B1G Football Preview: The Ohio State Buckeyes
Head Coach: Urban Meyer 3rd season
Last Year’s Record: 12-2
Key Assistant: DC Chris Ash
Trending: Upward. Again I should probably use the term treading water here as I did with one previous team, but that would imply doing nothing and that isn’t fair. Treading water really means the same and the same at OSU is top tier success. Urban Meyer has done a terrific job of maintaining what Jim Tressel did. Kind of. Tressel won Big Ten championships and played in BCS games and won a national title. Something Meyer has yet to do at Ohio State. In his defense he couldn’t in year one and was undefeated last year (regular season) and played in a B1G Title Game. I said when Meyer got the job, he would have difficulty in matching what Tressel did. I still stand by that. Tressel did an amazing job. Meyer can do an amazing job and STILL not meet Tressel’s success. He has yet to lose a regular season game while the head man in Columbus and I don’t care what league you play in that is an amazing accomplishment.
Prediction: 11-1 (7-1) 2nd place B1G East
Navy (Baltimore): Win
Virginia Tech: Win
Kent State: Win
Cincinnati: Win
At Maryland: Win
Rutgers: Win
At Penn State: Win
Illinois: Win
At Michigan State: Loss
At Minnesota: Win
Indiana: Win
Michigan: Win
Final thoughts: There is no doubt that Meyer can accumulate talent. There is also no doubt that he can coach, but something really stood out to me last year at the B1G Championship Game. Dantonio was loose and relaxed and Meyer was extremely uptight. I Tweeted about it. I got a ton of grief for that Tweet and even after the game standing in the bowels of Lucas Oil Stadium with Meyer and Erin Andrews he was still high strung. Not from the loss, but the same way he was prior. Meyer is under intense pressure. Not in the sense that he would be fired, but he is an all-in guy.
Meyer and I share a common friend who told me something very interesting. “Every day he doesn’t win a conference championship or not play in a BCS, or now the playoff eats at him. If he doesn’t get that this year, I don’t know how he will process it.†Meyer deserves all the credit in the world for his success, but it had a ton of well documented off field problems at Florida and it is starting in Columbus.HERE IS THE LATEST. Those things are forgotten by any fan base that wins conference championships and national titles, but not if you fail to deliver the hardware of those accomplishments. While others call for OSU to break through this season, I see a potential ticking time bomb if this team faces adversity. Another big question rest at QB: Braxton Miller is a great kid, but can he stay healthy?
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