Sure, it’s May.
The days are getting warmer and longer.
Baseball is in full swing.
Your grill is already getting a workout.
You’ve probably already a regular at the local golf course.
And your first trip to the swimming pool is just a few weeks away.
We’re a long way from football season. But I dare you to watch this video — produced for Nike — and not get excited about showing up at Ohio Stadium on Aug. 31.
I DARE you.
Ohio State has won 11 games this season. That’s put us in the No. 4 spot in the country as of this week. It’s earned us the only hardware we were permitted to win this season.
And it’s prompted a lot of discussion about where a 12-win team that’s not allowed a postseason game will end up in the rankings.
Twelve wins would be outstanding. It would serve notice to the rest of the conference about who will be the team to beat in 2013. The rest of the country will be on notice as well, and Ohio State could top preseason rankings next August.
This week, I am not interested in 12 wins.
I am interested in just one.
At the start of every football season, I do two things that take me all the way from the first game through the bowl game. I pick — or have someone pick for me — a buckeye, that sits in my right front pants pocket for the duration of the season. And I pick one of my bracelets that goes on my left wrist and does not come off until Ohio State’s season is over.
I was aware that there was no possibility of a Big Ten championship in 2012. I knew that there wouldn’t be a trip to a bowl game of any kind.
And the sting of losing in Ann Arbor — something I hadn’t felt since 2003 — was still painfully fresh.
I normally pick one of the generic bracelets for the season. I don’t want to de-value the other games, and I don’t want to feel like I’m writing off everything that happens in September, October or the first couple weeks of November.
But this season, obviously, is different. Saturday is our championship game. Saturday is the bowl game. Saturday is the opportunity to ease the pain from last November.
It’s been the one I’ve been waiting for. And that’s why I picked the bracelet that’s been on my wrist since Aug. 31.
One game. This game. It’s time.
When I went through Ohio State’s schedule back in August, one thing jumped out at me — I thought tomorrow’s game against Wisconsin was probably the toughest on the schedule.
Almost nothing about this season has gone the way I expected it to, but we’ve come full circle in respect to my initial assessment of this game.
Wisconsin hasn’t had a Wisconsin-esque season so far. They were firing assistant coaches just a game or two in. They couldn’t figure out who’s playing quarterback. And until sometime in mid-October, they couldn’t run the football, something that qualifies as a full-blown crisis in Madison.
But in the past few week, Monte Ball has looked like Monte Ball — and Wisconsin has looked like Wisconsin. And we’re back to the trip to Madison looking like a tough one.
Ohio State hasn’t played like I expected, either; they’re, uh, better. We’re in a position to clinch sole possession of the 2012 Pork Division championship with a win tomorrow, and take one more step towards an undefeated season.
This is the time of the year when things are supposed to be hard. The games are more important. The opponents are tougher and more focused. The weather can be pretty grim. And if you’re playing on the road? Ouch. Wisconsin’s Camp Randall Stadium is one of the truly nasty places for opponents in the Big Ten and playing there in November multiplies the potential problems.
But. We’ve already played in the roughest road environment we can face in the conference. We’ve improved almost every week. Our defense is playing like an Ohio State defense. And our team seems to have embraced the challenge of a season without the possibility of a post-season reward. Striving for another undefeated week — and being one game away from an undefeated season — is enough of a goal.
Wisconsin has some motivation as well. I’m sure they don’t want to back into the Big Ten title game — their berth as the Pork representative is already assured — which they would do if they don’t win the division title outright by winning tomorrow.
And then there’s the matter of last year. I’ll never forget that game. I imagine they haven’t forgotten either.
We will get Wisconsin’s best shot tomorrow. Madison will be primed, as Columbus was a year ago, for what has become one of the conference’s better rivalries. And they’ll be playing to position themselves for the conference championship game and beyond.
But Ohio State has something bigger to play for. Not a bowl game. Not a conference championship. But for each other. And for the rest of the conference, so there’s no doubt who has the best team in the league, no matter what the NCAA has to say.
One of my favorite moments of the Purdue game came after the comeback, after the overtime touchdown and after Christian Bryant successfully defended the Boilermakers’ fourth-down pass in the end zone. Mrs. Crappy and I watched the celebration and were still in our seats — actually, standing on our seats, I think — when the team assembled in front of OSUMB.
Most of the guys had already locked arms and started swaying, as they do when they sing the post-game “Carmen Ohio.” But as the noise of the crowd died down in the South Stands, a figure, in a white jacket, appeared in front of the team. It was Urban, doing one last pump-up job before the band did its thing.
You’ll see him briefly in front of the team; you get a better look if you’re watching the scoreboard.
I don’t have any doubt that the previous head coach had emotional moments like this; in fact, I remember seeing a couple in person in Tempe almost 10 years ago. But this is not something the previous head coach would have done, ever, and I have to say that I’m enjoying the hell out of watching the new head coach and the enthusiasm he wears on his sleeve.
You should expect going into a season with a new head coach — even one with a excellent reputation — that you’re going to see some rough edges, some things that aren’t quite clicking on Saturday.
And yeah, we’ve seen those. Uneven, inconsistent offense. A defense that looked to be soft on the edges. Awful, awful tackling. And even some glaring special teams errors.
What should we expect to see as the season progresses? Improvement.
And that’s what we saw on Saturday.
We still have a problem with relying too much on Braxton Miller to carry the offense, and that resulted in a couple of scares; he wasn’t on the field when Ohio State scored its first-quarter touchdown, after he was run into an equipment box on the sidelines, and I thought his second-half injury — the one where he also fumbled — looked especially scary.
But Miller is getting his arm dialed in, and in the second half, he seemed to do a better job of making a quick read and following that with a quick decision; if he’s able to cut back on indecision, we’re going to see fewer plays where he’s running for his life.
Even better: the offensive line was outstanding. Pass protection was solid, especially in the face of nearly constant blitzing, and the run blocking — especially in the second half — was better than we’ve seen all year. In fact, it’s not a stretch to say that the O-line won us the game in the second half, as Ohio State’s run game held the ball and ran the clock.
But the best part was the defense. It was pretty clear that shutting down Michigan State’s monster tailback Le’Veon Bell was the focus … and Bell had no space to run all afternoon long. And the pass defense, while still suspect, didn’t give up the kinds of big plays that allowed Cal and UAB to stay in games they shouldn’t have.
And then there was the tackling. Yes, there was one horrible play, when attempts to strip the ball instead of making a solid hit and wrapping up Keith Mumphery, who scored on the play (Mumphery’s run was an outstanding effort, by the way, one that should be acknowledged). But after spending several weeks of griping about poor tackling, that was pretty much Saturday’s only lapse.
Improvement.
We’ll need to see more on Saturday. Relying too much on Miller is still a concern. And Nebraska quarterback Taylor Martinez has improved his throwing motion and can make defenses look stupid when he pulls down the ball and takes off.
Ohio State can get better. And will. Week by week. As we’ll see on Saturday.
—
Yep.
We’ll talk more later this week about the specifics about what needs to happen in Ohio Stadium Saturday night when Nebraska visits.
But to begin, we’re going to take a cue from Urban Meyer. Prior to the Cal game, he was asked what he expects to see once Ohio State’s offense starts clicking. His response:
I expect the stadium to be an inferno.
Done:
Order now, boys and girls.
