COLUMBUS — The most improbable triumph two years ago for Ben St. John was not walking on to play football for Ohio State.

Continue Reading: St. John beats odds to be Buckeye

Defensive linemen John Simon and Garrett Goebel, fullback Zach Boren, linebacker Etienne Sabino and running back Jordan Hall have been selected in a team vote as No. 18 Ohio State’s captains for the 2012 season.

Coach Urban Meyer announced the captains at a team meeting Sunday night.

The five have combined for 185 games played and 74 starts with the Buckeyes, with four playing 39 career games apiece. Boren leads the group with 27 starts, while Simon has 26.

Simon becomes just the seventh two-time captain in school history and the first since James Laurinaitis was named captain in 2007 and again in 2008.

The Buckeyes, who completed two-a-day practices recently, open the season on Sept. 1 against Miami (Ohio).
 

Saturday’s release of the Associated Press preseason college football poll had the Ohio State Buckeyes ranked as the No. 18 team in the country.
Urban Meyer’s Buckeyes are, of course, banned from this year’s bowl season, which means they are subsequently banned from the USA Today coaches’ poll. But they are still eligible for the AP Poll this year.
Fans around the country got a better glimpse of the Buckeyes last week during ESPNU’s All-Access Training Days show, getting to know the players and coaches around Ohio State.
However, most of the things surrounding Ohio State’s ranking just barely inside the Top 20 are mostly what we don’t know.
We don’t know for sure what the new offense featuring Braxton Miller will look like.
We don’t know how much or how little OSU’s skill players, especially at the receiver positions, have improved. We also don’t know if the offensive line can improve after a disastrous 2011 season and losing three starters in the process.
What we do know is that Ohio…

Continue reading at Bleacher Report – Big Ten Football

ALLIANCE — A magistrate in northeast Ohio has found Ohio State running back Bri'onte Dunn not guilty of a disorderly conduct charge.

Continue Reading: Ohio State football player Bri'onte Dunn not guilty of disorderly conduct

When it comes to college football, Michigan and Ohio State have been at war since way before any of us were born.

Continue Reading: Respecting Ohio State: A Michigan Fan’s Take

Ohio State running back Bri’onte Dunn had his day in Municipal Court Friday, where a magistrate acquitted him of disorderly conduct.

Magistrate Jean Madden found the evidence insufficient after hearing from four witnesses, including Dunn, during a bench trial. The disorderly conduct charge was a minor misdemeanor and didn’t carry any jail time.

Madden found Dunn, 19, guilty of traffic violations involving license plate illumination and not wearing a seatbelt, for which she fined him $60 plus court costs.

The case stemmed from a July 28 incident when police stopped a car Dunn was driving after it allegedly almost hit a police cruiser at a blinking red light.

Police said they found a small amount of marijuana and a pipe in the car, which was registered to Dunn’s mother, and initially cited Dunn and his 18-year-old passenger for possession of marijuana and drug paraphernalia.

But a review of the evidence didn’t support those charges, according to the city Law Department, and Dunn was charged with disorderly conduct.

During Friday’s trial, Law Director Andrew Zumbar called three witnesses: Police officer Robert Rajcan; Dunn’s passenger that night, McKensey Cross; and Dunn’s mother, Donna Hatcher.

Cross, who pleaded no contest last week to disorderly conduct, said she and Dunn were both smoking marijuana.

Hatcher told the court the marijuana was in her car before she loaned the vehicle to her son, but said  she didn’t know how it got there, according to Zumbar.

When Dunn took the stand, he denied smoking marijuana, and defense attorney Eugene O’Byrne presented the results of a drug test showing Dunn was negative for marijuana and other drugs after the incident.

While that testimony concerned the circumstances of the traffic stop, the disorderly conduct charge was based on Dunn almost striking the police cruiser and then impeding the flow of traffic for about 25 minutes as police searched for marijuana.

Madden ruled that those facts were insufficient to support a conviction.

After the verdict, Zumbar said he wouldn’t ask Judge Robert Lavery to review Madden’s decision.

Dunn, a GlenOak High School graduate and standout football player, is a freshman at Ohio State.

A message was left Friday with O’Byrne seeking comment.