By the time he was a freshman at Olentangy High School, Kyle Takavitz had heard enough about Ohio State's football team. It was fun being a Buckeye fan until then.

        “Just living around it my whole life, I guess you could say I got sick of them,” said the University of Cincinnati's starting left tackle. “I just kind of enjoyed all of college football at that point.”

        Today, at Paul Brown Stadium, Takavitz gets a chance to face his hometown team.

        “I've been looking forward to it all summer,” the 6-foot-4, 299-pound sophomore said. “Now that it's time to focus on them, it's been fun just watching them on film and knowing that I'm going to get a chance to play them.”

        TURF WAR: The grass at Paul Brown Stadium was a hot topic amongst the San Diego Chargers after their season opener against the Bengals, with several players criticizing the turf, saying “big chunks of grass” were coming up.

        Ohio State and Cincinnati players and coaches downplayed any concerns this week.

        “I haven't heard much about it,” UC coach Rick Minter said. “If they want to move the game (on campus) to Nippert, that'd be all right with us, if they've got concerns about their footing.”

        Said Buckeyes coach Jim Tressel: “I wasn't that aware of it. You can't worry about things that you have no control over. The Buckeyes and the Bearcats are going to be playing on the same turf. I'm sure the groundskeepers there are working as hard as they can.” The grass was covered by late Friday afternoon because of rain, prompting OSU to cancel a scheduled workout. The Bearcats went to Paul Brown Stadium, walked around the field and locker rooms briefly, held a team meeting and left.

        CAN'T WAIT: Richard Hall doesn't know how much he'll play today, but the UC running back sure is eager to get on the field.

        The former Wyoming High School star attended Ohio State in the fall of 2000 but never practiced or played with the football team. He left OSU and enrolled at UC last fall, redshirting the 2001 season.

        “I'm excited,” he said. “It's going to be a big game for me regardless of what I say.

        “I couldn't play for them, but I could play against them. I've got a lot of friends up there. I have a lot of respect for those guys.”

        A LITTLE INSIGHT: If Joe Daniels could do anything for Ohio State this past week, it was provide a good scouting report on some of the Bearcats. The Buckeyes' quarterbacks and receivers coach was a UC assistant from 1997-2000 and was the team's assistant head coach and offensive coordinator in 2000.

        Tressel said Daniels is familiar with maybe half of Cincinnati's players, but “I think he can be a guy that helps the reality of what we're up against. He can add to the respect that needs to be there and should be there and validate it.

        “If you know Joe Daniels, he's the kind of guy that has great respect for everyone in this game and most especially for a group of kids who he knows how hard they play and what the game of football means to them.”

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