Ohio State Football: Urban Meyer's First Depth Chart Is Step Toward BCS Title

Kickoff for the 2012 college football season is just over 100 days away. Are you excited? You should be excited. You should be excited enough to read Ohio State's new depth chart and see worlds of possibilities in it, like we're doing. 

The full list is here, courtesy of the Columbus Dispatch (warning: direct link to .PDF file), and while there aren't too many surprises, there is enough that should make Buckeye fans really excited for the future.

Like, "set expectations as high as they can go"-level excited.

Yes, the foundation for a BCS Championship is in place, and that window could be open as soon as 2013; let's take a look now.

Youth: Ohio State has young stars all over the place, and the youth movement is only getting started. Braxton Miller, Curtis Grant and Ryan Shazier are all potential All-Americans; they're all also true sophomores. There are 10 freshmen (five true) already on the two-deeps, and the rest of a stellar 2012 recruiting class is still on the way.

Versatility: No, Urban Meyer's not sold on his offense yet; not as long as he's calling it a "clown show." But as Eleven Warriors points out, Meyer has a lot of versatile talent on offense to work with, to the point that Ohio State can go heavy or spread without even switching out players. Combine that with OSU's incorporation of the no-huddle, and this entire offense is going to be a matchup nightmare by 2013.

The 2013 Returning Starters: Ohio State's run for the crystal football may be closer than you think. Barring early defections to the NFL (which do happen), Ohio State will have the following pieces in place: four senior starters on the OL, a third-year starter in Braxton Miller, every single WR back, and returning starters at all but one spot in the defensive back seven (and graduating senior Etienne Sabino isn't a huge loss anyway).

Oh, and the 2013 schedule is extremely manageable. 

Ohio State isn't a championship-caliber team right now. Heck, it's not even championship-eligible. But there's a framework in place to make a serious run at the BCS Title very soon.