What It's Like Before An Ohio State Game

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- What's brewing today with the 2009 Ohio State Buckeyes ...

BUCKEYES BUZZ: K Aaron Pettrey gives us a glimpse inside the locker room just moments before the Buckeyes take the field.

"It's real calm. Everybody's getting ready. They'll have their iPods on, doing their own thing - whatever they need to do to get ready. Then we'll have a few guys say something, maybe like Doug (Worthington) or Thad (Gibson), and then coach (Jim Tressel) will give us a little speech and we'll be ready to go."

A typical Tressel speech: "He starts out calm, and then he'll get a little fiery by the end. They usually just talk about different things that we've talked about leading up to the game throughout the week. There isn't one (speech) that really sets out. There isn't much I remember. I'm usually just getting ready to go, just going through my own stuff.

The effect: "After the prayer and coach Tressel's speech, people are ready to go. They're yelling and everybody's getting pumped up. It's pretty electric after that."

HE'S BACK: WR/KR Ray Small, who missed the opener due to an unspecified sickness, was at practice on Tuesday night. He will most likely see time returning punts, in addition to playing wide-out.

NO FLU IS GOOD FLU: Wisconsin and Mississippi's teams have been hit hard by the H1N1 virus, also known as the swine flu, this week. An Ohio State spokeswoman said the Buckeyes have had no such problems.

Hand sanitizer stations are attached to the new recycling bins installed around the stadium. In an e-mail, a spokeswoman for the university said "we are encouraging anyone that is ill to stay home and watch the game on TV."

QUOTE OF THE DAY: Some of the Buckeyes don't get it that USC regularly plays in large, forbidding places not much more welcoming than Ohio State's "Horseshoe."

"It definitely fires you up when you're underdogs in your own place," TE Jake Ballard said. "Of course, the guys on USC, they've never been to a place like the 'Shoe before."

Over the past two years they've played at UCLA, Oregon, Notre Dame, Washington, Arkansas and in three Rose Bowls.

TICKET REMINDERS: Ohio State officials want to remind the public about the following ticket matters:

- General will-call windows are located at the Schottenstein Center's Southeast Rotunda (not at Ohio Stadium) and will be open at 2 p.m. Saturday.

- Individuals needing to exchange their tickets because of wheelchair or other disability needs are encouraged to go to the Schottenstein Center to make those changes on Thursday or Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. to avoid long lines.

- Tickets purchased from unauthorized sources may not be valid and in such case will receive an invalid scan at the gates. Guests with an invalid scan will have no recourse and will not be permitted to enter the stadium.

- The Ohio State ticket office does not accept nor hold "second party" tickets. If you have tickets in hand and will be giving them to someone else, make arrangements to do so that do not include leaving them at a will-call window.

- Ohio Stadium gates will open at 6 p.m.