DaytonDailyNews.com

What's brewing today with the Ohio State Buckeyes:

Buckeyes buzz

Twenty-four Ohio natives — including most of the team's stars — will play for Michigan State today, Oct. 18, when the Buckeyes visit Spartan Stadium (3:30 p.m. kickoff).

Some of the Spartans don't feel anything special about playing Ohio State, others feel the need to redeem themselves after not being recruited by the Buckeyes.

"There's a lot of towns in Ohio, and not everyone can go to Ohio State," said QB Brian Hoyer (North Olmsted, Cleveland St. Ignatius HS). "Coach (Mark) Dantonio definitely has some connections there, and I think any time you get players out of the state of Ohio you know you're putting your team in a better position."

TB Javon Ringer, who is second in the nation in rushing at 169 yards a game, said he has no second thoughts about heading from Dayton (Chaminade-Julienne High School) to Michigan State.

"Everything happens for a reason, and I am very happy with my decision to come here and play at Michigan State. Everyone's reactions were always very supportive," he said. "A lot of my family and friends are fans of Ohio State as well, but they definitely want us to beat them because I am here now."

Separate specials

Many college teams have an assistant coach who is in charge of all special teams. That's not the way Ohio State does it. Assistant Darrell Hazell oversees kickoff returns, Paul Haynes has kickoff coverage, Taver Johnson handles the punt return teams and Luke Fickell coaches the punt coverage squad.

Haynes has coached places that had an assistant in charge of all the kick teams.

"I kind of like the way we do it a little bit more because it puts more emphasis on it," he said. "It's just like anything else, when I'm in charge of something I'm going to put more emphasis on it instead of just one guy who has to scramble and do it all."

The dead zone

Things have not been going well whenever Ohio State moves the ball inside the opposing 20. Nobody knows the problems better than head coach Jim Tressel.

Told that his offense had been unproductive the past couple of weeks in the red zone, Tressel interrupted a reporter.

"How about the last seven games? Going into last week we had had 19 drives into the red zone, and nine of them had a penalty. I mean, c'mon," he said. "That's not a secret to us. And do we need to do that better? Sure."