Prove ‘Em Wrong?
Following Ohio State’s win over Wisconsin the Big Ten Championship Game, the Buckeyes and their coaches were hopeful that they had done enough to earn a berth in the College Football Playoffs, and most believed they had.
Instead, the following day, they watched as Alabama was granted the final spot in the playoffs, leaving the Buckeyes on the outside looking in.
To a man they believe they are one of the top four teams in the nation. Does that mean they want to go into the Cotton Bowl and prove the committee wrong?
“I don’t really think that that would help much now,” Buckeye linebacker Chris Worley said. “No matter how much, if we do win, no matter how much one of the teams will win by, it’s not going to matter about the national championship game. So our season is going to be over after this.
“So the biggest thing we can do is try to go out there and play for each other and get a ring for each other. We can’t go out there trying to please the committee and show them why or why not. The biggest thing we can do is go out there play hard, play how we know we can play.”
The Ring Master
Every season, the Ohio State Buckeyes have a goal of winning a Big Ten Championship, and they accomplished that goal this season.
And with any kind of championship comes new ways to display those accomplishments.
Urban Meyer is already looking forward to the numbers “2017” going up on the list of Ohio State’s Big Ten Champions in his team’s meeting room.
“Yeah, I look at it a little differently. I’ve not fallen in that trap about nothing else matters,” he said. “I’m anxious to see that thing go up there on 2000 and — what year is it? 2017, right there. Imagine it will be up next week. ‘Big Ten champions.'”
And as for the championship rings?
“Billy Price is officially our ring committee chairman,” Meyer said. “And it’s going to be a big one, he told me, which is fine. Make it as big as you want. So I put a lot of stock into what these guys have done.”
A Friendly Competition
This has been a fairly interesting year for the Ohio State quarterbacks.
J.T. Barrett is finishing up his record-setting career with even more OSU and Big Ten records. Dwayne Haskins helped the Buckeyes to a comeback win over Michigan. Tate Martell spent his first season in Columbus making news on the scout team. And last year’s backup, Joe Burrow, used the first half of the season to recover from a broken hand.
Heading into the 2017 season, however, perhaps the biggest story was who would be OSU’s backup quarterback. That story was finished before it could even be written when Burrow broke his hand. Haskins played well as the Buckeyes’ backup, and many have already anointed him as the 2018 starter.
There is still a long way to go before Urban Meyer and Ryan Day name a starter, but that doesn’t mean people will wait to talk about it.
Has there been too much made of the quarterback situation this season between Burrow and Haskins?
“I don’t really know. It’s kind of a weird situation that we’re in,” Burrow said. “But I’m proud of our unit. I’m proud of Dwayne and I’m proud of J.T.”
With so much on the line when it comes to the quarterback position, relationships can become strained. According to Burrow, however, that is not the case with the Buckeyes.
“It’s really good. Our unit is really close,” he said. “Me and J.T. have become really close over the years, and Dwayne and Tate are starting break into that circle.”