Saturday night will be the Ohio State Buckeyes’ chance to show the critics that have been following them for two years now that they do belong at the top of the NCAA:
COLUMBUS, Ohio — The last two times Ohio State stepped onto college football’s biggest stage, the Buckeyes imploded famously.
In the Bowl Championship Series title game against Florida two years ago, the Buckeyes’ offensive line was manhandled by the Gators in a 41-14 loss. Last season, in the championship game against Louisiana State, a blur of personal-foul penalties combined with poor quarterback protection and porous defense sent Ohio State to a 38-24 loss.
Now, with the fifth-ranked Buckeyes visiting No. 1 Southern California on Saturday for perhaps the marquee game of the regular season, they are accompanied by a bandwagon full of skeptics. Ohio State’s performance this season has created the doubts. Against Ohio on Saturday, the Buckeyes trailed, 14-12, heading into the fourth quarter before winning, 26-14.
The good news for the team is that the star tailback, Chris Wells, is expected to play after missing the Ohio game with an injured right big toe. The bad news is that his injury and the Buckeyes’ performance Saturday portend another high-profile flop.
“The only way we can be successful on the road at Southern Cal is be at our best,” Ohio State Coach Jim Tressel said. “I mean, there’s no way that we can do it if we’re not at our best. So I think all of us in the whole locker room recognized after the game that we weren’t at our best.”
The Buckeyes have been here before. Three years ago, they were set to face Texas at home in a game that most critics thought would be a blowout, for the Longhorns. As it turned out, the Buckeyes did lose, but barely so, and went on a year later to hand Texas a loss that nobody saw coming.
If the Buckeyes can show that same quality of play on Saturday in Los Angeles, it will go a long way toward silencing the critics.
