1. There are Ohio State Buckeye fans that live in Cincinnati

2. Not everyone was excited about Ohio State stepping foot in the fertile recruiting grounds of Southwestern Ohio.

Ohio State Buckeyes take the field at Paul Brown Stadium in Cincinnati, Ohio.

“It’s great for the city,” said Bill Broxterman, public relations director for the Ohio State Alumni Club of Greater Cincinnati. “Sometimes Ohio State is an afterthought in this area. There’s a lot of competition here for sports attention. Ohio State is on the front page of your newspaper. It’s on page five of ours.”

700 WLW’s own, Lance McAlister, disagrees.  “I’ve always looked at this city as its own state, and we’re very protective of our state,” McAlister said, a Cincinnati native and host of the Sports Talk radio show on WLW-AM. “I always joke that there is a moat around this city, and if it happens outside the moat, the city doesn’t care. In this case, that’s clearly Ohio State. This city closes the borders to Columbus and Ohio State.”

Buckeye’s Head Coach, Urban Meyer made a guest appearance on McAlister’s show after national signing day in February.

“As soon as he hung up the phone, I had all lines full,” McAlister said. “You would have thought I lit a match and blew up the city of Cincinnati and set the river on fire. Callers were saying, ‘Why did you have him on? Why promote Ohio State football? How dare you do this?’ I thought I was going to have to protect myself.”

As for the game itself, Braxton Miller put on a show.  Completing 64 percent of his passes, for 217 yards and accounting for 3 touchdowns (2 passing, 1 rushing) – Buckeyes fans left excited about their Heisman Hopeful.  On the same token, there is definitely some concerns about the offensive line for the Buckeyes.

Jason Canterbury, a Cincinnati native and football enthusiast, was on hand at Paul Brown Stadium on Saturday.  He stated that, “the tackle positions are going to be a major concern for the Buckeyes.  Braxton was under heat all day long.  They may get away with that against some of the weaker schools on the schedule but it will catch up to them if they don’t get better really quick.  The SEC will be waiting if they make it to the National Championship Game and unfortunately, their defensive ends will terrorize Braxton all day.”

Possessing all four of the players who took the majority of reps with Ohio State’s first-team throughout spring practice, the Buckeyes’ Gray squad tallied nine sacks on Saturday.  Four of the nine sacks were tallied by Cincinnati and Taft High School’s own, Adolphus Washington. On Saturday, Washington stole the show by displaying plenty of promise as a key component in Ohio State’s front-four.

All in all – Braxton Miller led the Scarlet team to a 31-14 victory over the Gray squad.  With Miller under center, Ohio State will be the favorite to win the Big Ten Title this year… and if the chips fall right, they may wind up in the National Championship Game.  In order for that to happen though, the offensive line will need to keep Miller upright and healthy.  As seen on Saturday… that may be easier said than done.

Sam Hubbard, Moeller H.S.

“It was such an early process,” Hubbard said. “I made my decision in January of my sophomore year and that’s not really giving much thought to football. I hadn’t heard from many schools.

Hubbard, who will be on Ohio State’s campus Friday, has seen his recruitment explode in the last few weeks.  On the list of now interested football schools includes:  Boston College, Illinois, Louisville, Miami (Fla.), Miami (Ohio), Michigan, Michigan State, Ohio, Ohio State, Stanford and Duke.

Sam will be on campus this weekend for his first unofficial visit to Ohio State. “Ohio State has mentioned the opportunity to set up a meeting with the lacrosse coach, but I’ll probably just play football and see how my grades are doing from that point,” Hubbard said. “My mom hasn’t been on an [unofficial] visit to yet. The last time I went it was just me and my dad.

“My sister is a senior at Ohio State. She’ll tag along, too. I’ll be sitting down with Coach [Urban] Meyer and watching practice. I’m meeting with the president of the university, which will be cool, and getting to know everything better. It’s real exciting. I have a lot of people interested in me. I’m weighing all options.”

Playing free safety last season, Hubbard registered 75 tackles — seven for loss — forced two fumbles, intercepted two passes and also had a fumble recovery.