Ohio State Football: Why 2015 Hasn't Been as Fun for the Defending Champs

COLUMBUS, Ohio — When the second edition of this season's College Football Playoff rankings were released on Tuesday night, the players, coaches and fanbase of third-ranked Ohio State each did their best impression of Buckeyes star defensive end Joey Bosa.

They shrugged.

It's hardly the reaction any posting of the playoff poll would have elicited in Columbus at this time a year ago, when Ohio State was still in the midst of climbing from its initial No. 16 ranking to the fourth and final playoff spot in a six-week span. If anything was felt, it was disappointment that the Buckeyes weren't ranked in one of the playoff's coveted top two spots, which would give Ohio State a more favorable opponent and semifinal location if the second-year postseason format were to start today.

But cries about the Buckeyes' most recent ranking—even from the most argumentative sector of its loyal fanbase—were few and far between on Tuesday night.

A part of that is perspective, the belief that with wins over No. 13 Michigan State, No. 14 Michigan and potentially No. 5 Iowa in the Big Ten Championship Game, Ohio State will be right where it needs to be when the final playoff rankings of the season are released on Dec. 7.

"We really don't care about the rankings," Buckeyes linebacker Raekwon McMillan asserted on Monday. "As long as we're in the Top Four."

Another part of Ohio State's ambivalence toward this year's rankings, however, can be attributed to the same sense of apathy that has plagued the Buckeyes' throughout their 9-0 start to the 2015 season.

Jay LaPrete/Associated Press

And while Urban Meyer admitted to this season being less fun than last year's run to the national championship thus far, the Ohio State head coach said that it was something he's been prepared for all along.

"I do believe that there's a little bit of tightness, heaviness of expectation, living up to other people's expectation, living up to our own expectation," Meyer said on Monday. "Most of the people in that locker room were together in Dallas, Texas [at the College Football Playoff championship game] and saw stuff falling from the ceiling, and then I feel it.

"But the good thing is I have experience with it."

That experience stems from Meyer having been in a position to defend a national title twice before, particularly in 2009 at Florida, when the Gators returned a combined 19 starters from the previous season's championship team. The three-time national champion head coach has repeatedly referred to not properly enjoying his final national title defense at Florida, which came to an end when the Gators fell to Alabama in the SEC title game.

"We won 22 straight games, we went undefeated in the Southeastern Conference and it was a miserable year, according to people—including myself," Meyer recalled at Big Ten media days in July. "That’s my fault. If we win every game this year, I can assure you, it’s not going to be miserable."

Prepared for what was ahead with the lofty expectations that accompany defending a national title and being voted as the first unanimous preseason No. 1 team in college football history, Meyer rid the Buckeyes of their previous motto of "The Chase," which served as Ohio State's self-appointed theme for the 2013 and 2014 seasons.

In its place—literally, new banner and all—is now "The Grind," a more accurate description of the current mindset of the Buckeyes program.

Joe Maiorana-USA TODAY Sports

Through the first 10 weeks of the season, one could argue that Ohio State's new mantra has become a self-fulfilling prophecy of sorts. There simply hasn't been as much joy for the Buckeyes as one would expect to be found in a 9-0 start to the season that has pushed the program's overall winning streak to 22 games.

Even with an average win margin of 22.3 points per game, there's been a sense that Ohio State is doing what it's supposed to do this season, if anything underwhelming without a plethora of dominating performances to point to on its resume.

"This year, I think we just have more of a target on our back," said Buckeyes wide receiver Jalin Marshall. "We did win the championship last year, and people are trying to beat us each and every week. I feel like, this year, it's harder each and every week just because of that target we do have on our back."

It also hasn't helped that through no fault of its own, Ohio State's schedule has largely been lackluster to this point in the season. Aside from a season-opening prime-time matchup with Virginia Tech, which now possesses a 4-5 record, and a mid-October battle with Penn State, the Buckeyes haven't played many—if any—games that they couldn't have won based on their talent advantage alone.

That, however, will change in the coming weeks, as after this weekend's matchup with 5-4 Illinois, Ohio State is in line for three consecutive games against Big Ten foes still fighting for their own postseason hopes. Michigan State, Michigan and Big Ten West front-runner Iowa possess a combined 24-3 record and are each ranked in the Top 14 of the current playoff standings.

While the Buckeyes' slate of opponents may have been uninspiring to this point, they're well aware of what's waiting for them around the corner.

Jay LaPrete/Associated Press

"It's definitely more serious," Marshall said of the atmosphere of the Ohio State locker room entering November. "It's a big [part] of what we do here. We train for championships in November. It's coming down to that right now.

"It gets more fun," he continued. "This is what we live for."

They may still be in the midst of "The Grind," but with what's ahead, the end appears to be in sight. In a way, that's exactly how Meyer drew it up, knowing that there's simply no way that this year's version of "The Chase" could compare to last season's.

"It is a grind," Meyer reiterated on Monday. "The whole end point was we all made decisions. You don't have to stay here. You don't have to coach here. Go wherever you want, but you have to embrace the grind because there's only one way we're going to do it, and that's work really hard. That was the whole purpose of it.

Ben Axelrod is Bleacher Report's Big Ten lead writer. You can follow him on Twitter @BenAxelrod. Unless noted otherwise, all quotes were obtained firsthand. All statistics courtesy of CFBStats.com. Recruiting rankings courtesy of 247Sports.