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Football
Buckeyes Not Distracted by OSU-Michigan Talk
By Brandon Castel

COLUMBUS — Ohio State officially kicks of the 2010 season in just three days as the Marshall Thundering Herd roll into Columbus, but few season-openers have come with as little fanfare.

It’s not that folks in Columbus aren’t excited for another season of OSU football, especially one where the Buckeyes enter the season ranked No. 2 in the country. But the potential for a BCS National Championship run has been somewhat stifled by the dark cloud of expansion and it's potential impact on the OSU vs. Michigan game..

Even with Miami just over the horizon, the talk of the town is all about The Game, and OSU Head Coach Jim Tressel did very little to ease the anxiety on the eve of his 10th season in Columbus.

“Obviously you've gotten a zillion and we've gotten a zillion emails about what's going to happen in the future from a conference standpoint and from a rivalry game standpoint and all those things,” Tressel said Monday during his weekly press conference.

“And I guess the way I always look at those things, I've sat in a lot of meetings with a lot of groups and what's most important at the end of the day, just like when we sit with our staff, whatever we bang out, whatever we decide that we're going to do, when we walk out of the room, we've got to make sure that that's what we believe in and that's what we teach and we gave it adequate discussion and so forth and sometimes they're the things that you really thought were good ideas and sometimes they weren't.”

All of that to say Tressel has no plans of standing in the way of progress even if that progress ends up setting the conference back in the long run. 

“I guess my stance on all of this stuff is what I am going to be in favor of is what the group needs and what the group decides,” he continued.

While Tressel may have sounded nonchalant in his approach to such a polarizing issue, could the zillions of emails in his inbox actually be diverting attention away from the upcoming season?

“What I'm going to do is I'm going to focus on those 25 seniors and that 2010 football team and not allow myself to get distracted and so forth about all of the discussion,” said Tressel, who has never been one to get ahead or behind what’s happening in the moment.

“Not that it's not important discussion and all that, but September the 2nd is here quickly.”

One reason Tressel and his staff have been able to keep themselves focused on Marshall is the unique challenge of preparing for a team that cannot be scouted on film. First-year Head Coach Doc Holliday has assembled a staff of assistants from around the country and the Buckeyes won’t know exactly how they are going to deploy until the two teams are on the field Thursday at Ohio Stadium.

“What’s been interesting in preparing ourselves for Sept. 2nd is that you go through preseason camp and you try to cover the whole comprehensive realm of what you think you might face offensively and defensively,” Tressel said.

“What's been difficult about that for us is that obviously Marshall has a new coaching staff and I've known Doc Holliday for a long time, he's been in the business and been at some very good programs for many, many years, and we don't know exactly what they're going to do.”

But what about the players? Marshall may offer a unique challenge, but they lost six games last season and eight the previous year. Could all this talk about the future of “The Game” being in jeopardy actually serve as the kind of distraction that could lead to a much closer game than the 29-point spread would suggest? After all, the Buckeyes barely squeaked out a 31-27 win over Navy in the season-opener last year.

“No, I don't think it's been a distraction. You talk to our 25 seniors, they don't really have much opinion on it at all, they've got opinion on one thing and that's what's going on right now,” Tressel said.

“We're busy preparing for Thursday. Most of the people that are talking about it aren't busy preparing for Thursday and so, no, I don't think it's been a distraction at all.”

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