Well it's officially there. The big red bulls-eye on the back of our Buckeyes.

As I write this, the evening sun streams in my west facing office window and directly into my eyes. I only get that for a brief period in the summer when the sun is far into the northern sky. Much to my chagrin we have passed the summer solstice, the days are getting shorter already, and the sun is making a slow drift south as each evening it paints a brilliant sky. An outdoors guy, I dread this point in the summer, knowing that the days are getting shorter and my summer to do list is not shrinking nearly fast enough. As we all know though, the saving grace of giving up an endless summer, of facing autumn (and the not far behind winter), is the arrival of Buckeye football. It won't be long till the pop of the pads punctuates the coming chill in the air.

It's a ritual a hundred and nine years old. (Did leather pads pop?). In modern times, another ritual precedes it, that of the pundit's preseason predictions. As is expected, in several of them the Buckeyes are among the top of the heap. "Expectations are high in Columbus...," they write.

I wish they wouldn't use that word. At this keyboard, hope is high. Anticipation is high. Excitement is high. But expectations? Nay. Expectations and entitled both begin with e and in today's "e-world", nothing less than a BCS national championship seems to matter. I want to get back to the National Championship so bad I can taste it. I want to put a hurt on the SEC to shut them up. I want to quiet the critics in the national media who know not of what they write.

But expect it? Entitled to it? I played enough football in my days to know all it takes is a slip on a wet field, a crosswind as the kick goes up, a ball bouncing left instead of right, an inch here or a hand there.....and the season slips away. The only expectation we are entitled to is that Coach Tressel and the Buckeyes will still be in the hunt when the Wolverines come to town, and that they will give us their best and then some. I am confident by that measure that we will again be a winner. Anything beyond is the joy of the journey. Enjoy the coming trip and I hope to see you in Miami.