Meyer leads unlikely Ohio State into title game
ARLINGTON, Texas — One shot at history. The Ohio State football team has extended its unimaginable season all the way to the first College Football Playoff national championship game. Tonight against Oregon, a perch among the school’s giants awaits. “When you step into a prize fight, you get one swing,” coach Urban Meyer said Sunday. “The great champions don’t miss.” They say everything is bigger in Texas, where Ohio State will vie for its eighth national championship in larger-than-life AT&T Stadium known as “Jerry’s World” — an ode to Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones. That includes the tall tales. Want a fish story? The Buckeyes gave us one. They lost one record-setting Heisman Trophy candidate at quarterback in the preseason (Braxton Miller), then another in the Michigan game (J.T. Barrett). They nosedived out of the Top 20 after a Week 2 home loss to middling Virginia Tech. They cast their eye to the future with a Big Ten-leading 13 freshmen or sophomore starters. “If you had told us we’d be in the national title game?” offensive lineman Billy Price said. “Yeah, right.” Even Meyer never fully conjured this ride. Certainly not four years ago. Meyer left Florida after a six-season run that included two national titles, down 37 pounds and burned out. He spent a year off before coming to Ohio State in 2012. “I was just champing at the bit to get back in it,” Meyer said. “But to sit there and say I thought that we could somehow get back to the national title game, it’s everybody’s dream and goal. But it’s very complicated, and everything has to align
perfectly for this to happen. So no, it never really crossed my mind.” Yet here is Ohio State, the stars aligning just so for this trip to the Lone Star State. Meyer found his balance, cracking he now needs to lose weight instead of gain it, while a program found its way. Four years after Ohio State was rocked by turmoil — the tattoos-for-memorabilia scandal that ousted former coach Jim Tressel and resulted in a postseason ban in 2012 — the Buckeyes are back on the biggest stage. They are 37-3 under Meyer and only trending upward. Ohio State has won its past 12 games, punctuating a rally from the depths with a 59-0 dusting of favored Wisconsin in the Big Ten championship and a 42-35 win against No. 1 Alabama in the Sugar Bowl. Now it is Ohio State against Oregon, the nouveau riche Ducks (13-1) searching for their first national title and the blue-blooded Buckeyes (131) vying for a return to glory. It is a stiff final exam. Second-year Ducks coach Mark Helfrich has one of the nation’s fastest, most prolific teams. Heisman Trophywinning quarterback Marcus Mariota leads an Oregon offense that averages 552.9 yards per game — third most in Division I-A. Yet most anticipate Ohio State will keep pace. Thirdstring quarterback Cardale Jones and the Buckeyes have piled up a combined 101 points their past two games against Top-10 national defenses. Oregon ranks 86th in total defense, allowing 421.9 yards per game. Ohio State is 17th. The Buckeyes believe they will connect on their swing — and are leaving nothing to chance. They arrived late Friday loose, but purposeful. Unlike in New Orleans, where the Buckeyes arrived five days before the Sugar Bowl and spent time enjoying Bourbon Street, the team has bypassed the bowl experience. Jones went so far as to block near every number in his cell phone, meaning he is unable to receive calls or text messages from anyone but his mother, Meyer and offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach Tom Herman. “It took me like 40 minutes,” Jones said. “I blocked my teammates, too. I’m going to see them all anyway. I just wanted to eliminate as much distraction as possible.” As Ohio State seeks its first national title since 2002, Meyer appreciates as much as anyone the opportunity that awaits. Born in Toledo and raised in Ashtabula, Ohio, Meyer grew up a son of the Ten Year War between Ohio State and Michigan when legendary coaches Woody Hayes and Bo Schembechler had classic battles. Meyer began his career in Columbus as a graduate assistant and first became a head coach in Ohio with two successful seasons at Bowling Green. Today, the last night of the most unlikely season of his career, Ohio State can bring the championship home. “Obviously, when you grow up a Buckeye and you grow up in the great state of Ohio, played high school football there, played college football there, that is big,” Meyer said. “I think [that’s] the dream. … It would be great to win one for the state of Ohio.”