Ohio State football coach Jim Tressel has not picked up the sports section of a newspaper in weeks. He doesn’t pay much attention to sports talk radio either.
As the schedule begins to dwindle away, Tressel seems to be growing a little annoyed with people asking him at every turn about his team’s No. 1 ranking in the Bowl Championship Series and its prime position to play for the national championship in this season’s Fiesta Bowl.
“I really don’t have time to worry about that stuff,” Tressel said when his team took over the No. 2 ranking just two weeks ago. “I haven’t read a newspaper with a ranking in it since the season’s began. I’m just focused at the task at hand.”
Tressel is not the only one who has become uncomfortable with each question. Every week, players are asked the same questions about what the future holds, and almost all provide the same answer.
“Sure, it’s nice to be recognized as one of the top teams,” said senior linebacker Matt Wilhelm at this week’s press luncheon. “But we are just plugging along and have to keep working to get our goal.”
Wilhelm’s response has been about as open as any player has been willing to be. Since the Buckeyes began their slow climb in the national polls, getting players to elaborate on OSU’s ranking has been almost as hard as breaking through the Buckeye defense.
“If we just take care of business, everything else will take care of itself,” said junior center Alex Stepanovich. “If we don’t win, it doesn’t matter. It’s as simple as that.”
Senior safety and co-captain Mike Doss also is not willing to stray from the normal answer.
“Our motivation is just to keep winning,” he said. “We are just getting ready for each game.”
Even with just two weeks left in the season, and the Buckeyes guaranteed a spot in the Fiesta Bowl if they win out, players are not wavering.
“It’s nice to be No. 1, but it doesn’t mean anything right now,” said junior wide receiver Michael Jenkins. “If we lose, this week doesn’t mean anything. We just have to finish out the last two games.”
Some may think Tressel and his players are avoiding easy questions, but it is to be expected with title contenders.
Although he is only in his second year as a head coach of a Division I-A program, Tressel has been around national championship teams before. In his 15 years at the helm of Division I-AA Youngstown State, Tressel won four national championships and finished runner-up twice.
That experience has allowed Tressel to help prepare his players for the baggage that goes along with being national-title contenders and in the media spotlight.
“Coach Tressel has been around championship teams before,” said senior defensive tackle Kenny Peterson before the Buckeye’s showdown with Minnesota two weeks ago. “We all listen to what he tells us, and he tells us to focus on the task at hand and not worry about anything else.”
But while the Buckeyes will not discuss the future, they are not unaware of what could happen.
“We feel we might be on the verge of something great here,” Wilhelm said. “We just prepare week in and week out, and it all just kind of steamrolled together when we hit the meat of our schedule,” he said. “We also realize that each week it has gotten a little harder, and we expect that the last two weeks of our schedule.”
