COLUMBUS, Ohio — Urban Meyer is coming back to coaching and joining beleaguered Ohio State, ESPN reported Monday.

The sports network did not cite a source for its report, but Meyer worked for ESPN the past year. There are unconfirmed reports he has agreed to a multiyear contract that will pay him almost $6 million a year.

Meyer won two national championships in six years as the coach at Florida. He left the Gators a year ago, citing health concerns and a desire to spend more time with his family. Now, the 47-year-old Ohioan will be returning to his roots by becoming coach of a Buckeyes team facing NCAA problems.

Ohio State athletic director Gene Smith did not immediately respond to a request for comment. No announcement has been set by Ohio State, although there were reports a team meeting set for Sunday night has been moved to Monday afternoon.

Meyer takes over a program that has been hit by several suspensions and the forced resignation of coach Jim Tressel. The Buckeyes completed a 6-6 season under interim Luke Fickell with a 40-34 loss to rival Michigan on Saturday.

In 10 seasons as a head coach — two at Bowling Green, two at Utah and six at Florida — Meyer has a 104-23 record, winning three national coach of the year awards. His teams are 7-1 in bowl games, including the Gators” 41-14 victory over unbeaten and top-ranked Ohio State in the 2007 Bowl Championship Series title game. They are also 4-0 in BCS bowl games.

Meyer had persistently denied all the talk surrounding him and Ohio State. Soon after Tressel was pressured to resign, Meyer said he wasn”t interested in leaving ESPN, where he was a college football analyst.

“I am committed to ESPN and will not pursue any coaching opportunities this fall,” he said in a statement released the day after Tressel lost his job. Just last week he said no job had been offered to him nor was he pursuing one.

His comments came amid weeks of speculation he was Ohio State”s first choice to take over a program that has a glittering past but has faltered over a troublesome last 12 months.

He inherits a program still facing NCAA sanctions. But he also inherits a young team led by a freshman quarterback, Braxton Miller, who would seem to be a perfect fit for his spread offense.

A native of Ashtabula, Ohio, Meyer becomes the 24th head coach at Ohio State. He succeeds Fickell, who took over last spring when Tressel”s 10-year reign came crashing down. Tressel was forced out for knowing but not telling his superiors that Buckeyes players had most likely broken NCAA rules by taking cash and free or discounted tattoos from the subject of a federal drug-trafficking investigation.

Tressel was forced to resign on May 30. Missing several top players because of NCAA suspensions stemming from the tattoo mess, the Buckeyes were hit with more suspensions when three players accepted $200 in cash for attending a charity event and others were forced to sit out or had their existing suspensions extended for being overpaid for summer jobs.

Ohio State”s .500 record marked the most losses at Ohio State since John Cooper”s 1999 team also went 6-6 overall and 3-5 in the Big Ten.

The Buckeyes had already lost their string of six Big Ten titles when the school was forced to vacate the 2010 season for the NCAA violations. The school has also self-imposed two years of NCAA probation, offered to return $339,000 in bowl revenue from 2010 and to give up five scholarships over the next three seasons.

Ohio State is awaiting final word from the NCAA”s committee on infractions. The committee tagged Ohio State with a “failure to monitor” label — second only to a lack of institutional control on the list of most egregious charges against a university. The school could still be hit with a bowl ban, a loss of more scholarships, or other penalties.

At the time of his retirement — after being taken to a hospital, dehydrated and complaining of chest pains — Meyer said, “After spending more than two decades motivating and celebrating the young men I”ve been so proud to coach, I relish the opportunity to cheer for my three terrific kids as they compete in their own respective sports. I know how fortunate I am to be in a position to make this choice.”

He and his family — wife Shelley, college-age daughters Nicki and Gigi and younger son Nate — celebrated Thanksgiving at their Florida home.

Ann Arbor— It looks like Michigan is going to beat Ohio State.

The football game is a couple of weeks away, but in a contest aimed at saving lives, the Wolverines are headed for a rout over their rival.

Since Sept. 1, the two states have tallied how many residents joined their organ donor registry. And with the “Wolverine-Buckeye Challenge” contest ending next week, Michigan has tallied more than 95,000 names, nearly double the number from Ohio.

“We want to beat the Buckeyes both on and off the field, and we”re appreciative of the community”s effort for this program,” said U-M Athletic Director Dave Brandon at the “Be a Hero at the Big House” event Wednesday, where 88 people signed up to be organ tissue and eye donors, and 117 signed up to be marrow donors.

About 110,000 people in the United States are waiting for an organ, including about 3,000 in Michigan. Wednesday”s 12-hour event in Michigan Stadium”s club level gave people a chance to learn more about becoming donors for organs, bone marrow and tissue.

The stadium also held a blood drive for this year”s “Blood Battle” between Michigan and Ohio State, a two-week donation contest that ends Friday. The Wolverines are leading.

Mary McCaughey, 54, and her daughter Elizabeth, 22, donated blood and took mouth swabs to join the bone marrow donor list.

“I think everybody should register,” said Mary McCaughey, a nurse of 32 years.

“If we matched, I”d be honored to donate bone marrow to someone.”

Michigan Secretary of State Ruth Johnson said the state ranks sixth worst in the nation in the percentage of registered donors, and she encouraged all Michiganians to consider joining the list.

Tucker Schumacher, 18, of Reese, who had a liver transplant when he was 14 months old, was thrilled to see the support for organ donors Wednesday. The high school senior said he will eventually need a kidney transplant, but “I”m an example that organ donation works.”

“If I can help out by showing people that it works and that they”ll be willing to donate their organs to possibly save someone else, then that means a lot to me,” Schumacher said.

For more information, visit www.wolverinesforlife.org.

The NCAA has notified Ohio State that it will face a “failure to monitor” charge in addition to more allegations of rules violations by its troubled football program.

Ohio State will strip itself of five total football scholarships over the next three years in response to the further alleged violations, the school announced Thursday.

The Buckeyes, who were awaiting a ruling after appearing before the NCAA committee on infractions Aug. 12 for the tattoo-for-memorabilia scandal, received another notice of allegations from the NCAA on Nov. 3. Those allegations revolved around a Cleveland-area booster who provided extra benefits to players.

“Failure to monitor” is among the most serious allegations the NCAA can bring against a member school.

Ohio State president Gordon Gee expressed disappointment Thursday in athletic director Gene Smith for not properly monitoring the actions of the ex-booster, Robert DiGeronimo.

In a letter to Smith, dated on Thursday, Gee wrote, “I am disappointed that this is where we find ourselves. You know I find this unacceptable.”

School officials are scheduled to appear before the NCAA infractions committee again on Dec. 10 to answer to these latest charges. However, Ohio State has asked to have the charges reviewed during a conference call the week of Nov. 28 — the final week of the football regular season.

The NCAA alleged that DiGeronimo provided a total of $2,405 in extra benefits to nine football players. That included payments of $200 each to four players who attended a charity event in February, and five players who were overpaid a total of $1,605 for work they did not perform in summer jobs at DiGeronimo”s excavation company.

DiGeronimo has admitted giving $200 to running back Jordan Hall, cornerback Travis Howard, defensive back Corey Brown and former Buckeyes quarterback Terrelle Pryor at the charity event.

Hall, Howard and Brown were each suspended earlier this season. Running back Dan Herron, receiver DeVier Posey and offensive lineman Marcus Hall were suspended for their role in the summer job case. Herron and Posey had their five-game suspensions stemming from the tattoo scandal lengthened.

DiGeronimo and Posey have disputed the allegations of overpayment for jobs.

Ohio State disassociated itself with DiGeronimo on Sept. 20 and announced it was taking measures to enhance its education and compliance monitoring.

But the NCAA said the school “failed to take appropriate actions to determine if DiGeronimo continued to employ student-athletes or host them at the charity event despite concerns about his interaction with the football program.”

In addition, the NCAA said Ohio State “failed to educate football student-athletes about DiGeronimo, encourage them to cease interaction with him or inquire about their potential employment with DiGeronimo and attendance at the charity event.”

DiGeronimo”s charity, called Cornerstone of Hope, was involved with a secondary violation involving a lack of paperwork in 2006. In its response, Ohio State said it told DiGeronimo to stop interacting with coaches, visiting athletic facilities and being around the program.

However, the school still allowed athletes to work at DiGeronimo”s company and attend his charity events — though it said players were strongly encouraged to fill out the necessary paperwork to do so.

DiGeronimo had been an Ohio State booster since the 1980s, when he was part of a group known as the “committeemen” who helped recruit players before such practices were outlawed.

DiGeronimo contributed more than $72,000 to the athletic department since 1988 and had been a season ticket holder for years, the report said.

DiGeronimo was one of a group of outsiders who had access to Ohio State”s locker room on game days, a practice that coach Jim Tressel stopped after taking the job, according to the NCAA report.

After that ban, Tressel caught DiGeronimo trying to hide in a locker to listen to Tressel”s pregame speech and ordered him and another individual out of the locker room, the report said.

Smith said in a statement that the school accepts “that we should have done more to oversee Mr. DiGeronimo”s activities.”

“On a personal note, I deeply regret that I did not ensure the degree of monitoring our institution deserves and demands,” Smith added.

Ohio State has already vacated its 2010 season, imposed a two-year probation period, forfeited its 2011 Sugar Bowl payment and fired Tressel as part of its response to NCAA allegations earlier this year.

Brian Bennett covers Big Ten football for ESPN.com. Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.

It was the latest NCAA infraction in a string for Ohio State dating back to December 2010 that had now encompassed summer jobs, cash handed out a charity event and the infamous tattoos-for-trinkets scandal. In all, 12 scholarship football players had been punished for infractions, former head coach Jim Tressel had been fired and a long-time program booster had been exiled.

After his annual talk to faculty members, Gee told the Columbus Dispatch that the school’s athletics compliance office — the folks in charge of discovering, reporting and preventing NCAA violations — was a model for other schools to follow.

“We are the poster child for compliance, and whenever we discover possible infractions we resolve and report it to the NCAA no matter how minor the violations,” Gee said. “That’s what we have done here.”

PolitiFact Ohio normally sticks to checking the statements of Ohio’s leading political figures, but it’s not much of a stretch to view Gee as a political figure of sorts. (Gov. John Kasich has referred to him as Ohio’s greatest politician.)

So we decided to buckle up our helmet and dig into whether Ohio State’s compliance office really is the “poster child” for universities across the country.

First, we reached out to OSU spokesman Jim Lynch to see what he could provide to back up the notion that OSU really has the finest athletics compliance department in the nation. Lynch pointed out that the NCAA had not found major violations in any of the cases and has told OSU officials it does not see a lack of institutional control. (That’s NCAA-speak for a systematic problem.)

Lynch referred PolitiFact to OSU’s official responses to the charges, which stress that Ohio State’s compliance office has at all times faithfully reported violations once they were discovered.

Lynch further suggested that we speak with Chuck Smrt, a former NCAA enforcement staff official whom Ohio State has hired as part of a consulting team to help with its NCAA troubles. Although Smrt is being paid by Ohio State and far from an unbiased source, we decided to hear him out as a well-regarded national expert in the field.

Smrt, a principal with the Compliance Group, said he thinks OSU’s compliance program is one of the tops in the country. “I don’t think I could ever say that any one school is the best, but I think OSU is in the top five in the country,” Smrt said.

Smrt said he hasn’t looked at all aspects of OSU’s athletic compliance, but the portions he’s reviewed left him with the impression that OSU has a top-notch compliance department. Smrt also said there were areas he had found where Ohio State could improve its compliance  department but declined to say what they were.

Other experts in athletics compliance were less glowing, but did give OSU’s office good marks. Rick Allen, a former compliance officer for two decades with Illinois and Oklahoma State who sometimes consults on compliance issues with universities, said Ohio State’s department does have a good reputation.

“I’ve long had respect for their compliance office, but whether I’d go so far as to call it a model compliance department, I’d hesitate to do that because I think there are a lot of good ones across the country,” Allen said.

Allen said that a high number of violations may show a lack of rules education. “If you’re a school that is reporting a lot of violations, you may have good monitoring procedures, but maybe you need to beef up your rules education a little bit,” he said.

In fact, OSU Athletics Director Smith blamed inadequate rules education for contributing to the suspensions of six players for selling awards for discounts on tattoos. “We were not as explicit with our student-athlete education as we should have been in the 2007-08 and 2008-09 academic years regarding the sale of apparel, awards and gifts issued by the athletics department,” Smith is quoted as saying in a Dec. 23, 2010 release from the NCAA.

Dave Ridpath, an Ohio University professor who worked in the athletics compliance offices for Marshall University and Weber State, said Gee’s comment is an overstatement made for public relations reasons. “I’m not going to say he’s completely off his rocker, but it’s a statement he should probably never make,” said Ridpath.

Ridpath said Ohio State has a “strong” compliance department, but said it’s “an impossible situation” for schools with highly profitable football teams to have a model compliance department.  ”Any school that is at a major level, I don’t think any of them could say they have a model compliance department,” Ridpath said. “At schools operating on an Ohio State or SEC level, the most important thing at those schools is winning games, player-eligibility and revenue generation, so compliance is never something pushed to the forefront.”

Beyond the opinions of experts, we reviewed internal audits of the compliance department dating back to 2006 and done in accordance with NCAA rules. Those records show that each year, OSU’s internal auditors found multiple practices in the compliance department that needed improvement. In fact, some of the weaknesses identified by internal auditors were in the same areas where NCAA infractions were later committed by OSU players.

For example, a November 2010 audit found that OSU wasn’t keeping an inventory of awards given to players. The selling of awards by players was the central issue in the tattoos-for-trinkets scandal.

While there is no evidence that the compliance department knew of any violations by the players, the same cannot be said for Ohio State’s most famous employee: Tressel. In March 2011, Ohio State discovered three email strings from a local attorney to Tressel from April and June 2010 informing the coach about players selling awards for discounts on tattoos from a tattoo parlor owner being investigated on federal drug charges. Although he knew that would have made the players ineligible, Tressel never reported what he had learned in the emails to OSU officials. Ohio State has said that is why they fired the popular coach.

Meanwhile, a 2007 audit found that the compliance department wasn’t keeping earning statements of any athletes from part-time jobs and that only 40 percent of the time were employers filling out monitoring paperwork on what jobs athletes were doing. In early October, the overpayment of athletes for part-time jobs was what caused three players to miss the Nebraska game.

Two of the audits also cite continuing problems with athletes not properly registering the cars they were driving with the compliance office — first in 2006 and again in 2010.

Amid the ongoing issues, the university is considering taking compliance away from the athletics department and creating a university-wide compliance department to better improve compliance, according to news reports.  ”We believe we have very sound processes and protocols. Many of them have been validated by third parties as being at or near the best in class,” OSU Trustee Robert Schottenstein told The Lantern, Ohio State’s student newspaper, for a story. “Still, as I said, we believe we can get better.”

So what’s our score here?

We haven’t found any experts — including one employed by OSU as a consultant — who describe the university as a poster child for compliance. The experts we interviewed think the compliance department is fairly strong, but not a model for other schools to follow.

Ohio State itself has acknowledged it didn’t properly educate football players several years ago on whether they could sell the awards they were given. And internal audits of athletic compliance departments in recent years show weaknesses cropping up each year, including several areas that have blown up into public infractions for football players during the past year. Additionally, OSU trustees are considering moving the compliance department outside of athletics to improve the program.

In fairness, Gee’s statement was focused on reporting and resolving violations, not necessarily preventing them, even though that’s also the compliance department’s job. And there is no evidence that the compliance office has failed to properly report infractions to the NCAA or cover up anything that has come to light. The NCAA has said it doesn’t see anything that points to a systematic problem in athletics in the recent infractions.

However, the actions of Coach Tressel, a prominent figure with major responsibility in the athletics department, constitute a critical failure in reporting violations — a failure that cost him his job.

So OSU isn’t exactly “the poster child for compliance,” but we’ll give Gee some points for accuracy in describing the university’s commitment to reporting violations. We’ll have to throw a flag for hyperbole, though, and rate the statement Half True.

Linn State Technical College in Linn, Mo., faces a lawsuit for its new mandatory drug tests for incoming students, but Ohio State officials say a policy similar in nature would not happen at OSU.

LSTC””s website states the mandatory tests are required by all “degree or certificate seeking students” who wish to enroll in the college, and “refusal to screen will result in an administrative or student-initiated withdrawal” from the college.

The American Civil Liberties Union and other groups have sued LSTC on behalf of six dissenting students and have won a temporary injunction.

In an interview with The New York Times, Kent Brown, the college””s lawyer, said that of around 540 new students enrolled before the injunction, none refused to take the drug test.

Mabel Freeman, assistant vice president for Undergraduate Admissions and First-Year Experience at Ohio State said she does not think a program like LSTC””s would ever survive at OSU.

“As long as I””ve been involved in admissions, which is 11 years, there has been no discussion at all at OSU or any other public university about drug testing,” Freeman said. “There are 4,000 colleges

and universities out there, but I am not aware of any that do this and link it to the admissions.”

The OSU application has a section for students to list any criminal history, including drug charges. This section does factor into admissions decisions, but that is the extent to which the university looks at individual drug use, Freeman said.

Matt Keaton, a second-year student in political science and psychology, said he could see the merit in a mandatory drug-testing program for OSU like the one implemented at LSTC.

“I think it””s interesting,” Keaton said. “I think it supports a healthy lifestyle for students. I think that there””s a lot of positives that would come out of it.”

Other students are not so keen on the testing and see it as an infringement of privacy.

Joe Hocevar, a second-year student in pharmaceutical sciences, disagrees with the policy, and said he thinks it would deter many students from even applying to college.

“Drug testing would take away the opportunity for a lot of people that would otherwise contribute to their community and academic program and school,” Hocevar said.

Even though he said implementing a system would be difficult and time-consuming, Hocevar did find one positive aspect of the policy.

“It definitely would make campus safer … just because a lot of times there can be some violence over drugs, and drugs can make people do crazy things,” Hocevar said.

The lawsuits against the school are interesting because he can see both sides of the argument, Keaton said. On one hand, he said he agrees with the college””s reasoning behind the screening, but he also agrees that it may infringe on students”” rights.

“Freedom … is something that I hold to a very high level of accountability,” Keaton said. “At the same time, it””s not unreasonable to think of college as a job, so to speak, so colleges should have the same seriousness that people treat part-time or full-time jobs with, the fact that it is required at most workplaces.”

Brown said in an interview with The New York Times that because of the specific technical programs offered at the college, including operating heavy machinery and dealing with high-voltage electricity, many students graduate into careers where drug testing is frequent and mandatory.

“Well, the student body at Linn State is very different from, for example, the University of Missouri or Harvard or some place like that,” Brown said. “We are a technical college … all of these things are things we need to guard against for the safety of the students.”

Freeman said she does not see OSU adopting a similar system because of the cost and logistics involved in such a large project, but the university still takes student drug use very seriously.

“Do I think one (a mandatory drug test) is going to be a trend? No,” Freeman said. “All universities are concerned about topics like drug use, but that doesn””t mean it immediately translates to an admissions concern.”

Published: Friday, September 23, 2011

When you ask Ohio State football players about the bond they share with each other, many of them reference a “sacred brotherhood.” For one football player, that brotherhood extends outside the locker room walls.

Spencer Smith, a redshirt senior tight end from Cincinnati, Ohio, is one of 24 seniors on OSU”s squad this year. Smith is the son of former OSU football player Joe Smith. Joe Smith, a four-year letterman on the offensive line for the Buckeyes from 1979-82, brought many OSU football traditions to the family.

“As a son of a former Buckeye, you do get a feel for what it (means to be a Buckeye),” Spencer Smith said. “It kind of grows on you.”

Spencer Smith said one of the best parts of playing football at OSU was the chance to play with his brother. Connor Smith was an offensive lineman during OSU”s 2006-2010 seasons.

“I got to play with him in high school for two years and three years here. It was my personal highlight because we”re best friends,” Spencer said.

Spencer said he had unique opportunity to have a family deeply rooted in Buckeye football.

“In general just to be able to play with (my brother) and to be here, it”s been a highlight,” Spencer Smith said.

Spencer Smith said the last four years have gone by faster than he could ever imagine.

“It”s gone by fast,” Spencer said. “It”s crazy to think how fast four years is going.”

As a member of the Colerain football team in Cincinnati, Ohio, he served as a team captain. He earned all-Cincinnati and all-Greater Miami Conference honors. He was also a member of the 2004 State Championship team.

Spencer walked-on to the OSU team in 2007 and found his role as a scout squad member. He originally played fullback, before switching to tight end to start his sophomore season.

Spencer saw little playing time in both his sophomore and junior years, but forever wrote his name in OSU history books.

In 2010, Spencer caught a 23-yard touchdown in OSU”s win over Purdue. This catch was his second catch of his career at OSU thus far. He has not recorded another reception thus far.

In the wake of a major NCAA scandal, it”s no secret that this year the Buckeyes are facing more adversity than ever before, but Spencer said he feels like the team has nothing to prove. He said the expectations are always high.

“We”re Ohio State,” Spencer said.

The coaching change affects the team from an outsider”s perspective, Spencer said. But inside the locker room they are playing for one thing: the “sacred brotherhood.”

“We got a new coach, but that doesn”t change what”s been set before us,” Spencer said.

“The traditions and the people that come before us, we got to carry that on,” Spencer said. “Whether we have all the guys from last year or everyone graduated, (OSU) is the same every year.”

Reflecting on his time at OSU, Spencer said his favorite time of year was January — bowl season.

“The bowl games are always a lot of fun as a team,” Spencer Smith said. “We work for 12 or 13 straight weeks and you get matched up with a great team… all of us really look forward to it.”

Because of his Buckeye roots, Spencer Smith said a lot of the experience was what he expected it to be. He said throughout his life he looked forward to the opportunity to be a Buckeye.

“It”s really unexplainable to finally get to experience the same things (my dad did),” Spencer said.

The lure of the sacred brotherhood was always something that appealed to Spencer Smith growing up, but he said experiencing it first hand strengthens the bond between him and his father, Joe.

“I now have that connection just like my dad,” Spencer said. “We now have that in common.”

Next up is a date with a program that has gone through a lot of the same trials and tribulations as the Buckeyes — Miami.

Interim coach Luke Fickell stressed that his team wouldn”t take a lot of time to reflect on the 27-22 victory — a last-ditch drive by the Rockets died at the Buckeyes 17 with 48 seconds left — before shifting the focus to Saturday”s major road test against the Hurricanes.

“We have about a 17-hour incubation period, or whatever you want to call it, that we can reflect on what (the Toledo game) was all about and how things went,” Fickell said after the squeaker against the Rockets.

Lucky for the Buckeyes, they”ll have a lot more than 17 hours to address the things that didn”t go well.

The bottom line, of course, is that the Buckeyes (2-0) survived against a good team. But there were troubling aspects of the game that could shadow the team for the rest of the season.

Toledo played on even terms on both lines, passed for 100 more yards and matched the Buckeyes in intensity. Equality with a Mid-American Conference team is a new concept for the Buckeyes, who improved to 18-0 all-time against the MAC — usually by huge margins.

Yes, the Rockets played well. And the Buckeyes not only were without seven suspended players but lost two other starters (defensive lineman Nathan Williams and receiver Corey “Philly” Brown) to injuries. Ohio State”s coaches and players don”t know if either will be back for the game against the Hurricanes.

Besides being short-handed, there were other problem areas. The Buckeyes netted just 112 yards on the ground, quarterback Joe Bauserman was major mistake-free but largely ineffective (16 of 30 passing for 189 yards and a touchdown) and the defense frequently found itself chasing Toledo”s standout wide-out Eric Page along with tailback Adonis Thomas.

“We”ve got to learn from our mistakes,” said receiver Chris Fields, who flipped the game around by bringing back a 69-yard punt return just before the half. “It took us a while to warm up a bit. The defense stepped up in the second half. The offense, we need to look at the film to see what we can do better.”

The Hurricanes might not be able to learn much from watching video of the Buckeyes. Ohio State dominated throughout in a 42-0 win over overmatched Akron in the opener, then looked lost and out of synch for much of the Toledo game. Which Buckeyes team will show up on Saturday?

Miami coach Al Golden, whose team opened with a 32-24 loss to Maryland before getting last weekend off, lamented that his team “had to show every card we had” to the Buckeyes in the game with the Terrapins.

“Ohio State didn”t have to show too much” in a season-opening win over Akron, Golden said. And he suspected the same would hold true with the film from the Toledo game.

“We really don”t have any material to go on,” Golden said Friday when asked if having a bye week to get ready for Ohio State would be an advantage for Miami. “We don”t know what they”re doing. They obviously have some suspensions they”re trying to work through too.”

The Buckeyes will be without four prominent players suspended for the first five games for taking cash and other improper benefits, and likely will not have three other top players who the NCAA has held out of the first two games. Before Saturday”s game, Ohio State athletic director Gene Smith said he was “not confident” that the three players — tailback Jordan Hall, cornerback Travis Howard and safety Corey “Pittsburgh” Brown — would be cleared to make the road trip.

Fickell was asked if his team felt crippled by all the missing players.

“We”re not going to dwell on it. We”re not going to look at that,” he said. “We never feel sorry for ourselves. We”re not looking for pity. The next guy”s got to step up. That”s what we said on the sideline. Adversity”s going to happen whether it”s a situation off the field or on the field.”

Miami has also been hammered by NCAA suspensions after revelations that former booster and convicted Ponzi scheme architect Nevin Shapiro doled out gifts to players. A dozen players had to make charitable donations after the NCAA and the university determined they had taken money or gifts from Shapiro. Five players, including starting quarterback Jacory Harris, were suspended for the Hurricanes” opener but will be available when the Buckeyes come to town. Three other players will not be eligible again until October.

None of the Buckeyes expect Miami to be any less aggressive, intimidating or confident because of the scandal that”s rocked the program. After all, Ohio State — perhaps more than anyone — knows what the Hurricanes have been going through.

“Miami will give us their best shot. They”re not going to sit there,” tailback Carlos Hyde said. “They”re going to hit us. We”ve got to be ready.”

W ith his boyish good looks, Ohio State placekicker Drew Basil could pass for a high school sophomore instead of a college sophomore. That”s a striking departure for the Buckeyes, who had grown accustomed in recent years to having kickers who lugged around Golden Buckeye cards.

Basil is replacing Devin Barclay, a former professional soccer player who finished his OSU career almost as old (27) as some of the coaches on the staff. A couple of years before Barclay, there was Ryan Pretorius, the ex-pro rugby player from South Africa. He was 29 when he booted his last field goal through the uprights.

Basil is a relative kid by comparison.

“I feel comfortable,” the former All-Ohioan from Chillicothe said. “Everybody else is about my age.”

Other than sharing the same specialty, Basil has one other thing in common with Pretorius and Barclay. His athletic endeavors have not been limited to kicking a football. He also played soccer and was a three-year letterman on the high school bowling — that”s right, bowling — team.

“Over the summer a bunch of us would go bowling every Tuesday and sometimes on Thursdays, whenever it was college night and it was only a dollar a game,” Basil said. “I never thought I”d do as well as I have. It”s just relaxing to me.”

Basil is more interested in bowling than Buckeye fans.

He got only two opportunities to kick field goals in the 2010, and both were the equivalent of gutter balls.

In fairness to Basil, he was basically set up to fail from distances that would test even a senior All-American. His first attempt, a 52-yarder, came in the season opener against Marshall. The other was from 53 yards against Indiana.

Both kicks were blocked. Marshall returned its rejection for its only touchdown in a 45-7 rout.

Welcome to college, Drew.

“It was a learning point,” Basil said. “There are moments in your career where you have to learn, and those were my moments.”

Running backs coach Dick Tressel, older brother of ousted Ohio State head coach Jim Tressel, has been named special teams coordinator by new head coach Luke Fickell. Tressel admits Basil was put into some tough spots in 2010 as a true freshman.

“We asked Drew to be a ”special role” guy and he did that,” Tressel said. “We wanted him to kick long field goals and kick off and that, for a while, was not in his best interest when you”re trying to kick it as hard as you can every time.

“It”s taken him a while to get back to kicking well like he kicks every time.”

Basil handled most of the kickoffs in the 2010 season. His leg really got a workout in the 73-20 romp against Eastern Michigan. He kicked off 13 times in that game, with three touchbacks. He was special teams player of the week for those efforts and after the 38-14 win against Penn State.

Now entrusted with being an offensive threat as well, Basil came through in the Aug. 20 jersey scrimmage, converting four of his five field goals.

“It could have been a better day,” he said, “but all in all, I was happy with how I performed.”

So was Dick Tressel.

“Bang, bang, his kicks were high and long,” Tressel said. “He wasn”t trying too hard. He”s really a tremendous asset for this offense and he”s overcome the challenge we gave him last year.”

Someday, maybe we”ll see Basil on the Pro Bowlers Tour.

Or, if things go well with this kicking gig at Ohio State, in the Pro Bowl.

The Ohio State University has submitted its formal response to the NCAA’s Notice of Allegations received by the university on April 21 related to specific questions involving Ohio State’s football program and the actions of its former head football coach, Jim Tressel. Tressel also has submitted his own formal response as requested by the NCAA.

Additionally, Tressel and the university today announced an agreement under which Tressel will change his previously announced resignation to a retirement. The agreement also ends and resolves any issues arising out of Tressel’s employment with Ohio State. Tressel and the university believe this agreement is reasonable and in the parties’ best interests.

Regarding today’s announcement, Tressel said, “I take full responsibility for my mistakes that have led to the ongoing NCAA inquiry and to scrutiny and criticism of the football program. I am grateful for this opportunity to retire from the university that I so deeply respect and that I will continue to support.”

In its response to the NCAA, the university addresses the NCAA’s specific allegations and also highlights steps the university has already taken, including:
• Suspending five players for the first five games of next season;
• Accepting Tressel’s resignation;
• Vacating the football program’s wins in the 2010 season, including its Sugar Bowl victory in January 2011;
• Self-imposing a two-year NCAA probation; and
• Implementing additional measures to enhance the university’s already extensive monitoring, educational and compliance programs.

Commenting on today’s filing, Athletics Director Gene Smith said, “We are fully cooperating with the NCAA, and we look forward to working together to bring a resolution to these current matters. Throughout the entire process since we discovered possible infractions, Ohio State has consistently acted to investigate any allegation, self-report its findings to the NCAA, communicate transparently about its findings, and take necessary remediation steps. Now, consistent with the direction set by our Board of Trustees, we are taking a very hard look on our own at all aspects of our athletic programs to identify and implement improvements designed to ensure that we uphold the highest ideals of honor and integrity.

“Throughout this time, we are also refocusing the entire athletics program on doing what we do best – representing our great university and its values well. We are proud that among our many positive accomplishments this year, our athletics program as a whole involved a record 523 scholar-athletes; 201 student-athletes earned degrees; and Ohio State finished second in the Division I Learfield Sports Directors’ Cup, the highest finish in our history,” concluded Smith.

Smith said that Ohio State continues to work closely with the NCAA to review information concerning potential violations, including issues publicly raised subsequent to the university’s self-reporting on December 19, 2010, that resulted in the NCAA’s Notice of Allegation.

Additionally, the university will have no further comment on specific allegations.

A copy of Ohio State’s response to the NCAA Notice of Allegations and other related documents are available at http://www.osu.edu/news/ncaadocs