THE Ohio State Buckeyes

I had to stay home today from work. Sick with body aches and pains. All the symptoms of flu but it seems it is a generation past. Just the sore throat and dizzyness. Well, this game me time to reflect on the historic National Championship playoff win by the Ohio State Buckeye football team. The undisputed champions. What does this mean? It means, there is no longer any favoritism. SEC teams constantly get the nod because they are in that conference. They did horrible in the playoffs. Should tell you they aren’t as good as they think they are. I thought they were great, turns out it’s all PR. Anyway…

Going into the playoffs, they were down to their sophomore quarterback Cardale Jones. Remember that name, because he’s already legend. A 6’5 250 lb. giant with speed and an arm like a cannon. Very unrefined, but calm and cool. The guy is relaxed during terrible plays the way you want to see your NFL QBs. He’s the lumbering giant that does his job. And you could tell, this dude wants the brass ring.

First came Alabama, the towering thundering herd. A powerhouse team led by Nick Saban. The guy is a football genius. Unsatisfied with sloppy results, I don’t doubt losing for him is death. That’s a winner’s mentality. Faced with the Buckeyes, everyone picked Alabama to win. I mean it. EVERYONE. I looked at ESPN’s charts. There were about 40 sports writers throughout the nation polled. Not one picked the Buckeyes. Again, consider that at least one point someone would do it just to be contradictory. Nope. Not one. The Buckeyes dominated the Crimson Tide. It was so one-sided when they could run the clock down to nothing essentially winning the game with a TD, Cardale launched the ball from mid-field down the seam to a streaking receiver. It was an incomplete pass. But it said something to me…Urban Meyer (coach of the Buckeyes) had no respect for this so-called dominating ‘Bama team. He wanted to squash this annoying bug and prove that everyone who ever doubted him would see. Keep in mind the next play was a punt, daring Blake Sims (QB for ‘Bama) to drive down the field. The result was a hail mary that was picked off by the Buckeyes.

Last night was the National Championship game between Oregon and Ohio State. Oregon came in destroying Florida State in the Rose Bowl. What odds do you think they gave Ohio State with a 3^rd string QB? At game time they were six point underdogs. A co-worker hissed at me that he loved that Oregon was going to destroy the Buckeyes (since he’s still seething about University of Miami losing in the Fiesta Bowl over a decade ago to…yep Ohio State). I told him “you must not watch college football.” To which he replied “Buckeyes don’t stand a chance” I laughed. What an idiot. Guy didn’t even hear me out about this kid Cardale Jones. Or Ezekiel Elliot (running back – Buckeyes). Nope, Oregon was going to destroy them, that’s that. I saw Marcus Mariota (Oregon QB, 2014 Heisman Winner), I didn’t think he was much. I saw some game where he seemed rattled. They Ducks kept the pace FAST. 15 second plays. This is something I’ve never seen the Buckeyes had to deal with. They did. Adjustments. Kept Mariota so unnerved. He is going into the NFL.

I always saw Oregon as a decent team with the money of Russian Tsars. They are the Ivan Dragos of the NCAA because they are bankrolled by Nike. Phil Knight went there (founder of Nike). It’s hard to hate on them, but was surprised how many band wagoners hitched themselves to a team called The Ducks. Their sports facility is state of the art. Their locker room is like the lido deck of the Enterprise. Beautiful campus. Beautiful campus and all around beautiful nice chill people. Contrast to that is Ohio State. A concrete dirty scummy team. The campus is garbage strewn. There are too many students. My sister graduated from there, and she didn’t go to her graduation because it would’ve taken all day.

Smash mouth was invented when the Buckeyes took the field. They had running backs and linebackers to spare for the NFL. These are not totally glamorous positions. These are digging in the trenches. I doubt they train in a drippy dungeon but, I do know they have strength and conditioning exercises that rival most NFL camps. In fact, while most pros drop non mandatory training, the young college player embraces it. To get better. To make the team.

So to me, this match up was “Rocky IV” Ivan Drago, the supe’d up monster versus Ohio State, a limping former prize fighter. Aches and pains have taken over. But the heart remained. And heart is what won it for them. They went for it on 4^th downs. They stopped any semblance of a Duck run. They went full force on every play. There is no tomorrow. This is going into history books to which we can say, we saw it when it happened. I never considered it like David & Goliath though. I always knew the Buckeyes were going to win. When the Ducks climbed back to 21-20, my friend in Columbus texted me “we need 4 TDs for those turnovers” to which I replied “I’m not worried, the same thing happened with Alabama. They’ll find a way.” The ground them down. Think about this…Buckeyes had 4 turnovers to Oregon’s none. Buckeyes still won. They spotted them 4 possession changes and STILL dominated them. 42-20 Buckeyes.

Keep in mind, Buckeyes are a football tradition, it’s good they won. I would’ve been just as fine if Alabama won or Nebraska or even Notre Dame. These are teams that have that history. History starts over again below THE Ohio State Buckeyes.