Despite what it may have felt like on Saturday night, Ohio State’s season is not over.
The Buckeyes will have to put that Iowa loss behind them, and get ready to play Michigan State in a game that will all but clinch the Big Ten East division title for the winner.
It will also play a major role in deciding whether the Buckeyes spend the holidays in a New Year’s Six bowl or in the kind of afterthought game they’ve only played in recently during the disastrous 2011 season.
The Buckeyes have played in a BCS or New Year’s Six bowl game in 10 of the last 12 seasons. One of the misses was the result of the other. The unbeaten 2012 team sat at home because of a bowl ban they served after opting to attend the Gator Bowl a year earlier, following “Tatgate.”
Don’t book your tickets just yet. The destination could vary pretty significantly depending on what OSU manages to do in the next three weeks, whether they play in the Big Ten Championship game, and whether they win it.
The only thing that’s certain is that if the Buckeyes win out, beating MSU, Illinois, Michigan and the Big Ten West champion, they will be in a New Year’s Six game. Any loss before bowl season opens the team up to a much wider, and less appealing, range of destinations.
Here’s a look at where several national outlets think the Buckeyes could end up. ESPN has two different people do projections, so they’re included twice.
SI.com: Peach Bowl vs. UCF
ESPN.com: Peach Bowl vs. UCF
ESPN.com: Cotton Bowl vs. USC
Sporting News: Orange Bowl vs. Miami
Bleacher Report: Fiesta Bowl vs. USC
CBS Sports: Citrus Bowl vs. Auburn
SB Nation: Holiday Bowl vs. Arizona
The list of things J.T. will never do is increasing…
The undefeated season is long gone.
Leading a scoring drive a in a play-off game is gone.
Winning an National Championship is gone.
Winning a Conference Championship is fading.
A winning record in bowl games is still on he line.
Urban Meyer has only one conference championship in 2014, and he owes it to Cardale Jones and Zeke Elliot.
People can say what they want, but the book is getting ready to be closed on J.T. Barrett. I buy jerseys of National Championships and Heisman winners. Right now my Jerseys are #13 from 2002, #10 from 2007 and #12 from 2015. There s going to be no #16.
So much of the book on J.T Barrett is closed, it remains to be seen, what if anything he can salvage. You can blame this on Meyer;s coaching, and that in part is true, but if memory serves me well, Meyer was coach when Cardale and Zeke won the national championship. He may make it hard to succeed, but he doesn’t make it impossible
My memory goes back to 67, so I’m looking at a long history. Tressel’s 2002 season was the most amazing in that time. Cardale and Zeke, no one will ever know exactly how that happened but what a run. As things stand now, J.T. will; be remembered like the Cooper years. Lots pf great games against inferior opponents, but way too often, didn’t show up for the big ones. That much is pretty much written.
Why are we worried about Bowl games when we are 16 point favorites and still eating the “rat poison”!!!!!!!
Darnold and USC would rip this pass D to shreds. Heck, MSU most likely will pass for 350.
Take the points and Sparty.
Bowling? Bowling!?
Blah blah blah, Blah blah blah…
I love my buckeyes so where ever they play in a bowl game I’m watching and rooting like crazy for them and one thing my grandpa told me when I was little they can lose some games during the season but as long as they beat the shit team up north it’s a great year
i have to laugh at some of the doomsday comments here…yes I am disappointed–shocked even with the Iowa game- and the inconsistency and shooting themselves in the foot with penalties and turnovers and lack of adjustments in coaching in some games..BUT…the talent is there if the coaches get it together and if the players play with a fire lit under their butts like OK and IA did against us……i’d like to think after this horrible loss that even though msu has given osu fits as of late with much lesser teams that OSU will show some pride and get it done this week and hopefully the last 2 games to get a shot at Big Ten title…im not naive as to the issues going on but i also won’t let one game snapshots dictate the whole season (whether it be the PSU or Iowa type games)….and funny how i see some people week to week support Barrett or not depending on one dang game…you should really listen to yourselves sometime –there are some bipolar fans on here. If the other qb’s were better than Barrett overall then they wold be starting. apparently they are not, which Haskins showed when he got more playing time. he will be very good, as will Burrows, but this week to week back n forth “i told you so” from some back n forth fans is ridiculous…and I for one don’t think Ohio St. would “get crushed’ by any of the teams listed above..thats just being overly doomsday pessimistic. but it doesn’t matter–OSU needs to beat MSU. period. that’s all that should be focused on by the team and cleaning up their own act in practice so they dont beat themselves in a game and for the coaches to start making much better in-game adjustments because there weren’t any against Iowa.
Maybe they get crushed, maybe they don’t. Changes nothing. Meyer is already allowing the Buckeye football program to start slipping into the same total condition the mens basketball program slipped into under Thad Matta. Thad Matta made head scratching hires and Coach Meyer is doing the same thing. Complete loss of focus and schizoid levels of play from week to week by both players and coaches.
Coach Meyer is picking favorites and it’s hurting performance. Consistency is all over the map. It’s not just losing games, it’s also the struggles against garbage can level opponents in the Big 10. The “cast off” Ohio recruiting players taken by programs like Iowa and MSU and Indiana are flat out better coached at the position and coordinator levels.
10 weeks into the season and the Buckeyes still don’t have an identity. That’s not merely troubling it’s downright inexcusable.
I even bought into JT Barrett turning the corner after the PSU game. Turns out that it was fools gold, and JT continues as the center of Coach Meyers universe, but still can’t find any consistency against average and up competition. He’s lost his way as the headcoach. If he wants to be the CEO he’s got to hire the right coaches, not family and friends. People used to jump all over Jim Tressel for doing that. They were also right that it had a way of hurting the development of the entire program.
We do listen to ourselves. There’s no excuse for the Buckeyes to ever get shut out or made to look like the most inept collection of no talent bums in all of college football against the likes of Iowa. Of course they have to move on from that asskicking and Coach Meyers embarrassing press conference following the game. They have no other choice. Wilson, Day, Davis, Schiano, Studrawa and Smith all need replaced. They stink. You and I could do a better job developing the level of talent on the roster. As I said. If Coach Meyer wants to be the CEO than he has to hire great developers. But he still needs to hold them accountable. If he wants to hire friends and family incapable of doing that he should get out of the way because he’s become part of the problem.
Ohio State isn’t like the Florida’s of the world. This is a harsh fanbase who expects nothing short of excellence and if the negative reactions offends some people, that’s just the way it is. Losing hurts everyone involved but, people get over losing. But, nobody likes watching the collection of talent represented on the Buckeye roster get publicly flogged by lesser competition. That complete lack of preparation is on the CEO and those the CEO has surrounded himself with.
Sorry Todd but, complacency is what we’re seeing from Coach Meyer. Just like it was with Thad Matta, John Cooper, Earl Bruce and countless other coaches who discovered that the love of the Buckeye Nation is one or the other…………..hot or cold. Mediocrity will never be accepted.
No matter wins or losses I will stand by the Buckeyes where ever they end up. I’m A True Buckeye And I Bleed Scarlett and Gray! GO BUCKS EVERYONE ?!
Great point getting beat now is better than getting beat on a national game. I also agree with the guy who said it was pretty gutless of Meyer to blame Hubbard for not getting Dobbins the ball. After every game Meyer says I want to get Dobbins more carries. Well if he cant overturd Hubbard then we have more problems. I honestly believe they have a high school passing game. If I am a wide out, a tight end or a running back, I would not play for Meyer. Even Zeke told Meyer what he thought after the MSU game.
Hubbard plays defensive end for Ohio State…………………
About the best they should hope for is 1 of 3. HPL Bowling Center, Columbus Square BC or, Sawmill Lanes.
All of a sudden in just 7 days the not so true Buckeye fans surface. I find it hard to believe that so many have given up on J.T. and OSU. Yes, it was a very very tough loss to Iowa but they still only have to beat Michigan State and Illinois to win the Big ten east and then on to that team up North then to the Big ten championship. If you are a true fan of Ohio State you will only get behind them this week instead of berating them. OH
Some of us sit our butts in the stands, win or lose and no matter where they play. Doesn’t change a thing, the program is reeling and Meyer has lost his way. That doesn’t say he can’t get it back, but he’s definitely lost his way. Buckeye fans are behind them. What we’re not behind is seeing the program collapse when they have the table spread out in front of them. Lack of team discipline starts with the coaches. That trickles down to horrible player focus and execution.
The Iowa game wasn’t just a beatdown. It was a historic beatdown. Lets put it mildly, they stunk and there is never an excuse for something that pathetic.
Craig- you’re part of the problem. Many of the people writing these comments have been attending games since well before you were even born. Stop drinking the Koolaid and engage in thoughtful analysis. Part of being a “true” Buckeye fan is acknowledging when your team is playing poorly, rather than ignoring it (ND fans) or disguising it (UM fans.). Lose your spots before making such naïve remarks.
After that debacle of coaching and execution yesterday, who really gives a crap about where they are going “bowling”. Hell, maybe the local AMF lanes…
Screw looking at where they might go and work with a laser focus on Sparty. Quit looking ahead and focus on the task at hand.
After that debacle of coaching and execution yesterday, who really gives a crap about where they are going “bowling”. Hell, maybe the local AMF lanes…
Screw looking at where they might go and work with a laser focus on Sparty. Quit looking ahead and focus on the task at hand.
Just win the next play … and then the next one … and then …
Who knows? We wait for 3 weeks then can discuss.
Great! Great article! Great timing! Just great!!
Like I said at the beginning of the season. This is a rebuilding year. We have 2 bad losses and could have 2 or 3 more. Next year we’ll have 3 qbs fighting to start with little experience. This season would have been nice to develop these qbs to make a run for a championship next season. The defense wasn’t ready either, so not much would of been lost. Sure we would of lost 4 or 5 games, but playing a 5th year senior instead didn’t fair much better. Next season now will be used to develop these 3 qbs to make a championship run in 2019. Hope the coaches can figure out their issues before then.
That is a great post
They better hope they don’t draw any of those teams as an opponent. They’ll get crushed. This is a very bad Buckeye team. It’s even worse when you add coaching to the mix. This is by far the worst coaching staff in decades.
Agree 100%. Meyer has to start being held accountable. I thought he said after the Clemson game that this will never happen to OSU again. He loves to talk but I see things going downhill. I watched Michigan play last night and OSU will not beat them. Michigan lost 9 staters off their defense last year and their defense is better than OSUs.