Sugar Bowl News Roundup

The media had access to Jim Tressel and some Ohio State players on Tuesday, and a number of stories have been published in the wake of the interviews. We've collected some here for your perusal today, and soon we will get back to the Sugar Bowl from our perspective. Ross and I have taken some time to do preliminary research on Arkansas, and we'll bring you that post tomorrow.

Ohio State football players pack boxes at foodbank | cleveland.com
It looked something like Santa's Workshop, except some of the elves weighed around 300 pounds. The Ohio State football players volunteered at the Mid-Ohio Foodbank on Wednesday afternoon, the team working in three shifts to help pack the 1,000 boxes of canned goods that went out into the central Ohio community the same day. The Buckeyes have worked with the foodbank before, and foodbank CEO and president Matt Habash said though the foodbank gets about 10,000 volunteers a year, the help is particularly needed this time of year from the 100-plus football players. About 2 million pounds of food should go out to those in need in the next three days when 4 million pounds is typically what the foodbank gives out in an entire month.

Woes vs. SEC began in Sugar Bowl flogging | BuckeyeXtra
As the Ohio State coach left the Superdome field at halftime of the 1978 Sugar Bowl, it was obvious that Paul "Bear" Bryant and Alabama were kicking his Buckeyes up and down the field in the coaching legends' only meeting. As Hayes passed a goal post on his way to the locker room, he gave the protective padding a punch. He took a couple of steps, then reversed and gave that padding several more shots to the midsection before walking off. Talk about frustration - actually, folks still talk about it because as soon as the Buckeyes were invited to the Jan.4 Sugar Bowl to face Arkansas of the Southeastern Conference, one ugly fact quickly raised its head again: Ohio State is 0-9 in bowl games vs. SEC schools.

It's a streak that includes national championship games after the 2006 and '07 seasons, three Citrus Bowls in the 1990s and three Outback Bowls (formerly the Hall of Fame), including losses to South Carolina after the 2000 and 2001 seasons. Shouldn't the 1977 Buckeyes take responsibility for the start of that stain? "I guess we should, huh?" said Jeff Logan, a senior running back on that team. Logan didn't laugh it off, neither the 1978 game nor the streak.

"At 0-9, I don't think you can simply say that's just the way it goes," Logan said. "There has to be some common denominator after the third or fourth time, one of which might be the harder you try, the tougher it becomes. "But I also think we might have ended up getting the best shot of the SEC in many cases where we might not have been the best team. I know Ohio State never likes to be perceived as an underdog, but in a lot of those games - certainly not South Carolina twice - but a lot of those games we were the underdog."

Football: Buckeyes study up on Mallett | BuckeyeXtra
The more Jermale Hines watches video of Arkansas and its quarterback Ryan Mallett, the more the safety likes what he sees as Ohio State prepares for its opponent in the Sugar Bowl on Jan. 4.

"This is a more pro-style offense, so it's more like real football, as I would say," Hines surmised.

It's not Texas - spread the field and let Colt McCoy fling it - like the Buckeyes faced in the Fiesta Bowl two y

ears ago. And it's not Oregon - a zone-read spread offense run by Jeremiah Masoli and LaMichael James that went sideways as much as it went down the field - like they faced in the Rose Bowl last season. Arkansas has an offense in the classic sense, with the towering Mallett preferring to stay in the pocket and launch to a fleet of talented receivers. The Razorbacks also have the country's best tight end, John Mackey award-winner D.J. Williams, and 1,000-yard running back Knile Davis.

"Sometimes they have a fullback in there, sometimes they have two tight ends in there, three tight ends," Ohio State linebacker Ross Homan said. "So it really is kind of a smash-mouth game they can play at times. "This is by far the best offense we've played against all year, so we're taking it as a huge challenge for our defense and working on it every day in practice."

Ohio State's recent defensive success in bowls provides confidence in Sugar Bowl matchup vs. Arkansas | cleveland.com
No team has beaten Oregon since last January, and only one defense -- Cal in a 15-13 loss to the Ducks -- has controlled Oregon's offense this season the way the Buckeyes controlled Oregon in their 26-17 win in last year's Rose Bowl.

"Last year against Oregon, I think our defense did a great job. You see what they're doing on offense this year," said OSU cornerback Chimdi Chekwa before making it clear that fact brings him little satisfaction now, "because they're playing for a national championship and we're going to be watching it."

This has nothing to do directly with the offense Arkansas will run in the Sugar Bowl against the Buckeyes -- Razorbacks quarterback Ryan Mallett transferred from Michigan because Rich Rodriguez was trying to do what Oregon does.

The difference between Oregon's offense and Arkansas' offense is like the difference between -- well, a Duck and a Hog. "This is a more pro-style offense, so it is more like real football, as I would say," safety Jermale Hines said, comparing Oregon and Arkansas, "but the same things hold true." This is where it matters. Texas had a 44-point per game Big 12 passing spread offense two bowls ago. Oregon had a 38-point per game Pac-10 all-out offensive sprint last season. Now Arkansas has a 37-point per game SEC pro-style balanced attack. Once again, Ohio State's bowl test is first about stopping the other team.

Will Terrelle Pryor's angst over his national peers fuel a big-time performance in the Sugar Bowl? Bill Livingston | cleveland.com
On the list of "The Top 10 Things Cam Newton can say, now that he has won the Heisman Trophy," No. 1 was: "Need to show some ID? How about this?" Then, the Auburn quarterback struck the Heisman statuette's stiff-armed pose. It struck a nerve with the Ohio State fans. It had already struck a nerve with Pryor.

"I'll put it like this: You put me in any of their offenses -- any of them -- and I'd dominate," he said, earlier this month, referring to the spread offense, which made Newton the best player in the college game and Michigan's Denard Robinson the Big Ten's human statistical machine.

"I'd dominate the nation," Pryor said. "What those guys do, that's what they're supposed to do in their offense."

It sounds like sour grapes. Pryor came to Ohio State as the nation's most heavily recruited player in 2008 precisely so he could play in a pro set, not the spread. It is better preparation to play quarterback in the NFL. From the evidence of the passes Pryor routinely whips at the shins of such rangy receivers as tight ends Jake Stoneburner and Reid Fragel, however, he is looking more and more like Tim Tebow without the championship rings, but with all the mechanical flaws.

Pryor is almost as big as Newton in size, if not in performance. This season, Auburn scored 65 points against Arkansas, the Buckeyes' Sugar Bowl opponent in New Orleans on Jan. 4. Pryor will go into the game with everyone talking about Ryan Mallett, the Arkansas quarterback who transferred from Michigan. Last season, everyone was talking about Jeremiah Masoli, Oregon's quarterback. But the Most Valuable Player in the Rose Bowl was Pryor.

OSU notebook: Pryor's talk not about to rile his coach | BuckeyeXtra
Just as a punt is never a bad thing in Jim Tressel's world, knowing when to hold one's tongue isn't a bad trait, the Ohio State coach indicated yesterday. The topic was comments made by his quarterback, Terrelle Pryor, and reported in a Chicago Tribune story last Thursday. In it, Pryor - who didn't make all-Big Ten first- or second-team after leading the Buckeyes to a third straight league title - asserted that he would have big stats, too, if he played in wide-open offenses the likes of Auburn or Michigan.

"You put me in any of their offenses, where I can run the ball and have a choice to throw, I would dominate college football," Pryor told the paper.

Asked whether he took umbrage, Tressel answered in his usual diplomatic style. "Usually, when you look at comments extracted out in the midst of a long discussion, if you take umbrage to one, you've probably not felt the whole context," Tressel said. "Probably my discussion would have been the discussion which was part of it, which was, 'Hey, I'm happy with titles. I wouldn't trade my championships for any honors or statistics or whatever,' and left it there. But, you know, I'm more experienced."

Actually, Pryor said that in the story, too. Though he wasn't made available for interviews yesterday, he has been saying all season that team titles are what matter most.

Cornerback Devon Torrence said that's one of the things that impresses him about Pryor, but he also said Pryor deserved all-conference recognition. "He's our quarterback, and he deserves a lot of those things," Torrence said. "He's one of the best athletes in college football right now."

OSU football: Howard's role grows, and could get bigger | BuckeyeXtra
Travis Howard appears to be taking a beaten path toward a possible starting job at cornerback next season for Ohio State. Seniors Chimdi Chekwa and Devon Torrence, starters the past two seasons at the corners, paid their dues in nickel and dime packages in much the same way the rapidly ascending Howard has done this year. Like coins in a piggy bank, a little bit of playing time here and there starts adding up to substantial value to the defense, so much so that Howard should expect to see plenty of action Jan.4 when Ohio State takes on pass-happy Arkansas in the Sugar Bowl.

"It's a real experience, especially playing this year," said Howard, a redshirt sophomore from Miami. "It's building up my confidence, as you all can see. I feel way more comfortable out on the field since I am playing more, and that allows me to make more plays."

He made some big plays in a 37-7 win over Michigan last month. He intercepted a pass on a deep ball at the start of the second half, helped force a fumble by quarterback Denard Robinson in the first quarter deep in OSU territory and later recovered a fumble near the sideline. "We want our guys to do things the right way, to take care of their responsibilities, but we also want them to make plays when the opportunity arises," cornerbacks coach Taver Johnson said. It appears Howard has been paying heed. It wasn't necessarily the plan in August to see Howard playing more by season's end.

"It was a tough road," Howard said. "The beginning of the season I had a lot of bumps and bruises, but I stuck through it. I fought hard through practice, and now it's showing on the field."

As those bumps and bruises healed, circumstances helped Howard become a valuable option in the nickel and dime during the last month of the season. That's the way Chekwa, named an All-American this year by the Football Writers Association of America, and Torrence gained their initial experience.

Fresh impact: Redshirt running back Rod Smith impressing Ohio State veterans in bowl workouts | cleveland.com
Watch out for running back Rod Smith. Ohio State always uses part of bowl practice to give the younger players a chance to shine as the veterans step to the sidelines. This year, the star of what the Buckeyes call showtime won't be on the field at the Sugar Bowl. But it sounds like Ohio State may have to find a spot for him next season. "Somehow, some way, he will have the football," senior cornerback Devon Torrence said. Smith, a 6-foot-3, 220-pound back from Indiana, was the second-highest ranked player in Ohio State's 2010 recruiting class according to Rivals.com.

But he didn't join the team until several weeks into the season as he waited for his transcript to be approved by the NCAA, and with the backfield already crowded, the Buckeyes made an easy decision to redshirt him. Brandon Saine is graduating and there's always a chance fourth-year junior and 1,000-yard back Dan Herron could go to the NFL, but even if that happens, there should be plenty of running back options next season with Jordan Hall, Jaamal Berry and Carlos Hyde. And it sounds like Smith has to go near the top of that list.