Finishing off its non-conference schedule with a 73-20 beat down of Eastern Michigan, No. 2 Ohio State (4-0) takes its unscathed record on the road for the first time this weekend to open up the 2010 Big Ten schedule at Illinois.

And with the Fighting Illini adding two new coordinators in the offseason and coming off a bye week, OSU coach Jim Tressel said his squad is not quite sure what to expect.

“They have two new coordinators, so they’re going to be a little different than they’ve been in the past,” Tressel said. “Not totally different, but I’m sure we have not seen some of the favorite things that those new coordinators like to do. We’ve gone back and looked at film from when they came and those kinds of things, but you don’t really know how they’re going to do that and especially with an open date the week before, I’m sure they’ll be healthier than they’ve been and anxious to open the Big Ten schedule like we all are.”



Defensive tackle John Simon believes the Buckeyes are prepared.

“They’ve been playing us hard for a long time,” Simon said. “Rightfully so, they are a tough team, great athletes and they always have that Big Ten mentality of ‘We’re going to hit you in the mouth,’ and we have been preparing for that all week.”

“We’re going to have to play our best game on Saturday to counter that.”

Buckeyes getting healthy again

Injuries have piled up in recent weeks, especially on the defensive side of the ball. But the Buckeyes should be near full strength heading into Illinois.



“I think from a health standpoint we’re, after four games, in pretty good shape,” Tressel said.

On defense, Travis Howard, Dorian Bell and Chimdi Chekwa will all return. However, safety Nate Oliver is still questionable with a hamstring injury, Tressel said.

Offensively, tight end Jake Stoneburner suffered an ankle injury against Eastern Michigan that limited his playing time Saturday. While Stoneburner told coaches he will be fine, Tressel said they will know more about his status for this weekend as the week goes on.

Hitting the road

Having unexpectedly fallen to Purdue on the road last October, questions arose regarding how a repeat road blunder can be avoided.



With a group of veteran guys, Tressel said he hopes it will be a non-issue.

“You would hope those that boarded a bus and headed to the airport to do that would still have the understanding very deep in their soul that you better be prepared when you’re on the road,” he said. “Our focus will be simply on here’s what we think Illinois is going to do. They’ve had two weeks to prepare some other things, you’re going to have some adversity; you’re not going to have that crowd there to help you through it, so you better play as well or better than you’ve ever played this year if you want to be successful.”

Junior wide receiver DeVier Posey agreed.

“We have a veteran group so you know we have guys that have traveled before,” Posey said. “I feel like coach Tressel and the coaching staff has done a great job preparing us for all types of elements.”

Heisman hopeful

Despite arguably one of his most impressive performances as a Buckeye, quarterback Terrelle Pryor yet again failed to earn a winning performance from the OSU coaches.

Winning performance or not, Pryor’s six touchdowns and 330 yards of total offense on Saturday have the junior on many people’s short list of Heisman candidates. When asked about his star signal caller’s Heisman chances, Tressel said he hadn’t given it much thought.

“I don’t know. I haven’t thought about it,” he said. “I guess my experience has been whether it’s Heisman campaigns or Jim Thorpe or whatever campaigns, they’re most affected by how the team does. So I guess we’re on a campaign trying to be as successful as we can be. I’m sure we do all the other stuff, send e-mails and postcards, those kinds of things, but just like we always talk about in sports marketing, there’s only one thing that markets, and that’s winning, and I would think the same is probably true in those individual awards.”

Posey said that Pryor’s numbers and leadership ability solidify the Buckeye quarterback as a Heisman front-runner.

“He’s our leader,” Posey said. “He is a great player. The things he can do with his feet and the things that he can do with his arm, it is just amazing and you just add on his 6-foot-6-inches, 4.3- (40-yard dash time) frame and that just makes for a Heisman candidate in my eyes.”

Special teams straightening out

OSU’s special team’s struggles have been well-documented since Week 2 against Miami, but it appeared as though the Buckeyes began making strides in the right direction Saturday, especially kickoff specialist Drew Basil, who had three touchbacks. Basil was named the team’s special units Player of the Week.

“He got to kick it down there 12 or 13 times and I think he’s coming along,” Tressel said. “He’s going to be a very good kicker and he hit about three or four of them deep in the end zone and did a lot better job on his coverage. In fact, I think he had a couple tackles, which you don’t always like that to happen, but he was up in there. It wasn’t like he was dragging them down after they’d gone 60 yards.”

Fellow kicker Devin Barclay acknowledged that he noticed an improved OSU kickoff unit on Saturday as well.

“I just think his approach was good,” Barclay said. “He wasn’t thinking too much about it. Honestly it has been like a constant ‘special teams, special teams, special teams,’ especially over the last four weeks. So it’s one of those things where I think he and everyone else relaxed going into the game.”He knows how to kick, let him kick.”

Dual-threat Illini quarterback

Proving both his ability to pass — 380 yards and three touchdowns passing this season — and his superb running ability — Illinois’ second leading rusher — the Buckeye defense will face somewhat of a different challenge this week in Illini redshirt freshman quarterback Nathan Scheelhaase.

“You can tell he’s a passionate guy about becoming a good quarterback,” Tressel said. “He’s a fearless runner. He’s coming along like every young guy. Every time he steps on the field he understands a little bit more about the coverage and the routes and the protections and so forth. … He’s going to be a good quarterback.”

And with Scheelhaase’s ability on the ground and through the air, Simon said it is up to the defense to contain him.

“We’re just going to have to be very disciplined,” Simon said. “All 11 guys on defense are going to have to do their job to make it work, and we are going to do our best.”