DaytonDailyNews.com

COLUMBUS — Ohio State defensive lineman Brett Daly has a big appointment next week in Ann Arbor, Mich.

No, this is the day before that one.

Daly, a former walk-on who was put on scholarship before this, his senior season, is interviewing to go to medical school — Michigan's medical school.

"My first interview is with Michigan on Friday of next week," he said this week. "It kind of works out good for me. I'll just go down the night before, the interview is in the morning and I'll meet up with the team right when they get there. It's really ironic they offered me the interview the day before (the Ohio State-Michigan game)."

He joked that the doctors and administrators in Ann Arbor had a master plan.

"They knew I'm on the team," he said. "They're just trying to mess with me and see if they can get in my head before the game."

Daly, an Elyria native who transferred to Ohio State from Case Western Reserve, said Michigan has one of the top medical schools in the country.

"If I did go there, it would be really strange," he said. "I'd still wear my Ohio State stuff."

The catch is that Daly also has applied to Ohio State's medical school.

"It'd be really tough if it came down to that (Michigan) and Ohio State," he said.

Laurinaitis a finalist

Ohio State's James Laurinaitis was named Wednesday as one of four finalists for the Lombardi Award, which goes to the player voted the nation's top linebacker or lineman.

The junior middle linebacker leads the Buckeyes with 85 tackles and has five sacks. OSU is first in the nation in scoring defense (9.7 points per game) and total defense (221.2 yards allowed).

LSU defensive tackle Glenn Dorsey, Michigan offensive tackle Jake Long and Virginia defensive end Chris Long also are finalists.

Laurinaitis is the 13th OSU player to be named a finalist. A.J. Hawk won the award in 2005.