It's Sugar, and nothing's sweeter than defense

Finally, after the yearly six week layoff between games, Ohio State takes the field again tonight, returning  to the Superdome for the first time since LSU beat the Bucks 38-24 in a virtual home game in the BCS Championship three years ago. The Buckeyes seem to have considerable motivation here, as LB Brian Rolle has said this win would be “even bigger” than last year’s Rose Bowl.

Basically, it’s because of the big bad wolf. The boogieman.  The monster under the bed.  Yes, it’s the SEC all over again.  Now, of course this is not Florida or LSU, it’s Arkansas.  And not Corliss Williamson and the Razorbacks.  An Arkansas football team, and it’s got a very good offense, which seems to consume much of the chatter before the game.  The Razorbacks have former Michigan quarterback Ryan Mallett, who is as high-profile as any quarterback in all of college football. In fact, Arkansas passed for over 335 yards per game this year.

However, it should be noted that the Buckeyes are no slouches on offense either.  They average 219.7 yards on the ground, which is nearly 70 yards more per game than Arkansas.  And they score 2 more points per game than Arkansas.  They don't have the pure passer that Arkansas does at QB1, but Terrell Pryor has his well-documented strengths as well.

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