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Ohio State has to be driving fans from Michigan crazy. Or Penn State. Or Wisconsin. My preseason magazines said these three teams would be in the top 10 and all challenging for national title, let alone the Big 10 championship. If there was talk about the Buckeyes sniffing the conference crown this year, it was barely a whisper.

Michigan? Henne and Hart are coming back. They'll be unstoppable! (Until the first game of the season).

Penn State? Morelli and that defense are going to put it all together this year! (Until they play a team from the Big 10, then not so much).

Wisconsin? Hill and that offense will churn up yards and teams all season long? (The yards? Yes. Teams? Wow, can that Ron Zook recruit!).

Ohio State? Any one? Bueller? Let's see. Heisman Trophy winner gone. Top two receivers gone. Senior leadership a virtual vacuum.

But here the Buckeyes sit, the only undefeated team left in the league and No. 3 in the country. What's more, it's looking like Ohio State's toughest game will be the Nov. 10 date with Illinois (!) after the Silver Bullet defense made mincemeat of the conference's best offense at Purdue.

Halfway through the season and Michigan fans are still trying to figure out whether or not they have a decent team. Admit it Wolverines, The Game in November is already making your eyes twitch a little. Penn State fans are wondering when on earth JoePa will turn over the reins to someone with a clue about offense (my son's pee-wee team shows more imagination and competence). And Badger fans have found out that barely winning a season worth of games is extremely difficult to do...if your coach doesn't wear a sweater vest.

And how about the Buckeyes? Well, it turns out we really don't miss Mr. Heisman or those NFL first rounders....at all. Our running game was decent last year but we like the representation from the firm of Wells, Wells and Saine just fine, thank you very much.

Then there's the defense, which is statistically the best in college football right now.

Purdue had the best offense in the league statistically and managed one mop-up touchdown with 10 seconds left. Ohio State kept Curtis Painter and Company 224 yards below their average. They rushed for four yards. Total. Coach Joe Tiller, who has been doing this for a while, said the Buckeye linebacking corps is the best he's seen. Ever. Chimdi Chekwa, a back-up cornerback who - get this - started because one of the lineman was a little banged up, earned conference player of the week honors with 10 solo tackles.

Teams are averaging a touchdown a game against Ohio State and, for a point of reference, consider Northwestern. The team went on the road to Columbus last month and managed one touchdown on a kickoff return. Last weekend, the same Wildcat squad went to Evanston and scored 48 points against a Michigan State team coached by several former OSU coaches (who happen to wear national title rings, by the way).

This Buckeye D isn't just good. It's scary good. Malcolm Jenkins pulled the curtain back on the unit's motivation last week when he said that last year's defense was pretty good but had two horrible games at the end of the season. If you didn't catch that, these guys feel like they went 11-2 last year and have every intention of going undefeated this year. Through six games, they have the Jedi mind trick thing down to a science on opposing offenses.

The best part about this season (so far) is that Buckeye fans can feel good about the team and express it freely. After what happened against Florida last season, it's a guarantee this squad will not feel satisfied until all the games have been played...and quite possibly won.

Tags: big ten conference, ohio state football