In his sermon Sunday, the priest said that the Lord wanted everyone to be saved, even Ohio State fans, but that it was a certainty He would draw the line at a Buckeyes’ victory over LSU in the BCS title game Monday night.
And here we thought God had forsaken only Notre Dame. Now there’s legitimate concern He has it in for the Big Ten too.
How else to explain the conference’s difficulties in recent bowl games? OK, beyond a relative lack of speed?
Ohio State finds itself with the weight of the world on its shoulders, fair or not, whether it wants the burden or not. Whether the conference will be referred to as the Big Ten or the Not-So-Big Ten on Tuesday morning will depend almost entirely on how the Buckeyes handle themselves against LSU.
“For about a month straight, all you hear is not only how you can’t win but how you don’t deserve to be in the game,” Ohio State defensive back Malcolm Jenkins said. “So in the back of your mind, it’s a flame that’s going off.”
You might think that in a bizarre, crazy, your-adjective-here college football season, at least a few voices in the wilderness would be saying the Buckeyes have a chance of toppling LSU. But if there are any, they’re whispering. This is attributable to Ohio State’s embarrassing 41-14 loss to Florida in last year’s championship game.
And it doesn’t help that the Buckeyes are 0-8 in bowl games against the Southeastern Conference, of which, by the way, LSU is a member.
Or that, perhaps especially, the mighty Big Ten is 3-4 in bowl games this season.
Much of this goes away — for Ohio State and the conference — if the Buckeyes dispatch the Tigers on Monday night in the Superdome.
Taking care of an entire conference’s shortcomings is a lot to ask of one team. The Buckeyes argue that they’re not their Big Ten brothers’ keepers, which is technically correct but not even close to the truth perception-wise. If Ohio State loses Monday, the piling on will be epidemic.
The seed was firmly planted last year, when Florida put that major hurting on a forlorn group of players from Columbus, Ohio. The Buckeyes were exposed as slow — or at least they were exposed as not nearly as fast as the Gators, who looked like they were from another world, not just another conference.
“As much as you try to put it on the back burner and try to forget about it, there’s no way of forgetting about it,” fullback Dionte Johnson said. “You still have that bitter taste in your mouth. I can close my eyes and go through that whole game like I’m still there.”
The question is whether Ohio State has somehow gotten faster in the past year and whether LSU, by virtue of being from the SEC, will be uncatchable. The answers would be appear to be no and yes.
“I think we have speed just as much as anybody in the country,” OSU quarterback Todd Boeckman said. “It’s not all about the SEC speed. I think we have guys that can run also.”
The last team to look as outmatched as Ohio State did against Florida was Notre Dame in a 41-14 loss in the 2007 Sugar Bowl. To LSU.
Maybe this is about the SEC’s speed.
Speed can come from anywhere, of course, but it seems to be concentrated in Florida, Texas and California. That’s not prime Big Ten recruiting country. Perhaps the woolly mammoth isn’t particularly well-suited to this environment.
In the 2006 season, the Big Ten went 2-5 in bowl games. Are we seeing a trend or the future?
Not to rub it in, but life hasn’t been very pretty in men’s basketball either. In 2006, no Big Ten team made the Sweet 16 of the NCAA tournament. Last year, only one did — runner-up Ohio State.
It’s up to the Buckeyes again to help salvage something for the conference. To this point in the bowl season, the lasting image of the Big Ten is of USC beating up on Illinois 49-17 in the Rose Bowl. That would be the same Illinois that beat the Buckeyes in Columbus during the regular season.
Last week, the Ohio State coaching staff presented each player with a DVD containing the lowlights from the debacle in the 2007 BCS title game. The message in the act of putting together such a horror film was that anger can carry a team a long way.
Then again, speed can get you there faster.
The Big Ten might not be happy about its lot in life, but Ohio State has a chance to change perceptions Monday night. A little divine intervention would be appreciated.
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rmorrissey@tribune.com
