One amazing quarter. And, overall, a solid debut for the No. 1 team in college football.

We probably didn’t learn a whole lot from Ohio State’s 35-12 thumping of Northern Illinois, but there were enough glimpses that I feel pretty good about the trip south this week to play the Texas Porterhouses. As I don’t want to get caught up in too much hype too soon — I have five more days to get that accomplished — let me offer just a few observations from Saturday:

• There’s been a lot of grousing about the fact that Troy Smith didn’t run against NoIll, and that when he did, he looked more like Bernie Kosar than Michael Vick. Uh, folks, he didn’t need to run on Saturday; I don’t remember him ever getting pressured. We’ll see plenty of Troy’s legs in Austin.
• I know Texas will have better cornerbacks that NoIll does, but I’m still hoping that one of the Porterhouses decides that he’s fast enough to press Ted Ginn at the line of scrimmage. Y’all know what burned beef smells like, right?
• This year’s defense may be faster than last year’s version. Its strength is the line, and if those boys can pressure Colt McCoy — and I’m betting we can make him a little more skittish than North Texas did last weekend — we may not have to worry as much about our inexperienced linebackers, corners and safeties.
• Our inexperienced linebackers, corners and safeties? They’re all pretty good, despite being young.

I’m sure I’ll have more to say about the Texas game this week, especially since I won’t be able to think about anything else by, say, lunchtime Tuesday. I’m not sure I’ll be able to get into any kind of deep analysis — we’ve got excellent sites like Buckeye Commentary for that — hell, I’m not sure I’ll be able to type complete sentences by this weekend. But I might have some more smack to offer.

So be sure to check back often. It should be entertaining, if not necessarily coherent.

* * *

A final note about this weekend. It appears that our friend Kristi will be giving birth to her second child at some point this week. You guys know by now that Kristi is as intense about Ohio State Football as Uncle Crappy. So, let’s all hope that A) that process goes well, and B) that it happens on, say, Thursday, so she can see the game.