DaytonDailyNews.com

NEW ORLEANS — When you surround a table manned by Kirk Barton, you're waiting for the moment you uncontrollably belly laugh. We're quickly running out of chances to do that.

Barton, the Ohio State offensive tackle, appeared with several teammates on Thursday for an interview session leading up to the BCS championship game against LSU. As usual, he was surrounded by reporters hoping for something interesting beyond simply discussions of how great the other team is.

Boy, did he provide it. One reporter asked if talk of the championship game had reached a saturation point, and we were off to the races.

"I'm trying to figure out what saturation means," Barton said. "All I know what is saturate is ... cause they had this deep-fryer set up when we arrived, and they kept deep-frying shrimp, and all I thought was saturated fat ... I know what saturation means, I'm just being ... I'm just thinking about all that shrimp I ate. Don't say we got too fat and ate too much shrimp while we were down here. I'm just kidding."

There's more. One of the scenes relived (at least by Alex Boone) from last season's title game aftermath involves Boone standing up on the team bus and saying something about the 41-14 loss being his responsibility. Barton said he didn't recall that.

"It could be folklore," Barton said.

Barton was then told Boone claimed that it did indeed happen.

"One guy doesn't lose a game, unless it's the kicker, I guess," Barton said. "If it's the kicker that did it, then, you know."

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or knagel@DaytonDailyNews.com