Tressel's Buckeyes vs. Non-Conference Opponents

Before I preview Ohio State's Sept. 13th date at USC in the LA Coliseum, let's look at Tressel's record vs. non-conference opponents, both in and out of the bowl season.

During Tressel's tenure at Ohio State (2001-present), the Buckeyes have the following records:
Overall non-conference record: 27-5 (.844 winning percentage)
Bowl Record: 4-3 (lost to South Carolina (2001, Outback), Florida (2006, BCS), and LSU (2007, BCS)

Tressel's other two losses to n0n-conference opponents came in a 13-6 loss to UCLA in 2001 and a 25-22 loss to Texas in 2005 in Columbus. In fact, the loss to Texas happens to be Tressel's only loss to a non-conference opponent at home in his seven year tenure.

Tressel's record vs. the Pac-10: 3-1 (2001 @ UCLA 6-13, 2002 vs. WSU 25-7, 2003 vs. UW 28-9, 2007 @ UW 33-14)

Analysis: If you take away Tressel's two non-conference losses in 2001 (which can fairly be considered a transition year), the only non-conference losses for Ohio State have come to top-tier teams such as Texas, Florida and LSU. The2008 USC Trojans definitely fall into that category. In fact, versus top-tier non-conference teams, you could argue that Tressel has really only won 2 games against top-tier non-conference opponents: the 2002 BCS NC Game vs. Miami and the 2006 #1 vs. #2 game vs. Texas. There may be some similarities between the 2006 game at Texas and this year's contest at USC. Texas in 2006 were breaking in Colt McCoy, who definitely made some firt-year mistakes. USC in 2008 will be breaking in Mark Sanchez, if his knee heals in time. In Ohio State's losses to Texas in 2005, Florida in 2006 and LSU in 2007, all three teams had very good to great quarterbacks (Vince Young, Chris Leak/Tim Tebow and Matt Flynn/Ryan Perrilloux).

Ohio State's hopes for the contest at USC on Sept. 13th comes in the fact that this will be Mark Sanchez's biggest game of his young USC career. If the Buckeyes can keep the mistakes to a minimum, they've got a chance to beat USC in LA.