As with all Buckeye fans I am fired up for the start of the season and looking forward to what we all hope is a return to glory. That said I always look at the Bucks with a sense of where are the holes, the possible places we can get tripped up. With that in mind here are my areas of concern that could lead to a less than perfect season.

1) O Line - frankly put last years O Line was terrible by OSU standards. And especially so in the bigger games vs the tougher defenses. In the 7 games against the best defense we faced (UM, PSU, ND, Rut, MD and Wis and Mizzou - all ranked in the top 40 in Total Defense), OSU had the following rushing stats on a per game basis: 33.4 Atts for only 113 yards or 3.38 YPC and 1 TD,, Anyway you look at that, is terrible. Since we added only 1 guy to the O Line rotation we are effectively rolling with much of the same talent as last year,, have they improved, Time will tell

2) QB - neither Brown nor Keihholz impressed me last year. Howard does bring some dual threat ability which certainly may help with the #1 issue above making us more versatile. BUt Howard as a thrower has never been consistent in his career to date. For every game like he had last year vs Mizzou (270 yards and 3TDs) he also had games like vs Okie St (44% and 3 INTs) in back to back weeks. He has completed less than 55% of his passes in 5 of his last 15 games. And has thrown at least 1 INT in 9 of his last 13 games (total of 12 picks in 13 games) and completed just under 60% of his passes in his last 15 starts (59.8). I am not sure that running for 300-400 yards can make up for that level of passing. So does he improve as a passer this year given better coaching and another year of experience? again time will tell

3) TE - no top level proven pass catcher on the roster. I am sure Kacmarek will be a servicable all around guy. But even coaches say Thurman has been inconsistent and Scott has never been much more than a role player to date

4) Punter - to date we have heard very little about this position other than some brief mentions of consistency issues among the group. We have 4 Punters on the roster, but I believe only 1 on schollie and he is a freshman from Australia, who we have heard little about. If Punter becomes an issue it could come back to bite is at critical times.

5) LB depth - The starters will likely be fine, but there is not a ton of playing time in this group

Lastly RB) I know this sounds odd given who is on the roster, but Henderson has missed 8 of the last 22 games and played hurt and missed parts of games in others in that time, ie he is a durability concern. Yes Judkins seems to be a durable back, back lack of depth should Henderson get hurt again could be an issue.