Welcome back to what we like to called he Ruckus, but only because this segment of the site leads to lively discussion and debate, not because anyone is trying to shake up the world.

In this third installment, editor Jeff Rapp sits down with Stu Mason, a longtime central Ohio radio reporter and editor of the new area-sports website MegaSportsNews.com

Rapp and Mason have been covering the Ohio State football team for two decades and this fall should be one to remember as the Buckeyes already are being tabbed as a top-five team. They delved into the outlook for OSU this offseason after putting the team under the microscope during the spring practice session.

We pick up their discussion at the Woody Hayes Athletic Center.

Rapp: Stu, you mentioned you think this is a national championship-type schedule. Why?

Mason: Any time you have eight home games and you’ve got four road games … they’re all long trips, Jeff, because they go to Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota and Iowa, but you’ve got Penn State here at home. If you take care of your home games, the road games take care of themselves. It’s still going to be tough with going to Wisconsin and Iowa but I still think they can make a championship run.

If they let Terrelle (Pryor) play the way they did in that bowl game, this team is going to score a lot of points.

Rapp: I would agree with that to a point, but I’m a little skeptical. Maybe I’m putting too much into a jersey scrimmage (Mason laughs) and that may not have a lot to do with November. But I am really concerned with their lack of depth offensively.

Can you really expect to go through a 12-game season crossing your fingers that Terrelle Pryor never gets hurt, that somebody emerges other than (DeVier) Posey and (Dane) Sanzenbacher? You may need another tight end, you may need another fullback. And then we’ve known for years that this offensive line is not as deep as they’d like it to be.

Am I putting too much on that or what do you think?

Mason: No, I saw some of the same things you saw in the jersey scrimmage. The offensive line looks kind of shaky. And you’re right, they don’t have a lot of depth. And you always worry about your No. 2 quarterback. Is (Kenny) Guiton ready? Is (Joe) Bauserman ready?

I tell you what, from what I saw of Guiton this spring, he looks a lot better. Bauserman is still kind of shaky.

Rapp: Yeah, he is shaky. And Guiton is still a little mistake-prone. I don’t know if they can use him and really unleash him. If we ever saw him out there in a must-win, tight game they probably wouldn’t ask him to do much anyway. So maybe he would be OK.

I don’t know how to feel about left tackle because I think that’s such a huge, key position when we’re talking about the blind side and all that, but I almost like that there’s competition there, that (Mike) Adams is playing well and looking like he’s finally getting it but that Andy Miller is the type of kid who deserves to play, too, and isn’t just going to give it up.

Normally I would say that you absolutely have to have an anchor point over there, so maybe you disagree with that, that you don’t like that there is still competition going on there.

Mason: It’s good anytime that you have competition and you’re right, that’s Terrelle’s blind side. You have to have somebody over there who can block the speed rushers. Mike Adams, he’s deserving. Andrew Miller, like you said, he’s deserving. I’m surprised thus far that Mike Adams hasn’t solidified himself on the offensive line. Are you kind of surprised by that?

Rapp: Yeah, I am with all his natural talent. But you’ve got to practice well and you’ve got to show hunger, and I’m not sure that’s been there until maybe just now.

Mason: And I think Coach (Jim) Tressel is one of those coaches where if you don’t show hunger in practice, how can you expect him to put you in the game?

Rapp: Yeah. Is he just going to shrug if the quarterback gets his head taken off? Because you can’t have that.

Mason: No, you can’t because that’s his blind side and they’re going to try to come from that side, especially if they know you’ve got a weak link over there. But it is good to have competition. But you also kind of need somebody who can slide across that offensive line like they had last year and that can play any of those positions, and maybe one of those guys is that player.

Rapp: I’ve got to ask you this, too, because you’ve covered the team as long as I have and yet I still I still don’t know what the correct answer to this question is. They have, what, four, five six guys who are capable of taking handoffs? I don’t know if I can equate this to a year since, what, 1991? Are we going into the way-back machine here?

They had (Butler) By’not’e. Ironically that year they did not have Robert Smith, but you had Raymont (Harris) and I think Dante Lee was around that year. There were a lot of tailbacks then who were capable of playing and I’m seeing that this year, too. Is that good or bad? Because you’ve got to have a hot hand when you need it. Spending eight weeks and part of every game looking for that hot hand, can you do that?

Mason: Well, you can’t ever have enough running backs because that’s a position where you get a lot of injuries, as we saw. When (Dan) Herron went down they still had (Brandon) Saine and these other guys. And (Jermil) emerged last year. I didn’t know what he was capable of. He seems to have a lot of Keith Byars in him, especially wearing No. 41.

But we really haven’t seen Jaamal Berry, and I hear he’s just as good as any one of them.

Rapp: Well, he’s been a little fumble-prone this spring but he’s definitely got some shake.

I just always go back to this: This is Ohio State. I expect them to have good linebackers. I expect them to compete. I expect them to have good athletes in the secondary, a good kicking game with Jim Tressel here and good skill people. That’s every year. To me, once again, it’s just offensive line. I don’t even care who the running back is, just open holes for the guy.

Do you look at this line and feel this is a championship line? Because let’s face it, if you’re talking about national championship … now I don’t know in 2002 if I would have said at the beginning of the year that was a championship line but, by God, at the end of the year they played like one. In the bowl game, by the way, they had a true freshman at left tackle in Rob Sims. I was down there on the sideline for that game and I’m telling you Miami’s defense, which Vince Wilfork and guys who are still in the NFL, were having trouble getting around these guys. Do you see that kind of capability with this offensive line? Because I don’t know if I see it.

Mason: Jeff, if you remember the Purdue game from last year we saw a lot of mistakes in that game and we were all thinking this team is not going to win the Big Ten again. And then all of a sudden when the November schedule came around they just steamrolled everybody and looked good …

Rapp: They ran the ball.

Mason: They ran the ball, they steamrolled people. If we can see that again starting out … you can’t wait until November. You’ve got to do it from the beginning in the very first game against Marshall. Yeah, I think they’ll be OK. I think Coach (Jim) Bollman can get those guys going with this schedule.

Rapp: With this schedule, can you have a Purdue-like slip-up and expect to be in the national championship game?

Mason: No, not with this schedule.

Rapp: We had two 13-0 teams in the title game last year. I didn’t think we’d ever see 14-0 again, but we just did last year with Alabama. Can Ohio State slip-up at Minnesota, say, and think they are going to go to that game?

Mason: Well, remember the one year (2007) they had the one loss and they made it to the title game. I didn’t expect they were going to do it that year but things shook out for them to go.

Rapp: They sure did. Hell, it almost happened in ’98 after losing in November.

Mason: Right. I just think with this schedule it can’t happen. You’ve got some creampuffs on this schedule and you can’t afford it. You can’t have any Purdues. The thing of it is, though, I wasn’t so surprised about Purdue beating them last year, because when Purdue came to play they were pretty good last year. But when you look at the Buckeyes’ talent and you look at Purdue’s, no, they shouldn’t have a slip-up like that.

That was an aberration game. I’m sure you were sitting up in that press box like myself thinking, “What is going on here?”

Rapp: Yep. If you would’ve started the game over it would have never happened that way again.

Mason: I think they had a touchdown called back. It’s just that swing of momentum. It can hurt or help. But this team cannot have that again, especially with the BCS set up the way it is. You just never know what they are going to do.

Rapp: Are you concerned about the kicking game? For some reason, I’m not, and yet I haven’t seen enough of Ben Buchanan or Devin Barclay to sit here and say for sure that they are going to perform up to Ohio State’s standards.

Mason: I’ll tell you this: From what I’ve seen, I don’t know if we have any Aaron Pettreys or anybody who can kick 57-yard field goals. But Devin Barclay, he surprised us last year because when Pettrey went down it was like, “Oh, no. Tressel-ball is not going to work now.” (Rapp laughs)

But Barclay has shown a lot. And Ben Buchanan in the kick scrimmage has shown he’s got a nice leg. We just haven’t seen enough of him because he hasn’t played. It’s his turn now.

The punting situation I’m kind of concerned with, but the placekicking, no.

Rapp: Why can’t this team do well in returns? And even covering kickoffs.

Mason: That’s been a question for years with all this talent. You’ve got all this speed on this team. They could be starting every drive on the 35-yard line but they can’t even get past the 20 sometimes. Somebody has got to take the bull by the horns back there in the return game. They haven’t had anybody close to that basically since Teddy Ginn left.

Rapp: So in summary, if they do go 12-0 and get to that title game, will it be from having a dynamic, 2006-like offense and Heisman Trophy-like season from Terrelle Pryor or is it because of all the little things we’re talking about? Just improving here, improving there, not having a leaky offensive line, that kind of thing.

Mason: I think it will be a combination of all those things. Yes, you definitely have to have a Heisman performance from Terrelle Pryor but your running game has to be there, your blocking has to be there. You know the defense is going to be there. There are going to be some times they are going to steal some games. We’re going to see a game like we saw last year against Iowa where your kicking game and your special teams are going to win the game for you.

But this offense does have to score some points, because they’re going to play some games against some teams where they’re going to have to score. And when you go on the road you’re going to have to score on the road. You can’t just kick field goals all the time.