Ordinarily whenever you read a contribution of mine on Buckeye 50, it’s a game summary or perhaps one of our “25 Greatest Drives” series.  The top 2 drive stories are forthcoming, and yes, I will be torturing myself with my first look at Monday night’s fiasco on tape to see if it looked as bad as it did in person from section 102 of University of Phoenix Stadium.  From that, I will try to weave it into something palatable.  I’m in no real hurry to write it, and I will take no offense if you’re sitting there saying you’re in no mood to read it.

I’ve been fortunate to be involved with Buckeye 50 for almost two years now, and that has coincided with high times for the football team.  When I joined on in the winter of 2005, the Buckeyes were coming off a 5-1 stretch run, including a beatdown of TBGUN and an Alamo Bowl victory.  Yes, the $500 Troy Smith cloud was hanging in the air, but we were gearing up for what looked to be a special season.  The ’05 squad suffered the two bitter losses to Texas and Penn State, but until Monday night the Bucks had been on a real roll.  The “White Out” loss in Happy Valley literally seems like it was ages ago, and for the second time in his tenure Jim Tressel had fashioned a nineteen-game winning streak.  But it all came crashing down in the desert of Arizona that had been witness to so many great moments in the last four years.

Maybe it was because the game was in Glendale instead of Tempe.  Maybe the Buckeyes had begun to believe some of the hype from a 51-day waiting period to try and go wire-to-wire as #1.  Maybe the entire offensive game plan revolved around Ted Ginn.  Maybe it was because I didn’t eat a pregame hamburger at the Chuck Box on the ASU campus, like I did before my only other bowl game trips in ’03 and last year.  For whatever reason, the Buckeyes not only lost out on a national title, but flat got smoked.

Usually whenever I author something for the site, I’ve got newspapers, media guides and notebooks open and sprawled all over the room, not to mention three or four different web pages pulled up on the computer.  If I need a stat or a fact, I want everything within reach.  But having had a couple days to let some thoughts settle, I thought I’d just spitball, so forgive me if it seems to ramble.

First off, I did have the opportunity to travel with my dad to Arizona, and we had a great time.  Buckeye 50 staffers Brent Baver and my “Buckeye Brother” Gregg Watson were out there, and we also spent some time with my high school football broadcast partner Jeff Ruth and his family, as well as fellow OSU alum and longtime pal Chip Kullik from WMJI Radio in Cleveland and “The Law”, the lovely Amy Phillips.  It’s always great to get together with old friends, and doing so while prepping for Buckeye football is even better.  We all ate too much and laughed too loud, but it was a blast.

And to get the name-dropping, shameless-plug portion of this done, a barrel full of Buckeye leaves go to Lisa Cisco, Kim Davis and all the gang at Travel Partners in Dublin, Ohio for being the “hosts with the most”!  This was our second time going bowling with them, and they do a top-notch job.  The Squaw Peak Hilton was an awesome place, and I’m eternally grateful for your efforts.

I try to always give, as Pat likes to call it, the “meat and potatoes” effort in game write-ups, but I’ve had a chance to read the papers, watch the TV, listen to talk radio, and reflect on the game, and a few things stick out.

First off, the atmosphere in University of Phoenix Stadium was rockin’.  Nothing will ever top the feeling in Sun Devil Stadium during the Miami win in ’03, but next to Michigan games in the ‘Shoe, the scene was better than anything I’ve experienced.  That being said, though, it was a shame this game wasn’t played in Tempe.  Our bus dropped us off around 2PM Glendale time for a 6:30 kickoff, and the “Tailgate Party” going on across the parking lot was already sold out.  Besides that, there was absolutely nothing to do and nowhere to go.  The Westgate mall area was trumpeted as a place to be, but it wasn’t like it was right there.  If you’ve ever been to Las Vegas, you know full well how the hotel next door to yours looks like it’s on top of you, but then you start walking…and walking…and walking…and you never get there.  That’s how it would’ve been to go to Westgate.  Fight my way through a mob of people to get to the only other place anywhere near the stadium since the “tailgate party” was sold out?  No thank you.  The Super Bowl will be played in Glendale next season, and that should have been the leadoff event for U of P Stadium when the surrounding area would have been built up more.

I’m not going to get in to dissecting the game here, but as we got back home Tuesday I flipped to 1460 The Fan, Columbus’ all-sports station and the flagship home for the Ohio State Football Radio Network.  They were inviting fans to call to “vent”, and for the most part there were reasonable calls and legitimate complaints.  But one idiot called in saying that Jim Tressel owed Buckeye Nation an apology for what happened.

Let me tell you something, friend- Jim Tressel doesn’t owe you squat.  All of us fans invest our time and our money in our passion for Buckeye football, but when I went to Travel Partners to sign up for this years’ trip, I didn’t see anything in the fine print promising a victory.  Florida had advantages on Ohio State in a number of areas, most noticeably in the lines, and exploited it to the max.  It always amazes me when Ohio State loses that so-called fans take it so personally.  When I was 12, the Buckeyes lost the one-point decision to Charles White and USC in the 1980 Rose Bowl that cost them the national crown.  I was wallowing in self-pity when my mom said something that has stuck with me ever since-

“Son, how do you think those boys feel?”

If you ask me to play the blame game, I’ll give in briefly and just say that Jim Tressel, Jim Heacock and Luke Fickell didn’t appear to make any adjustments whatsoever.  Why wasn’t Chris Leak blitzed more?  If you sit back, they may score in 5 plays.  If you blitz, you may get burned in one play.  So why not force Leak, a senior but with absolutely nowhere near the consistency of Troy Smith, to make quick decisions?  A turnover or two may have stemmed the tide.  And with everyone hammering Tressel for the fourth-down call to Chris Wells, I’ll go back a play earlier and ask what in the world you were sneaking for on third down. 

Let’s face it, folks, nothing went right.  No facet of the game was good.  A shot at a second national championship instead became a game to put up on the shelf with 2004 Iowa, the ’98 Sugar Bowl with Florida State, and the 63-14 massacre at Penn State in ’95.  The Bucks gave up the most points ever in the Jim Tressel era, it happened on the biggest possible stage and any bowl loss is the lasting image you have for eight or nine months. 

But you know what?  The sun came up in the “Valley Of The Sun” on Tuesday morning.  Ohio State will bounce back, people.  There were two main reasons OSU was this year’s preseason #1 team.  The fact that Troy Smith and most of his offensive weapons were back, and as a show of respect for what Jim Tressel has accomplished.  I mean, honestly, how else do you explain the Bucks being ranked at the top with all of the guys that were gone from the defense?  Yes, the stop troops came together and were a formidable unit, but did anyone really expect them to gel that quickly?  That’s partially why I’m trying to figure out why the “experts” are picking Michigan in the top 2 or 3 for next year.  There’ll be no LaMarr Woodley, Alan Branch, David Harris or Leon Hall.  Michael Hart had a great year, but what has Chad Henne really done since his freshman year?  Yet because of the offensive returnees, they’ll be highly ranked.

And consider this- What if the exact same script had played out last Monday night in Glendale, but with Michigan in place of Florida?  Think about it.

I know you all love the Buckeyes or you wouldn’t be checking out our site.  We love the team, too, and it’s a pleasure to have an outlet to be involved in our small way.  Jim Tressel got outcoached Monday night, but there’s nobody else I would want wearing the headset on the west side of Ohio Stadium.  Troy Smith had a terrible game against the Gators, but he doesn’t have to give back the Heisman and he will still be one of the best, if not THE best, big-game quarterback the school has ever seen.  OSU carried the target of being #1 through a 12-0 campaign including a legendary win over Michigan.  This team, especially the seniors, has nothing to be ashamed of.  The Bucks will be back.

I had a Florida fan sitting two rows in front of me Monday night with his son, who was probably 9 or 10 years old.  We talked with them throughout the game, and while they cheered, high-fived and deservedly went bananas with every big play, they never rubbed it in our faces.  At game’s end, as I was shaking hands with them, I told the youngster, “You treasure this, OK, ‘cause you never know when your team will have another chance at this.  You may not totally appreciate it now, but as you grow up you will.  And you thank your dad for bringing you here”.  His dad thanked me for telling him that, and we both laughed as he told me, “I don’t want him to think this is gonna happen all the time”.

I sure learned that.  I hold on to the magic of that night in Tempe four years ago even tighter now.  But the failed chance for the fifth-year guys to bookend their careers with another ring doesn’t diminish what they accomplished.

Tuesday when I got home I presented my wife with a gift.  It was a ceramic frog I had found at the gift shoppe at our hotel.  She loves frogs and I hoped she would like it.  She pulled it out of the box, and before she could really say anything she accidentally dropped it and part of one of its legs broke off- as it hit the rim of my metal Ohio State trash can.  I honestly didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.  The sheer irony of the frog breaking on my Scarlet and Gray trash can just seemed to sum it all up.  We will do what we can to repair the frog.  Jim Tressel and the football team will do what they can to make themselves better and prevent the disaster of Monday night from happening again.  I’m not about to give up on the Bucks, and while the Florida game flat out sucked, I haven’t forgotten what a great season 2006 was.

Although only a percentage of our readers are involved with our Fan Forum (and I would recommend for everyone to sign up, even if you just want to read and not comment), I’ve been pleased to see that it’s not a place for name-calling or the kind of stupidity that’s evident on talk radio.  Don’t get me wrong- everyone is passionate and our Forum members don’t always agree.  But it’s a mature, respectful group, and I’m glad to be part of it.  And even with the helpless feeling of the title game, a lot of the Forum group vented without dismissing what got the team to Glendale in the first place. 

Thank you all for your continued patronage of our website.  We’ve had great fortune with the football team doing so well, but you have to take the good with the bad, and while it would be easy to just forget about summarizing Florida, I won’t do it.  We’ll examine it again shortly, re-live better times with our top 2 greatest drives, and then lean into recruiting, while not forgetting the Buckeyes’ roundball brethren.

Joe-S-U      

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B50 Editorial -

This is What I Saw!