By Matt McCoy

**To listen to Urban Meyer's comments after the Illinois win click here**

Ten down, two to go for the Buckeyes who are the only team in the nation to reach double figures in wins and have played their way into the Associated Press top five.

"I've been fortunate to have a couple top five teams and this (team) probably has more holes than those other ones, however there are also some great performances," Meyer said after the Buckeyes thumped Illinois 52-22 Saturday and now head into their bye week. "We are going to dwell on those weaknesses (during the bye) because those weaknesses get exposed when you play two good teams like we have to finish the season."

Ohio State, which shares the fifth spot in the AP poll with Georgia, closes out the year at Wisconsin on November 17 and home to Michigan on November 24.

"I feel that we're top five worthy," linebacker Ryan Shazier said. "And at the end of the year we trying to show everybody that we're top one...number one in the country...We're just going to show the world what we can really do."

But if the Buckeyes pull off the 12-0 season, finishing number one seems unlikely. Alabama, Oregon, Kansas State and Notre Dame all remain unbeaten and are all solidly ahead of the Buckeyes. After surviving at LSU Saturday, Alabama has cleared it's largest hurdle to remain unbeaten. The other three have tough games left, but are they all going to lose?....and even if they all do drop a game, it's no guarantee that the Buckeyes will rise to the top. 

Through no fault of their own, The Buckeyes just don't have a super high quality win. They have some nice victories like Nebraska, at Penn State and at Michigan State but the Big Ten is extremely weak. Adding wins at Wisconsin and Michigan would help, but a one loss Alabama or Oregon still might finish ahead of Ohio State.

No matter where they end up, the job done by Urban Meyer, the coaching staff and the players has been amazing. It's essentially the same group that went 6-7 last year. Meyer came in and challenged the team, brought competition into every drill and made players accountable. The team has responded in a big way. 

I did think, going into the year, that the Buckeyes would have a chance to win every game, but I doubted they could do it. They still have two tough games left but the 12-0 goal is very much in reach.

If you've followed my AP ballot, I had the Buckeyes eighth last week, two lower than their actual rank of sixth. Same story this week. I moved Ohio State up to seventh, two back of their fifth place tie with Georgia. The difference in my poll and the actual vote is I have both one-loss Georgia and Florida ahead of the Buckeyes based on what I believe are higher quality wins for the Bulldogs and Gators in a much tougher league.

Here is my ballot this week, with each teams rank in the overall AP poll in parentheses.

1.    Alabama 9-0 (1)

2.    Oregon 9-0 (2)

3.    Kansas State 9-0 (3)

4.    Notre Dame 9-0 (4)

5.    Georgia 8-1 (5 tie)

6.    Florida 8-1 (7)

7.    Ohio State 10-0 (5 tie)

8.    Florida State 8-1 (8)

9.    LSU 7-2 (9)

10.  Clemson 8-1 (10)

11.  Louisville 9-0 (11)

12.  Oregon State 7-1 (13)

13.  South Carolina 7-2 (12)

14.  Stanford 7-2 (16)

15.  Texas A&M 7-2 (15)

16.  Oklahoma 6-2 (14)

17.  UCLA 7-2 (17)

18.  Nebraska 7-2 (18)

19.  Louisiana Tech 8-1 (19 tie)

20.  Texas 7-2 (19 tie)

21.  USC 6-3 (21)

22.  Mississippi State 7-2 (22)

23.  Texas Tech 6-3 (25)

24.  Michigan 6-3 (Not Ranked)

25.  Kent State 8-1 (Not Ranked)

**AP poll has Toledo, 8-1, 23rd and Rutgers 7-1, 24th**