2010 College Football Predictions: Ohio State vs. Miami

For the second game of the season, Ohio State will take on the University of Miami on Sep. 11, at 3:40 pm EST. This may be the hardest game of the pre-school season for the Buckeyes, but they should still come out the victors of the game.

In comparing these two teams, there are several important factors to look at when deciding who will win the game. These include who will do better in the arena that has been chosen for the game, offensive talent, defensive talent, the strength of each team’s starting quarterback and coaching ability.

The Location

This year the Hurricane-Buckeye match up will be taking place in Ohio Stadium, or the Horseshoe as some like to call it.

Looking at both Miami and Ohio State’s records, there is evidence that the Buckeyes tend to win the majority of games played at home, while the Hurricanes seem to really struggle with games on the road.

Since this is a home game for the Buckeyes and an away game for the Hurricanes, this already, statistically, gives the Buckeyes an advantage over the Miami team.

Offensive Talent

The Buckeyes talented offensive line from last season is coming back stronger than ever.

With strong returning offensive players such as Bryant Browning, Mike Brewster and Brandon Saine, the Buckeye offensive line will be a tough one for the Hurricanes to stop with their defense.

Last season, the Buckeyes’ offensive line rushed more than 2,000 yards, and now that they have had time to improve since then, it should be expected overall that they should be able to rush much more than that this season.

The hurricanes last season, in comparison, rushed just under 2,000 yards.

While they may not have rushed as many yards, the Hurricanes offense may cause the Buckeyes some trouble with offensive players like Damien Berry.

Berry was, and is, and integral part of the Hurricane team. He scored 8 touch downs alone for the team last season, and rushed 616 yards.

However, in comparison of retuning offensive talent and statistics from last season, if the Buckeyes play at the level they have proven they can, they should be able to keep possession of the ball, and rack up enough points against Miami to win the game.

Defensive Talent

Since Coach Jim Tressel has come on board, the Buckeyes have had a top-25 defensive line up every season.

This season will be no exception.

With the talented combination of Captains Brian Rolle and Ross Homan, the Buckeye defense is going to be an impenetrable force.

The Hurricanes will definitely have to bring their “A” game to Ohio Stadium that Saturday if they want any hope of penetrating the Buckeye defense.

With their offense, Miami has the ability to cause some trouble for the Buckeye defense, but not enough to really give them an advantage to score enough points against Ohio State to win the game.

The Miami defense could cause the Ohio State offense a little bit of trouble.

Last season, the Hurricane defense was able to hold its own against teams like Florida State University, Oklahoma University and Duke.

When the Hurricane defense is playing at its optimal level, it’s a relatively strong defense that this season could keep the Buckeyes from scoring as many points against the Miami team as they might like to.

Even with a good defense, Miami will not be able to fully stop the Buckeye offense.

The Quarterbacks

The starting quarterbacks for these two teams are Terrell Pryor, for the Buckeyes, and Jacory Harris, for the Hurricanes.

Both of these players are good quarterbacks.

However, looking back at last season, it seems Pryor is the stronger of the two.

With his ability to keep the defense a bay when looking to throw a pass and his ability to run the ball down the field at high speeds, Pryor is not only the strongest quarterback in this game, but quite possibly in all of the NCAA.

With Pryor on their side, the Buckeyes have yet another advantage over the Hurricanes, which will help them come out of this game on top.

The Coaches

Both of these teams are good.

What is really going to make or break these two teams, are their coaches.

Even with all of the talent in the world, a team can only play as well as their leaders allow them to.

Looking back at the past several seasons, it seems that between Ohio State Coach Jim Tressel and Miami Coach Randy Shannon, Tressel is the stronger coach.

Tressel knows when to play conservatively and when to push his team to pull out some amazing plays to help cinch a win for the Buckeyes.

With this knowledge and his winning record of six Big Ten Championships, three trips to a National Championship game and one National Championship title, the Buckeyes are in good hands, and having the better coach will give them the final advantage they need over Miami to win the game.