Fresh off a win at Camp Randall, the Ohio State Buckeyes are setting their sights on a return to the BCS Championship Game. Pollsters have thrown up several road blocks with Southern Cal, the team the lost to being one of them.
How can the Buckeyes even think of the game in Miami on January 8th? Simple: The Buckeye backfield is now vastly different than the one that got hammered 35-3 in Los Angeles. Heisman candidate at the time, Chris Wells, was not in the game. Terrelle Pryor was splitting time at QB.
By season's end the Buckeyes should have a full-fledged attack.
These are Terrelle Pryor's Bucks. They run options. They pass. This is not the team that lost to the Trojans.
Sitting at No. 14 heading into Saturday here's how they can do it:
- S. Florida and Auburn lost
- Ohio St has Penn St. at home (signature win)
- Oklahoma has dates with two top 10 teams then a Big 12 Championship game.
- Texas has dates with three top 10 teams then a Big 12 Championship game.
- Wait for Georgia, Florida, Alabama and LSU to beat the crap out of each other and then a SEC Championship game.
- BYU still has a tough game or two.
However, it won't be an easy task just to move up. Pollsters sent a clear message last weekend when Ohio State didn't budge when there were several upsets. The most succinct message was heard in Los Angeles.
Unranked Oregon State upsets the, then No. 1, USC Trojans and the Southern Cal dropped only to No. 9. The message: the real USC team is the one that hammered the Buckeyes and not the one that was out-schemed buy the other OSU in the Pacific Northwest.
But, in their haste to keep the Buckeyes out of the BCS Championship Game, the Pollsters may have said that they'd rather have BYU, a non-BCS team or a two-loss SEC or Big 12 team.
10 comments Last one added 9 months ago — Leave a Comment
Edward Degtyaryov 9 months ago
I like your artical. Who do you think will go to the BCS Champinship game? Who will win?
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Mike Martin 9 months ago
It's a bit early to tell. Oklahoma has a tough road ahead. I see a big clash between them and Mizzou in the Big 12 Championship Game. If someone gets out of the SEC with only one loss they'll be in it. I'm not sure.
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Edward Degtyaryov 9 months ago
O.K. We know that you do not know who will go to the champinship. But who will win Satuerday's game between Mizz and Oklahoma. And i do not know is not an opiton.
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Benjamin Crane 9 months ago
While I won't rule out the possibility of the Buckeyes playing in the national championship game, I do think that it is extremely unlikely. If they lose one more game I think they can be safely written off. If they do manage to run the table (which they are capable of doing), they still have some problems.
1) USC - USC beat them soundly, then lost to Oregon State. That loss doesn't look very good, and ties the Buckeyes to USC. They need USC to do well, or else the loss to USC just looks worse and worse. If USC runs the table, 1) they'll play in the national championship, or 2) they'll go to the Rose Bowl, and that puts everyone in a bizarre quandary. No one will want to put Ohio State in the championship game with one loss to USC when USC isn't good enough to be in the championship game, but they won't want a rematch in either the championship game or the Rose Bowl either, which is where Ohio State would go as Big-10 champions.
2) SEC - The SEC is regarded as the strongest conference, and given the last two years of Ohio State getting blown out by SEC teams, I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say that a two-loss SEC champion goes to the national championship over a one-loss Ohio State.
3) Big 12 - Ditto the SEC for a one-loss champion from the Big 12.
4) BYU - BYU still has some tough games, at TCU, and at Utah, to play. If they win those convincingly, and don't drop any other games, then I think the pollsters will put BYU in the championship game over Ohio State with one loss.
5) Ohio State - At the beginning of this season, I really wanted to believe in Ohio State. They have loads of talent and a great coach. I thought that no one was going to believe in this team after two national championship blowout losses in a row. I was sure they were going to win at USC and blow away all the competition, and still get snubbed just because of the previous seasons. I was ready to complain on their behalf come the end of the season. But instead they've looked vulnerable against lesser competition, and got blown out by USC. I just don't see anyone giving this team the poll votes they need to get to the championship game, barring total collapse for every other team ranked above them.
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Edward Degtyaryov 9 months ago
Unless USC flaters at some point in the season there's no way that Pollsters will allow the Bucks to leapfrog them.
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Cody Blubaugh 9 months ago
Mike,
Even with the BIG win at Camp Randall, there are some problems that need addressed with this team, far too many to be thinking National Championship game.
Wisconsin absolutely shoved the ball down our throats, and we knew it was coming. I personally want to see this team grow and improve, rather than slide into the NC game and receive another shellacking. The Big Ten title is all this team should be aiming for at the moment. I understand that with Beanie and Pryor in the backfield, we are a different team than against USC, but the two just don't mask all of the problem areas with this team.
I for one, am glad we were pummeled at USC, as unlike with last year where we beat up on lesser teams, it showed the Buckeyes what they needed to do to improve. We would all like to see another appearance in a the NC game, but this team has a long way to go to match the caliber of the Oklahoma's and the USC's of the world. I'll gladly take a Rose Bowl.
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Jeff Smirnoff 9 months ago
Great points, Cody.
A clean record in the Big Ten and a Rose Bowl rematch with USC would be great after the schellacking in LA.
Anything else would be gravy and the pollsters will make it almost impossible for OSU to get back to the BCS Championship Game. OSU has no one to blame for that fact but themselves based on their play in the last two and versus USC.
Playoffs would make too much sense!
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Doug Kraus 9 months ago
All those things that have to happen equal OSU getting into the NC through the back door - or so it will appear. I completely gave up on the idea and instead have focused on a Rose Bowl bid. However, if OSU is going to make it to the big game, I hope it is after the last games are played and something really weird happens to give the the bid. That way all the OSU haters can hate them even more.
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Chad Dinger 9 months ago
It is true, Ohio State is not out of the MNC game. However, at this point, neither are Northwestern and Vanderbilt. All they have to do is win out and get the right loses.
I would like to see MNC talk limited to teams that mostly control their own destiny and not teams that need a bunch of help. Now that said, if in 3 or 4 weeks Ohio State has dominated and others have faltered and the Bucks are around the 5 or 6 spot then yea, let's dream... but now is really premature. Especially seeing as the Bucks could easily lose 2 more games this year.
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Mike Martin 9 months ago
If the Buckeyes can win-out the table is set with the right teams ahead of them all beating the crap out of each other.
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