Silver Bullet Points

Laurinaitis: "I am proud to represent Buckeye Nation"

The Jr. Butkus Award winner ended all speculation and announced that he will return to play a final season at The Ohio State University. In what sounded like an emotional statement given to the Plain Dealer, the Buckeye captain says:

"I think we have an opportunity to do something special," Laurinaitis said. "You can't come back and want to do this or do that. We have to go through the same process we do every year. It's going to be hard for us this year. Last year we came in under the radar. Other people didn't have much confidence in us but we knew we had a solid team. Now every big game, everyone is going to start doubting us again and we have to be mentally tough and that starts with this offseason."

Though mid-season reports hinted at this surprising decision, it was pretty much a general assumption that Laurinaitis would have left after his sophomore season if he could. Now it seems certain that the skinny freshman who was baptized by fire in the 2005 Michigan game will leave Ohio State as the most decorated--didn't say "best"--linebacker in OSU history.

Consider that lil' Animal (a nickname I personally dislike but employ because it's a lot easier to spell than Laurinaitis) has already earned the Nagurski and Butkus awards, as well as back-to-back All-American team selections; what's left but a huge National Championship-style rock on his hand?(See:Fergie)