Ohio State's A.J. Hawk, left, Mike Kudla and Jay Richardson celebrate Hawk's sack with a little over a minute to go in the first half against Miami University. (Michael Lehmkuhle, The Advocate) OSU's Ted Ginn Jr. trys to break the clutches of Miami University's Austin Spitler in the first quarter Saturday afternoon at Ohio Stadium. (Jason J. Molyet, Gannett News Service)

COLUMBUS -- It was a stunning admission from a football coach whose idea of looking ahead is picking out his game day sweater vest and tie ensemble the night before.

Asked after Ohio State's season-opening 34-14 drubbing of Miami when his thoughts turned to next week's prime-time invasion by No. 2 Texas, Jim Tressel identified with the fans who spilled out of Ohio Stadium early.

"Probably in the middle of the fourth quarter ... I'm not going to lie," Tressel said. "We wanted to think about it a lot, but we don't have that luxury like you (the media) do. But we're anxious to be part of a matchup like that. Shoot, we can't wait."

He might have been talking differently had Miami become the first in-state school to beat the Buckeyes since 1921. Upset hopes grew dim, however, when OSU jumped out to a 10-0 first quarter lead and died when strong safety Donte Whitner returned an interception 26 yards to make it 20-0 at halftime.

Saturday's only defensive touchdown was devastating to Miami and deja vu for Whitner.

"It happened the same way in our jersey scrimmage (a week earlier)," Whitner said. "But I made a mistake that day by signaling No. 1 with my finger when I scored. Coach Tressel told me not to do that.

"I was so tempted to do it again today because that pretty much put the game out of reach. When you're down 20-0 in our stadium, that's a pretty big deficit to come back from."

Even with victory assured, Whitner didn't begin locking in on the Longhorns anywhere near as soon as wide receiver Anthony Gonzalez.

"I started thinking about Texas on signing day," said the 2003 recruit out of St. Ignatius. "When I (verbally) committed my junior year, I was looking at that game on the schedule.

"We're not supposed to look ahead, but I couldn't help thinking about it. Once this game was under wraps, I started thinking that this place at night is going to be a sweet deal."

The 'Shoe looked pretty sweet Saturday, with Buckeye fans feasting on a smorgasbord of speed.

Gonzalez was one of four Buckeyes to catch five passes out of their high-flying spread attack. Santonio Holmes caught a 20-yard pass from Justin Zwick to open the scoring and Ted Ginn Jr., who accounted for 121 all-purposes yards on 11 touches, capped the fireworks show by hauling in a 42-yard TD strike from backup quarterback Todd Boeckman.

Zwick completed 17 of 23 passes for 155 yards and directed four scoring drives in his encore to last year's 33-7 rout of Oklahoma State in the Alamo Bowl. Whether he did enough to keep the job, Tressel didn't say.

Troy Smith, 4-1 as a starter last year, will be available to play against Texas after completing a two-game suspension for taking money from a booster.

"I can't worry about it. I'm just going to go out and prepare as if I'm the starter," said Zwick, repeating what he's said over and over since training camp opened.

"I tried to treat today like a real big practice by throwing the ball around and letting the guys make plays."

In a light post-game moment with reporters, Tressel was asked if a starting quarterback came to mind when his thoughts turned to Texas.

"Their starting quarterback? Vince Young will probably start, I'm guessing."

As for the long-brewing quarterback controversy on the home front, Tressel said, "That wasn't part of my thinking. I want you guys to have a mysterious weekend so when we get together again, we'll talk about it."

For now, Tressel would prefer to talk about the evolution of an offense that has put 97 points on the board in its last three games or a defense that sacked Miami quarterback Josh Betts five times and came within 2:29 of pitching a shutout.

The only real glitches were an ill-advised pass by Zwick that got picked off in the end zone and special teams fumbles by Ginn and freshman Malcolm Jenkins.

"We came in with a great game plan," said Betts, who threw for 250 yards. "They threw a lot at us defensively and that surprised us. The last few years they hadn't done as much in the first game."

Originally published Sunday, September 4, 2005