COLUMBUS, Ohio — No. 6 Ohio State should get tailback Maurice Clarett back for Saturday's Big Ten opener against Indiana. It remains to be seen if the Buckeyes will get back the swagger they had before nearly getting beat by Cincinnati last week.

        Clarett, the acclaimed freshman tailback with 471 rushing yards in Ohio State's first three victories, underwent arthroscopic surgery on his right knee eight days ago and watched the Buckeyes' 23-19 thriller from the sidelines Saturday at Paul Brown Stadium.

        Coach Jim Tressel said Tuesday that Clarett had done some running the day before.

        “It'll be interesting to see how far he comes today,” Tressel said. “Our trainers told us today they would call him 'probable.' Obviously, we'll see how probable that is as it goes.”

        Clarett wore his game jersey, silver shorts and a knee brace as he watched Ohio State survive four Cincinnati passes into the end zone from the Buckeye 15 in the last minute. Two were in the hands of receivers who dropped them.

        Clarett also watched Lydell Ross jump back into the tailback derby with both feet. Ross gained 130 yards on 23 carries as the Buckeyes barely remained unbeaten.

        “I wanted that 100-yard game right off the top. I wanted to break 100. I wanted to make an impact on the game, which I did,” Ross said. “I hadn't been able to get my rhythm going into the first three games. That was my chance, that was my opportunity.”

        Despite the running of Ross, the offense was erratic and the defense alternated between immovable and porous. The Buckeyes seemed oddly out of synch and unmotivated.

        Defensive end Darrion Scott, who turned the game around with a fumble-inducing hit on Cincinnati quarterback Gino Guidugli in the fourth quarter, said the players are mystified by why they lacked emotion.

        “It was like we weren't really thinking about Cincinnati,” he said. “We just had a bad ballgame.”

        Tressel said the Buckeyes lost their concentration.

        “I don't think we were at the top of our game from a focus standpoint,” he said. “Exactly why, I don't know. We certainly did not have our finest execution day. Most telling, we also didn't have our best decision-making day.”

        He pinpointed problems in almost every area for Ohio State: blocking, tackling, pass coverage, passing, catching, rushing and specialty teams.

        A year ago, Ohio State was coming off a narrow loss in its first road game of the year at UCLA when it traveled to Indiana. The Buckeyes struggled mightily with the Hoosiers before leaving with a 27-14 victory in the conference opener for both teams.

        Ross — stealing the thunder of starter Jonathan Wells — gained 124 yards on 25 carries and scored two touchdowns.

        Now the Buckeyes face numerous questions as they prepare for conference play — as do most of the teams in the Big Ten.

        The conference has a 31-13 record in non-conference games, but 16 of those wins came against the Mid-American Conference (11-0), Sun Belt (2-0), Southland (1-0), Gateway (1-0) and Atlantic 10 (1-0) conferences.

        In games against ranked opponents, Big Ten teams are 3-3.

        Tressel said he has only seen bits and pieces of two games involving conference teams, Michigan's victory over Washington and Penn State's lopsided win over Nebraska.

        “If you look at those two, I'd say the Big Ten's pretty good,” he said.

        As for where his team fits now that the preliminaries are out of the way, he's still trying to figure that out.

        “That's hard to tell,” he said. “I think that we've shown we can be a good football team when we do the things that good football teams do. I think we've got excellent talent and I think we're capable of being in the midst of that race.”

        Wide receiver Chris Vance said he had learned a lesson last week that could be carried over to the game against Indiana.

        “You never know what's going to happen in the Big Ten,” he said. “So we don't take anyone lightly.”

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