DaytonDailyNews.com

Steve Hamant is a retired firefighter from Tipp City and a big Buckeyes fan. He's in Las Vegas on vacation, where he is enjoying the Mirage and trying to secure a ticket for Saturday night's Ohio State-Southern Cal game in L.A. — a four-hour drive from Sin City.

Our first progress report:

"The weather's great, everything's great, but nobody has any tickets. In fact, they're laughing at me," Steve said Thursday.

"I think my best bet is to wait until the game starts and the tickets go down in price."

Steve plans to drive to Los Angeles on Saturday morning.

More on his strategy:

"I might have to change that I'm an Ohio State fan. Nobody likes Ohio State out here."

Does that mean he'll wear a USC shirt to the L.A. Coliseum?

"No way," he said.