NOTEBOOK | Tostitos Fiesta Bowl

Krenzel on Jenkins: Ohio State quarterback Craig Krenzel was effusive in his praise of receiver Michael Jenkins. "In my opinion, Michael Jenkins is one of the premier receivers in the country," said Krenzel. "He's [not] in a system where he's going to get 10, 12 catches a game, and some of his notoriety has suffered because of that. But there's no doubt when it comes to running routes, being physical, his speed, his size, he's got to be up near the top in the country."
Hartsock's motivation: Buckeyes tight end Ben Hartsock said there's no trouble getting in the right frame of mind for Friday's game. "I don't think there's any concern about looking for motivation for this game," he said. "It may not be for the national championship, but a BCS bowl against a quality team, against a team that beat supposedly the best team in the nation, is going to be something great to play for."
Tressel-ball: Hartsock defended the conservative nature of Jim Tressel's offense. "That's been our theme for the past couple of years," he said. "It's Coach Tressel's philosophy that the offense is out there to move field position and score at the opportune time. But the huge emphasis was to not turn the ball over and turn to be conservative in that sense. That's been very successful, we've only lost two games in the past two years. It's a different philosophy that people are used to seeing, but it's won a national championship and taken us to a BCS bowl the following year."
Line? What line? Players on both sides made little of Kansas State's status as a 61/2-7 point favorite. "That's the story of our life at Ohio State the past couple of years," Krenzel said. "That's something that really doesn't matter to us; we know that they're a very good football team, and I'm sure they're over there saying we're a very good football team." Kansas State linebacker Josh Buhl said what oddsmakers think mean nothing to him. "What's important is that we go out there and play well Friday night. We have an opportunity, if we win, to establish national recognition and respect for our program, and we seniors can leave a legacy."
Ongoing "feud": Ohio State seniors Ben Hartsock, Craig Krenzel and Shane Olivea are involved in an automotive battle of sorts. It all started early in the season, when Hartsock and Krenzel arrived at the Woody Hayes Center, the team's practice facility, and found Olivea's car parked in a fire lane. They moved the car so that it was wedged between a fence and another car and forced Olivea to get help in moving it. Olivea got his revenge by letting the air out of the one tire of Hartsock's car. Hartsock responded by smearing mayonnaise on Olivea's windshield. Olivea's done nothing to Krenzel yet, but vows he will, despite Hartsock's friendly jabs that Olivea "won't do anything to me and he's afraid to do anything to the star quarterback." Olivea responded, "I'm from New York. I've been to Coshocton [Hartsock's hometown]. There's nothing from there that scares me."
Sellout: The game is an official sellout, though tickets aren't expected to be scalped for as much money as last year's game, when the asking price was still well more than $1,000 even as late as the second quarter. Still, fans looking for tickets before kickoff can still expect to shell out well above face value.
Less national interest: While Ohio State and Kansas State fans and media are well-represented throughout the Valley of the Sun, by comparison to last year's national title game, there is barely a dent on the national radar. Last year's game between the Buckeyes and Miami (Fla.) drew an estimated 1,200 media credential requests. This year's game attracted around 400.
-- Rob Todor