The first four weeks of the 2019 Ohio State football season have been full of action, but a little light on drama.
The Buckeyes have thoroughly dismantled overwhelmed and overmatched opponents each time, in games that were essentially decided before halftime.
This weekend, that could change as they head to Lincoln to face off with 3-1 Nebraska.
Scott Frost’s team is pretty clearly ahead of where it was a year ago. But after blowing a 17-0 halftime lead against Colorado in Week 2, the Huskers enter this weekend unranked.
That doesn’t change the way the Buckeyes view them, or the anticipation they’ve had for this trip.
“We’ve had this one circled since since February. So we’re ready to go,” said DT Haskell Garrett on Wednesday. “We knew that this was gonna be the one. Everybody’s testing us, every week, every day, so we just gotta go out there and make a statement.”
That definitely falls well short of bulletin board material, but it stands out in the tightly-controlled world of college football media. Outside of rare exceptions, different variations on “We just take it one game at a time” are the rule.
During Big Ten Media Days in Chicago in July, no Nebraska players were interested in discussing what this weekend’s game could mean to their program. To them, every game was big. No one was interested in even thinking past their week one game against South Alabama. Lather, rinse, repeat.
But deep down, the Buckeyes and Huskers know that this one is a little bigger than last week’s matchups with Miami and Illinois.
For Nebraska, it’s a chance to make a statement that their program really is back. College Gameday will be on campus for the first time since 2007, and Frost has a chance to land a signature win over a national power in primetime.
For the Buckeyes, it’s an opportunity to prove that they’ve outgrown the disastrous road trips to western division stadiums in the past couple years. But it’s also going to be the toughest test they’ve faced yet this season.
“It’s just a real, real good offense. High tempo. They’re ready for us,” said Garrett.
Frost has always been an offensive guy. He played his college football as a quarterback for the Huskers in the 1990s, then made his name as an offensive guru as an assistant.
He turned UCF from an afterthought to a juggernaut thanks to an explosive attack during his first head coaching stint, and is in the process of doing the same with the Huskers.
Nebraska has scored at least 31 points in all four of its games this year. That sets up quite a clash with an OSU defense that has allowed 36 points total all season.
“They pose a lot of threats,” said safety Jordan Fuller. “Two talented running backs, all the receivers look really good, and obviously the quarterback is what makes the whole thing go. So we got a big challenge on our hands.”
It’s apparently a challenge the Buckeyes have been thinking about since before spring ball.
Forgive my typos but neb cannot stop us up front
The best and safest way to win is run the ball. Ball control. Ig illinois could run on them we can. Smash mouth football and ball anc time control.
we’ve played 4 games vs, by all “expert” accounts, inferior to really inferior opponents.
loyally, we continue to omit tidbits that don’t fit our latest narratives. Ex: Josh Jackson’s continuing ‘holding’ calls that he has ‘heard about’ if you observe his non-verbal reaction to that ‘being mentioned’ this week.
our [in]famous arrogance and denigration of opponents [yes, even ‘them’ ‘up there’] is once again cropping up on the boards among our grandiose claims founded on bullying lesser foes. We appreciate our selves feeling our feelings,,,, while our ‘adult’ behaviors are tempting our kids… betraying the ‘character’ we so piously proclaim.
Meanwhile, the ‘kids’, so far, have at least in public maintained their focus on the [next] task at hand. Do they realize there is no ‘trophy’…for doing what we ought to do in the first place? Isn’t doing what we ‘ought’ to do only, in the vernacular, ‘doing what’s best for me’? And doesn’t that ‘beg the question’, “who knows what’s best for me”?
TODAY, we’re in a race, in a season, approaching the best opponent we’ve faced…so far… and the ‘actual’ opponent we ‘have’ this week….
BUT… arrogance, disrespect, hyperbole… know no limits, any day. It’s like ‘so totally unfair’ that criminals just seem not to follow the law no matter how many wonderful laws we make. And the beautiful, passionate people who care… are the ones who give themselves ‘sanctuary’ status while blaming and attacking… you know… the evil ones.
So…sadly… whenever i must sincerely exempt my self… punting might just be better than that fatuous, facetious claim “I did nothing wrong” that often precedes my latest crusade against ‘them’.
p.s. Agree with the poster who opined regarding Nebraska fans’ unusual and traditional civility toward visitors to their house. They earn it each season; they don’t brag, let alone make claims about it. They …live it… with every word, every behavior that we ‘see’… and many that we don’t. Like Woody, warts & all, used to help strangers while on his trips… his journey.
So far, our players and coaches are walking that talk this year as well.
I don’t ask or tell you to do likewise. I do ‘ask the question’: ‘what kind of character matters, and when do you ‘own it’? For, the “content of [our] character” has been removed by Progress from the MLKJr Memorial … and re-interpreted with 14 stonehenge sort of tablets and a statute.
THAT is our memorial we have reinvented, chosen, erected, replaced… sanctuary-ied… for what used to be ‘civil’ rights, now ‘special’ rights and the whatever path of ‘diversity’.
i hope i sound like a… ‘broken record’, be cause then… i would ‘not be a factor’ in your choices of your values.
I hope that no person ‘feels’ our race is over… until it’s over.
May Nebraska be a challenging milestone for each Buckeye – not a millstone…?
GO BUCKS!
You’re kidding…..right? WTF are you babbling about?
Gobble, gobble, gobble!
Did someone find that bottle of Wild Turkey, dust it off and overindulge?
This is the Jack Kerouac of OSU football posts. I love it!
I am a big Neb fan and hopefully my Huskers keep it close at least into the 2nd half. I hope the Bucks win a nail biter and then go on to represent the B1G in the natty! GBR
Joe I am a huge Ohio State fan but I think Nebraska is going to upset them because OSU wont be able to stop the running of the NU QB.
This article just doesn’t come across to me as honest. Yes. . .sure. . .the big matchup is whether our newish defense can stop a capable defense. However in terms of the overall game you can’t ignore that our offense is actually much better than theirs, AND their defense is horrible.
I love the Huskers. But anyone who’s watched all of their games this season knows that they have some major issues that will be hard to fix in just one week. They will get it fixed—but just not in time for the Buckeyes. #GBR
The Bucks are playing exceptionally well right now but they’ve been known to lay an egg in a western conference away game as you know. Hopefully this trend ends this year. Potential for a really good game. The atmosphere will be fun in Lincoln Saturday night. Go Bucks!