Monday August 20, 2012 year: 132 No. 80
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thelantern No. 18 OSU football survives hell week
sports
Pat Brennan Sports editor brennan.164@osu.edu
Battling it out
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Some members of the OSU football team are jockeying for starting positions in the upcoming season.
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Ohio State football players faced eight practices during a week that coach Urban Meyer said would “make or break” his squad. By week’s end, both players and coaches looked worn. At the conclusion of Friday’s morning practice, and with just one more session remaining in Meyer’s version of hell week, Buckeye players jogged to the Woody Hayes Athletic Center locker room drenched with sweat. Other players didn’t even bother going inside — they hopped into giant tubs of ice water in the parking lot and submerged themselves. Meanwhile, cornerbacks coach Kerry Coombs wheezed his way through a press conference with a hoarse voice and wide receiver coach Zach Smith dripped sweat on anyone standing close enough. Between deep breaths for air, the coaches made this much clear: Their players met expectations during the hardest week fall camp had to offer. With the passage of that grueling week, there also came an acknowledgement that Meyer’s OSU program is improving as the Buckeyes were voted No. 18 in The Associated Press’s first Top 25 poll of the 2012 season Saturday, ending a 49-week absence from the poll. OSU is the only team in the Top 25 who finished with a record below .500 last season. Despite straining to raise his voice, Coombs said he felt that he was taking part in the hardest and most physically demanding camp he had ever seen, adding, “I think the kids are surviving and that that’s an awesome thing.” Smith agreed, saying there was no comparison between spring practices and fall camp. “When you have two-a-days, it’s very different than spring football,” Smith said. “The weight room and things like that. You really see a kid’s true colors on a football field (in fall).”
Andrew Holleran / photo editor
OSU football coach Urban Meyer gives directions during the team’s Aug. 6 fall practice at the Woody Hayes Athletic Center. Stan Drayton, a coaching holdover from the Jim Tressel and Luke Fickell regimes, who was moved from receivers coach to running back when Meyer arrived at OSU, said the running backs and the team at large “attained their purpose” during the week. “(The players) answered the bell. They knew it was going to be a tough week,” Drayton said. “I really liked the way our team approached the field (Friday). They had a purpose in mind and … we went hard.” Drayton happens to be overseeing one of the few true position battles in OSU’s team — the running backs under his tutelage are jockeying for position on the depth chart as senior running back Jordan Hall, who suffered a deep cut and a torn ligament
from stepping on a piece of glass in June, could miss multiple games during the non-conference portion of the Buckeyes’ schedule. The running backs weren’t alone in competing in the midst of the mental and physical drudgery of three two-a-day practices as senior tight end-turned-tackle Reid Fragel competed with freshman Taylor Decker for a starting job at right tackle. Meyer called the competition at the right tackle position between Fragel and Decker a “battle,” and Fragel said he has benefitted tremendously from the two-a-day practices as the battle raged on during the toughest week of fall camp. “I’m a guy that likes to get out there and gets reps at something rather than look at something on paper and try to learn, so, obviously having two practices in one day really helps me out,” Fragel said. Fragel, also dripping sweat, agreed with his coaches, saying that his teammates responded to the pressure Meyer applied in the training sessions. “I feel like we’re starting to gel,” he said. With the toughest week of camp in the team’s rearview mirror, it might be gelling at exactly the right time considering the high expectations that have been set for OSU, which lost seven games last season. Sixty Associated Press writers from around the nation voted OSU into the No. 18 slot in their first college football poll of 2012. The Buckeyes return to the poll for the first time since the week of Sept. 11, during the 2011 season. By the next week, OSU fell from the poll for the first time in nearly seven years after the then-No. 17-ranked Buckeyes’ 24-6 Sept. 17 loss at Miami (Fla.). The drought from a national ranking spanned the rest of the 2011 season, and 49 weeks — or 11 months and 10 days — in total. OSU will put its most recent national ranking on the line Sept. 1 against Miami University (Ohio) at Ohio Stadium. Kickoff is set for noon.
Some freshmen scramble to find housing
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Kristen Mitchell Campus editor mitchell.935@osu.edu When Christopher Radebaugh, a first-year in physics, received a university email telling him housing was full, he panicked. “I didn’t know where I was supposed to find off-campus housing. There’s an Ohio State branch in my hometown and I almost transferred there,” he said. Radebaugh lives near the OSU-Lima branch. Students coming to campus know they’re going to have to make a lot of adjustments, but on June 27, some freshmen students who had forgotten or neglected to fill out their housing contracts with the university received an email that told them they might not have a place to live at OSU. The email said on-campus residence hall housing had reached its capacity for the 2012-2013 school year. All students who had completed their contracts had been slated for university housing at this point. The email from the Office of Housing Services under university residences and dining services said that all campus housing options had been fully committed. “Unfortunately, due to scheduled renovations to three housing facilities for the 2012-2013 academic year, on-campus housing availability is
exceptionally reduced,” the email said. “Because of high demand for on-campus housing, we are no longer able to offer or accept on-campus housing contract submissions.” The three housing facilities mentioned are Steeb Hall, Smith Hall and Siebert Hall. Historically, these residence halls have housed a significant number of students, primarily freshmen. The email suggested that students search for other living arrangements in the off-campus area, and reach out to the Off-Campus Student Services for help. Finding housing in the off-campus area has somewhat of a competitive nature, and many upperclassmen students sign leases six months or more before they move in at the start of each academic year. The high demand for off-campus housing, and leases signed months prior to even their acceptance to the university, left these students with few options. The email offered students a place on the on-campus housing waiting list, but was not confident they could accommodate students, despite the anticipation of possible housing cancellations. “Please be aware that we are not hopeful that we will be able to use the waiting list, so we would strongly advocate for you to begin your search for off-campus housing as soon as possible,” the email said. While three dorms are closed
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Daniel chi / Asst. photo editor
for renovations this year, the newly renovated Park-Stradley Hall reopened, and the new 10th Avenue residence hall and Gateway Residence Halls in the South Campus Gateway, which were previously off-campus apartments, were purchased by the university. The
LINDSEY BARRETT Copy chief barrett.684@osu.edu
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Brutus the Buckeye cooks out with incoming OSU students living at Taylor Tower on Sunday, Aug. 19.
Lantern reported in October 2011 that the 10th Avenue residence hall would accommodate 510 students when it opened. Dave Isaacs, communications and media relations manager of Student
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OSU to welcome freshmen to campus, city
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Brutus grills out as students move in
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Freshmen students are scheduled to take buses to Nationwide Arena downtown after Convocation at St. John Arena.
In past years, freshmen have spent their first full day at Ohio State at St. John Arena for Convocation, followed by a walk through Ohio Stadium. But for the first time, the students are scheduled to take a field trip downtown for a welcome into the city. Monday morning, 100 Columbus City School buses are scheduled to make two trips to transport more than 7,000 first-year students to Nationwide Arena. The class of 2016 will hear from Columbus Mayor Michael Coleman and other prominent community leaders about the opportunities that exist off campus. Javaune Adams-Gaston, vice president of Student Life at OSU, said the university’s first year on semesters was the right time to add the trip downtown to the Welcome Week event schedule. “We had brainstormed with President (E. Gordon) Gee and Alex Fischer of the Columbus Partnership and just thought this would be a great year. With the semester conversion, with all the things that are going on, with all the transformations, this would be a great year to start that transition,” Adams-Gaston said. Adams-Gaston said the trip to the Arena District is meant to be an annual event for freshman students, and that it is only the beginning of a continued
collaboration with the city to keep students engaged in the community. OSU is partnering with more than 37 organizations to make the trip possible, including the City of Columbus and the Columbus Partnership. Neither the cost of busing, nor whether OSU will be paying for it, is known at this time, said Amy Murray, spokeswoman for the university. Busing will begin at 11:45 a.m. following Convocation at St. John Arena and Ohio Stadium. The program downtown will begin at 2:15 p.m., and students will return to campus by 3:30 p.m. for the Student Involvement Fair. Students remain divided on the value of the trip downtown. Leah Psellas, a second-year in biology, remembers going with her survey class to Convocation and feeling overwhelmed — both by the number of people in St. John Arena and the fact that she knew so few of them. She said the trip downtown might add too much to an already full day. “I just think it’s going to be a long day … and people will lose interest,” Psellas said. “And I can see people getting really impatient in the Stadium waiting for the buses.”
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