Ohio State Buckeyes: Stories from the Buckeyes Sideline, Locker Room, and Press Box by Paul Keels

Author:Paul Keels
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Triumph Books
Published: 2018-07-30T16:00:00+00:00

Ohio State quarterback Braxton Miller breaks free for a big gain in the Buckeyes’ 26–21 victory over Michigan in 2012, completing their perfect 12–0 season.

Meyer raved about his time in Florida, where he directed the Gators to a pair of national championships and played a role in transforming the SEC into a perennial powerhouse. He referred to the six years he spent in Gainesville as a “dream job.” But he knew there was a special connection to where he spent his youth, where he studied under Bruce, and where he ended up after taking a year off to regain some perspective.

“This is my home state,” Meyer said at his introductory press conference, which came two days after his hometown shut down for yet another Ohio State–Michigan battle. “And it’s great to be back home.”

The 2012 season should have been another year of transition. It should have been Meyer getting to know his team and his players grasping what he expected of them. It should have been a new coaching staff growing together, learning what worked and what did not work. It should not have been a season that ended with a zero in the loss column, even with a bit of a soft schedule. It was not always pretty. Ohio State squeaked by Michigan State in East Lansing, 17–16. It snuck past unranked Indiana in Bloomington, 52–49. The Buckeyes needed a last-gasp score to force overtime in a 29–22 win against unranked Purdue in Columbus. They also required an extra period to knock off Wisconsin in Madison, 21–14. But they kept winning.

It was the intensity of Urban and his coaches that they passed down to those players. It started with Urban. They wanted to make winning that division championship a big deal. It was the only thing they could win, but it was a way to try to really reward those players who bought into what it was that they were doing, and it planted the seeds for the start of his tenure there. It was amazing.

The Buckeyes had a postseason ban, so the Michigan game would serve as the final piece to the undefeated puzzle. They were ineligible for the conference title game and were forced to watch bowl season in their sweat pants and from the couch, with a bag of potato chips in hand. Ohio State will always circle Michigan week in black Sharpie and then highlight each day of that week with the brightest, blinding shade of yellow that Office Max has to offer. But an 11–0 team hosting Michigan and not having any bowl-game hierarchy to worry about, meaning only the Wolverines stood in the way of an unbeaten season in Columbus? Yeah, that should be enough motivation for the Buckeyes.

That game is a season unto itself. In a year like that, that had to be good ammunition for those coaches. This definitely was going to be the last game of the year. You could really make what has been a strange season end on a really good note.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.