Ohio State defensive lineman Cameron Heyward wants to be the greatest player he can be. He will get one last chance to become the best college player he can be this fall since this is his last year of eligibility. Reporter John Kampf of Journal Register News Service writes Heyward wants to make his senior year the greatest yet....
Cameron HeywardOhio State defensive lineman Cameron Heyward wants to be the greatest player he can be. He will get one last chance to become the best college player he can be this fall since this is his last year of eligibility.
Reporter John Kampf of Journal Register News Service writes Heyward wants to make his senior year the greatest yet.
The 6-foot-5, 288-pound defensive lineman could have been a high-round draft pick in this past spring’s NFL draft. Instead, he will don the scarlet and gray today when the Ohio State football team hits the field for the season’s first practice at the Woody Hayes Athletic Center.
Following the path paved by former OSU teammates Malcolm Jenkins and James Laurinaitis, Heyward shunned the temptation to skip his senior year with the Buckeyes for the glitz, glamour and fat paycheck of professional football.
"The NFL can wait," Heyward said. "There are no guarantees in the NFL."
Kamp writes how Heyward wanted other guarantees, like the opportunity of spending another year with friends, being a leader on a team that contends for a another Big Ten Championship, and the guarantee of helping OSU contend for another BCS national championship.
Rumblings and ramblings
Columbus Dispatch columnist Bob Hunter writes about two Ohio State players we need to watch heading into training camp --- offensive lineman Marcus Hall and quarterback Taylor Graham.
Coach Jim Tressel is going to give Mike Adams the first crack at left tackle, and senior Andrew Miller will rotate there, too. But Hall played some last season at right tackle as a true freshman. The coaches like him, and Tressel repeatedly mentions him. If Adams doesn't seize the job, Hall could be moved there.
Graham, a true freshman, was felled by injuries his last two years of high school and enters camp lugging some question marks. But Tressel said at the Big Ten meetings that Kenny Guiton, Joe Bauserman and Graham would compete to back up Terrelle Pryor.
Get ready
The Buckeyes hope to pick up where they left off as they open training camp today in Columbus. They want to pick up from their Rose Bowl win over Oregon in January.
Offensive lineman Justin Boren is ready for the challenge. On CantonRep.com:
“I think it’s going to be a disappointment if we can’t pick up from where we left off last year,” Boren said Thursday as Ohio State players reported back to campus for the start of camp today. “Camp gives you three weeks to get into the groove of things. Then, come that first game, we better be ready to go. If it takes us a couple of games, that’s unacceptable.
“We better be ready to go from day one.”
That would be a new thing for the offense that has been slow out of the gate for the past two seasons. But that was due to the young offensive line getting on track and quarterback Terrelle Pryor finding his rhythm.
OSU won't have those issues this time.
“There should be no reason why it would take a couple of weeks,” Boren said of offensive consistency. “Hopefully, we build off last season and keep getting better.
“I’m expecting great things from Terrelle. He is the most capable athlete on this team. ... I think he’s definitely capable of starting where he left off last year. Terrelle is an insane athlete.”
Championship game
The Plain Dealer's Doug Lesmerises posted this morning about Ohio State being ranked No. 2 in the nation in the USA Today coaches poll. Last night, he wrote on Cleveland.com about Indianapolis getting the first Big Ten title game in 2011. And how after 2011, formal bids will be accepted to determine future sites.
Chicago, Cleveland, Detroit, Green Bay, Wis., and Minneapolis were among cities that had publicly expressed interest in landing the game.
"It's a great win for our city, and it shows the partnership Indy and the Indiana Sports Corp. has had with the Big Ten the past 20 or 30 years," said John Dedman, spokesman for the Sports Corp., which spearheads the city's efforts to attract major events.
The economic impact for the city is expected to be about $10 million, although that could increase if fans for both finalists come from a considerable distance and stay longer.