Often the difference between a good football season and a great one comes down to one or two plays. An injury here, a bad bounce there, maybe a little light marijuana trafficking here and there.

Following the early departure of one of the most gifted and dominant, albeit fragile, running backs in college football, one of the big questions for the Buckeyes heading into 2009 is the running back position. It’s Boom Herron’s job to lose and very murky after that.

The only other running back likely to see much of the field is Brandon Saine, but despite loads of potential, injuries and inconsistency have kept Saine from producing results.

The status of incoming Freshman Jamaal Berry is uncertain after his marijuana possession charge was knocked down to a misdemeanor. Assuming he doesn’t make any further missteps, he’ll at best be digging out of a hole for the first few months on campus.

Now word comes that the other highly-touted incoming Freshman Running Back Carlos Hyde isn’t going to be part of the 2009 Buckeyes because of academic issues.

The truth is in Tressel’s offense Freshmen running backs don’t see the field much anyways because of the emphasis placed on blocking assignments. That fact probably would hold true even more so this year with the expectations that Terrelle Pryor will be running the ball more himself.

Still, should either Herron or Saine go down because of injury or other issues, the offense could be in serious trouble. That lack of depth is a serious problem for any team, but especially for a team that relies so heavily on running the football. It will be something to watch during the season- a season that I can’t wait to get started.

You’re welcome.

$17,948,518 to be exact. That’s a facelift number that would make Joan Rivers blush (if the blood vessels in her face still worked that way).

As part of the stimulus package, a website was required to be created so that taxpayers could monitor the debt as it piled up day by day. That website is Recovery.gov. The website is operational; it’s fancy; in fact it’s far more complex and costly than this very website you’re reading right now (hard to believe, I know).

All Recovery.gov really needs to be is a couple of headlines and then a downloadable Excel file with all the stimulus spending data in it (Visicalc or Lotus 1-2-3 files for MAC users).

Instead, and as further proof that government shouldn’t be trusted with much more than changing a toilet paper roll, the GSA announced yesterday that they’ve awarded an $18 million contract to revamp the Recovery.gov website.

“Recovery.gov 2.0 will use innovative and interactive technologies to help taxpayers see where their dollars are being spent,” said James A. Williams, Commissioner of GSA’s Federal Acquisition Service. “Armed with easy access to this information, taxpayers can make government more accountable for its decisions.”

Memo to Mr. Williams- thank you for letting us see where our dollars are being spent- $18 million on a website. That’s clarity. I can only hope that “Moderate and/or Fake Conservative Voter 2.0″ will vote a Republican into office in 2012.

You’re welcome.