."

"They came right at us and the did a few new things that we hadn't seen before," said James Laurinaitis of the first quarter Penn State drive.

"We just had to run to the ball and settle down out there. That's what we said when we came to the sidelines, to settle down and relax and figure out what they're trying to do."

After the Penn State drive and OSU's answering touchdown, the OSU defense took over.

"Penn State moved it on that early drive and really not a whole lot after that, they did have that one field goal drive."

White Out Foiled: Penn State's whiteout in 2005 was impressive - and effective, but in 2007, not so much.

"One thing was we were more prepared for it because a lot of us had gone through that," said Kirk Barton.

"We kind of knew what we were getting into last time, but this time we definitely knew," Barton said.

The Buckeyes handled the whiteout and the hostile Penn State crowd well this time around. At one point in the game when the crowd tried to affect the OSU offense with noise OSU wide receiver Brian Hartline actually motioned to the Penn State student section to crank it up a little louder. It was on a third down play, and the Buckeyes converted.

"I just don't want them to feel like they were affecting our game or our play," said Hartline explaining the strategy of actually inciting the home crowd to make more noise.

"I don't care how loud they get. The 'Shoe has been just as loud. It was just a big step how we came out and struck early and kind of calmed the crowd down from the get-go. That paid big dividends for us today," said Hartline.

Where've Ya Been?: There was a slew of national media at the OSU vs. Penn State game, media that had not been around the Buckeye program since last season when they occupied the number one ranking all year. Writers from ESPN, Sports Illustrated, USA Today, the New York Post and other media outlets were on hand and most came away impressed with the Buckeyes.

OSU offensive tackle Kirk Barton was being interviewed after the game when a question came to Barton from a reporter standing to his left. Barton looked over to the questioner and saw it was ESPN's Pat Forde. Barton took the opportunity to take a good-natured jibe at Forde.

"Man, I didn't know Pat Forde was going to be in the building. We must be moving on up in the world. I didn't see him against Kent State," said Barton.

The comment brought a chuckle, including one from Forde who took the comment very well, though he did turn a little red.

Replay Surprise:: A catch by Brian Robiskie was overturned by replay in the Penn State game, a catch that would have set the Buckeyes up on the one-yard line. Instead, they were back out on the 16. It didn't matter as OSU scored anyway on the drive, but Jim Tressel was a little surprised by the outcome of the review.

"I asked the official 'Are we trying to decide if he scored?' The official said 'Yeah, I think so,"' said Tressel.

"I said to Todd, 'Worse case scenario they're going to say we were out of bounds, so go tell those guys to be ready and we got another play ready, but I thought I was just being thorough. We needed it (the called play)," Tressel said.

Physical Too: The Buckeye passing attack was sharp against Penn State, but the OSU offense was very physical as well, led by the OSU offensive line which had an outstanding game against Penn State.

"They got enough push where Beanie got his feet to the line of scrimmage and he made some good cuts from there, they did a good job of pass protection because Todd could slide up and still could read, he didn't have people right in his face.

"He might have got hit in the back once I think and probably should have gone to a hot throw on that, but we didn't see it," Tressel said.

"It starts with Jim Cordle making the call and all of us echoing the call and picking everything up and executing. We had a good read on what they were going to do. We felt like we really came out and took it too them," Barton said.

When his pad level is low, he's tough to handle, people have a tough time dealing with him, but that means we must have pushed somebody off the ball," Tressel said.