DaytonDailyNews.com

COLUMBUS — Between another painful championship-game loss last January and an early-season showdown with Southern California coming up Sept. 13, Ohio State has a lot of work to do.

Since almost everybody's back from last year, not much time will be wasted on introductions.

"You'd think we'd be a smarter football team with all the experience we have," coach Jim Tressel said Wednesday, March 26, the day before the first official practice of the spring.

This is a veteran group of Buckeyes, with 47 players having been with the team for at least four years.

The Buckeyes were beaten 38-24 by LSU in the BCS national championship game Jan. 7. Since then, almost all of the news for the program has been positive.

Only one underclassman, defensive lineman Vernon Gholston, elected to give up his last year of eligibility to enter the NFL draft.

Gholston's departure — along with that of senior starters Kirk Barton (right tackle), Dionte Johnson (fullback), and Larry Grant at linebacker — means the Buckeyes have nine starters returning from one of the nation's top defenses and nine back on offense.

The returning headliners are linebacker James Laurinaitis, a first-team All-American who won the Butkus Award and was the Big Ten's top defensive player, tailback and team MVP Chris "Beanie" Wells and quarterback Todd Boeckman.

Despite the hoopla over the signing of blue-chip quarterback Terrelle Pryor, who won't be on campus until the middle of the summer, Boeckman is a lock to be the starter for the season opener.

Wells rushed for 1,609 yards as a sophomore last season, including 222 yards and both touchdowns in a 14-3 victory at rival Michigan. But he is still wearing a cast from surgery this winter on his wrist and won't face contact for most — if any — of the Buckeyes' 15 workouts leading up to the annual spring game April 19 at Ohio Stadium.