Journal-News.com

NEW ORLEANS — Steve Rehring has heard enough about the speed involved in the Bowl Championship Series title game.

"Every game is done in the trenches," said Rehring, Ohio State's left guard. "You look at the games this year we won and won convincingly, the offensive line played great. The games that we played close or the game we lost, we didn't play so good. It always starts with us."

Rehring, a junior from Lakota West High School, draws one of the game's major assignments against LSU All-American defensive tackle Glenn Dorsey on Monday. The second-year starter, at 6-foot-8 and 345 pounds, is part of a bulky Buckeyes' line, including Xenia product Ben Person, that hopes to slow Dorsey and the rest of the skilled LSU defensive line.

"One game he played more on my side, other games he played more on Ben's side," Rehring said of Dorsey, the

6-2, 303-pound senior. "Some games he switches around, some games he lined up at defensive end. You never know where he's gonna be."

Rehring was a contributor to the line almost immediately after graduating from high school early to participate in spring practices in 2004. The next season, an illness kept him out of the Buckeyes' final nine games, but he returned to start last season.

As one of three multiple-year starters on the Ohio State offensive line — along with senior Kirk Barton (four seasons) and junior Alex Boone (three seasons) — Rehring hopes to neutralize Dorsey, a player hailed as perhaps the country's best.

"The NFL scouts like him, and you hear every day he's highly ranked for the draft," Rehring said. "You respect him, but it's not like you can't block him. He'll get his plays, and we'll get ours."