Buckeyes Begin Staking Claim to BCS Championship Game

Fresh off a win at Camp Randall, the Ohio State Buckeyes are setting their sights on a return to the BCS Championship Game.  Pollsters have thrown up several road blocks with Southern Cal, the team the lost to being one of them.

How can the Buckeyes even think of the game in Miami on January 8th?  Simple: The Buckeye backfield is now vastly different than the one that got hammered 35-3 in Los Angeles.  Heisman candidate at the time, Chris Wells, was not in the game.  Terrelle Pryor was splitting time at QB. 

By season's end the Buckeyes should have a full-fledged attack.

These are Terrelle Pryor's Bucks.  They run options.  They pass.  This is not the team that lost to the Trojans. 

Sitting at No. 14 heading into Saturday here's how they can do it:

• S. Florida and Auburn lost
• Ohio St has Penn St. at home (signature win)
• Oklahoma has dates with two top 10 teams then a Big 12 Championship game.
• Texas has dates with three top 10 teams then a Big 12 Championship game.
• Wait for Georgia, Florida, Alabama and LSU to beat the crap out of each other and then a SEC Championship game.
• BYU still has a tough game or two.

However, it won't be an easy task just to move up.  Pollsters sent a clear message last weekend when Ohio State didn't budge when there were several upsets.  The most succinct message was heard in Los Angeles. 

Unranked Oregon State upsets the, then No. 1, USC Trojans and the Southern Cal dropped only to No. 9.  The message: the real USC team is the one that hammered the Buckeyes and not the one that was out-schemed buy the other OSU in the Pacific Northwest.

But, in their haste to keep the Buckeyes out of the BCS Championship Game, the Pollsters may have said that they'd rather have BYU, a non-BCS team or a two-loss SEC or Big 12 team.