Buckeye Don't Believe It

Bank on it right now – Ohio State will be in the National Championship Game.

(If you’re still reading, ‘Thanks!’)

Okay, maybe not the Buckeyes football team per se, but at least some form of O-H-I-O will be representin’ in Miami come January 8.

The reasoning? It’s quite simple actually.

Since the turn of the century, heck, we’ll even go back a year to 2000, Ohio has had a profound effect on the landscape of college football.

Back in 2000, the Oklahoma Sooners, led by coach Bob Stoops, made a return to glory capturing the championship hardware.

Stoops was born and raised in the shadows of the steel mills in Youngstown, Ohio.

The following year saw Larry Coker lead an amazing array of football talent at the University of Miami.

Coker, under the guidance of OSU’s John Cooper, headed up the Buckeye defensive backs during the 1993 and ’94 seasons.

Of course, the Buckeyes won the title in 2002. (How about that folks? Yes, the Bucks actually won the title!).

Ohio State and native son Jim Tressel (Berea, Ohio) became the first DI football team to win 14 games.

Even the dreaded split championship of 2003 had ties to Buckeye culture.

Louisiana State earned a share of the crown after posting a 13-1 season. Tigers skipper Nick Saban received OSU tutelage during the 1980-81 seasons as a defensive assistant.

The other team receiving championship accolades that year was the University of Southern California.

Of course, everybody (and by everybody, I mean me) is aware of Pete Carroll patrolling the Ohio Stadium sidelines during the 1979 season.

That year saw the Buckeyes and first-year coach Earle Bruce finish with an 11-1 season, the lone defeat being a 17-16 loss against USC.

The Trojans didn’t feeling like sharing gridiron glory by winning the title outright in ’04.

2005 saw Mack Brown quiet all the naysayers when his Texas Longhorns won all the marbles.

Technically, Brown has no Ohio roots, but he did stay at a Holiday Inn Express. Plus, he, or Vince Young to be exact, beat a talented Buckeye squad in an Ohio Stadium thriller during that championship run.

Last year, Urban Meyer became a legend in Gainesville when his Gators walloped OSU 41-14 in the title game.

Meyer was born in Ashtabula, Ohio and played at the University of Cincinnati (1983-86), before embarking on a coaching career, which started in earnest at Ohio State in ’86 and ’87.

He later went on to earn his master's degree in sports administration at OSU in 1988.

And this brings us to last year when, despite two losses, the LSU Tigers and Les Miles hoisted the crystal football by defeating the Buckeyes.

Miles is a Buckeye at heart despite playing collegiately at Michigan. He was born in the Cleveland suburb of Elyria.

So, perusing the latest football polls, one can be assured of a Buckeye basking in the glow down in Miami on the eve of January 8.