The lone returning starter from last year's corps is Ross Homan, a fourth year junior who saw limited action in his 2006 freshman season, took a medical redshirt in '07, and then took on a serious starting gig in 2008. Playing opposite tackle machines Marcus Freeman and James Laurinaitis, Homan finished 5th on the team in stops, with 67, six of which were tackles for a loss. Homan is not particularly big; 6'0" and 223 pounds puts him at large safety size, but he's a heat seeking missile with excellent play recognition skills, and he's a good season away from being another great Buckeye linebacker. Backing up Homan will be Brian Rolle and his gleaming white teeth. Rolle is a fan-favorite based mostly on his devastating hits in kick coverage, and could be the hardest hitter on the roster. Nevertheless, Rolle is still clearly struggling with some of the fundamentals; he's a junior who has seen limited action outside of the aforementioned special teams work.

Replacing James Laurinaitis is 5th year senior Austin Spitler, who is remembered chiefly by Buckeye fans for two boneheaded plays; one for running into Michigan's longsnapper in the epic '06 clash, giving the Wolverines a new set of downs, and another that may have actually determined the outcome of the game. I have a feeling Spitler doesn't want his legacy to look like this:

For those of you who have somehow forgotten, that is Spitler roughing LSU's punter in the '07 title game, at what was a rather critical juncture. LSU got a new set of downs following the penalty, and promptly scored to take an insurmountable lead.

Spitler is of comparable size to his predecessor James Laurinaitis, and saw plenty of action spelling the departed senior. He's about as close to a returning starter as one can get without actually being one. Personally, I think Spitler is a step slow. If you watch the Northwestern game, he is routinely tasked with covering receivers while spelling Laurinaitis and looks pretty bad doing it; he has recurrent problems with angles.  Some may be a little disappointed he beat out budding star Etienne Sabino, he of the Ray Lewis comparisons and choosing Ohio State over USC and whatnot. Watch him get asked a stupid question about Ohio State's lack of speed by some meathead ESPN blowhard here:

Sabino's biggest play of his freshman year occured on special teams against Purdue, with a punt being being blocked by the dearly departed Malcolm Jenkins, which Etienne subsequently returned for a touchdown - Ohio State's only touchdown of the game (one of the three touchdown-less games the offense went through in '08). I anticipate we will see a heavy bit of rotation here if Spitler struggles early.

The new starter on the strong side is probably the fastest of the three; Tyler Moeller is a converted safety and thus a little undersized for the position, but his speed is undeniable. In the spring game alone, he ran down Pryor from behind (though Pryor wasn't quite at full speed), and took down walk-on RB Marcus Williams despite being way, way - I'm talking acres, here - out of position to start the play on Williams' 94 yard run late in the game. Moeller is a bullet that will be giving opposing running games a lot of trouble, provided he is unblocked. Color me cautious when he's taking on blocks from 300 pound Big Ten tackles. Nevertheless, I like what I saw from him in the spring. Now, the spring depth chart has Tony Jackson, a walk-on from Westland backing him up, but ... expect that to change. One of either Andrew Sweat, Storm Klein, or Dorian Bell will probably be the backup come the Navy game, and regardless, I expect the rotation at this position to be the heaviest of any of the non-line positions on the team. Here is where the unknown quantities lie; Moeller is a mighty mite, Sweat came is as an inside guy, and Bell and Klein are true freshmen. I don't expect this position to be firmly wrapped up by anyone until midseason. This will probably end up being the most fun battle for playing time to watch on the team. I'll be pulling for Bell, because if his high school highlights are any indication, this guy is going to absolutely murdilate fools:

Hell hath no fury like Dorian Bell.

So how do I expect the group to differ from last year's? Well, Laurinaitis and Freeman were legends, so a bit of a drop-off is inevitable. However, there's a good chance this group be quicker, more athletic, and better in pass coverage than its predecessor. That being said, its general lack of size may raise some questions about its ability to stop the run consistently, especially against dynamic running offenses like Navy, Illinois, and Penn State. They'll be going through a murderer's row of rushing offenses to start the season in Navy, USC, and Illinois, so cross your fingers in this department.

Overall, there is nothing to suggest that this unit will be anything other than a solid Big Ten linebacking corps, perhaps even good enough to be the 2nd best in the conference behind Penn State's dynamite group. Their success or (relative) failure, however, may lay outside their control; with no Nader Abdallah, the defensive tackles are Todd Denlinger (meh), Dex Larimore (eh) and 270-pound senior Doug Worthington. If that unit doesn't coalesce fast, this corps will merely be very good.