Ohio State Football: Victory over Akron Won't End Buckeyes Acrimony

At long last, Ohio State will begin the heeling process on the field as the Buckeyes welcome the Akron Zips to the Horseshoe on Saturday, though there will be plenty of wounds left to be licked over the course of the 2011 college football season in Columbus.

There's little doubt that Luke Fickell's team, despite the distraction and destruction wrought by the sudden departures of Jim Tressel and Terrelle Pryor this summer, should have little trouble dispatching of their Mid-American Conference visitors this weekend.

The Buckeyes return a ton of talent from the 2011 Sugar Bowl champions and added yet another recruiting class full of blue-chip studs to their cause.

Not to mention that Akron started the 2010 season with 11 straight losses before breaking through against Buffalo in the final game of the campaign.

With the competition being as feeble as it is, a win for the Buckeyes this weekend will hardly alleviate any of the problems that will ail the team as the season goes on.

Sure, it will be great for the morale of the program to finally get back to the brass tacks of playing football rather than simply dodging cameras and avoiding speculative questions about the future of the team.

But there will remain plenty of issues, both on and off the field, to address.

Ohio State's woes with the NCAA have been well-documented in recent months, while pundits have paid little attention to what is likely to transpire on the field. Some have picked the Buckeyes to win the Leaders division of the newly-expanded Big Ten, ahead of Penn State and Wisconsin, with others still taking Ohio State to capture the conference crown at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis.

This, despite the fact that Fickell has yet to find a definitive starting quarterback heading into the season. The competition currently boils down to the experience and pocket presence of fifth-year senior Joe Bauserman against the tremendous skills and undeniable talents of true freshman Braxton Miller.

Not to mention redshirt freshman Taylor Graham and sophomore Kenny Guiton, who are both in the mix as well.

Of course, Ohio State would be foolish to panic at this point, even with all the adversity facing the program right now. The Buckeyes should be plenty able to stomp Akron and Toledo and survive against Colorado and Miami before kicking off Big Ten play with Michigan State.

The Spartans will give the Buckeyes all they can handle, especially with the likes of Dan Herron and DeVier Posey among the players suspended for the first five games of the season.

Even with all those players coming back from their NCAA-mandated benching, the Buckeyes will be hard-pressed to go into Memorial Stadium in Lincoln, Nebraska in early October and emerge with a win over the Cornhuskers amidst the meat of their conference schedule.

But let's not get ahead of ourselves. For now, Ohio State will have plenty to celebrate in yet another case of a college football powerhouse pummeling an over-matched cupcake and sending them away with nary a shred of dignity to go along with a nice check for the visitors' athletic department.

What the Buckeye faithful need to be worried about is not tripping over the Zips, but stumbling over their own misfortune as the games get tougher down the road.

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