Sometimes people say to go with whatever decision feels right. That decision is not always what is logical, though. And in the end it can turn out entirely wrong.

A difficult decision faced Ohio State football coach Jim Tressel Saturday.

After falling behind by 21 points, the Buckeye offense was on its way to a comeback. Then it happened – starting quarterback Craig Krenzel was taken down in the back field, and he didn’t want to leave the comfort of the turf. He was quickly ushered to the locker room to survey the damage.

Scott McMullen strapped on his helmet, took a couple of warm-up throws, and then went to command the huddle. It wasn’t the first time McMullen found himself in this situation. Earlier this year he took over when Krenzel sustained a head injury against Penn State. McMullen led the Buckeyes out of a 10-point deficit to a one-point victory over the Nittany Lions.

So now let’s set the scene in Ann Arbor a little further. There was 4:40 left in the third quarter. The Buckeyes had the ball on their own 7-yard line, and they were down by 14. It wasn’t as though the OSU offense had not shown like it was known for doing earlier in the season, though the running game was virtually absent against Michigan. Through the air, OSU had already scored 14 points and was looking alive.

There are some key differences between the quarterbacking styles of Krenzel and McMullen. Krenzel runs the field when he has to make quick decisions. He has the ability to recognize when it is vital to throw the pigskin away in a third-down situation. Krenzel can scramble and isn’t afraid to rush the ball and take a hit or two. McMullen leads an entirely different football scheme. Instead of preferring to hand the ball over to a back or to throw a short screen pass, McMullen commands the wide-out formation and looks for the deep pass.

Being down by 14, McMullen’s style of football works in time-constrained situations. And he proved this as he brought the Buckeyes within seven on his first full drive as the signal caller. With 93 yards in front of him, McMullen completed 5-of-7 passes including a 40-yard connection with Santonio Holmes.

Meanwhile Krenzel was in the locker room getting diagnosed with a shoulder injury. The trainers were frantically trying to numb the throbbing pain and to prod the senior back to the field to finish out his final chance against the Wolverines.

When the starter returned to the sidelines Tressel thought putting him back in the game was the right thing to do. It was the right thing to do because Krenzel was the veteran starter for the Buckeyes at that position in his final regular season game. It was the right thing to do to make Krenzel feel appreciated. And it was the right thing to do if the second stringer wasn’t doing his job.

The problems with this thought process, though, were that McMullen was doing his job and the decision was only the right thing to do for one player on the entire squad, namely, Krenzel. When McMullen took the field it did not turn into a total disaster for the Buckeyes. True he does not have the experience of Krenzel in game situations similar to this one but McMullen has contributed to OSU’s efforts this season. Then there are the 25 other seniors, including McMullen – the ones that deserved a chance to claim a third victory over the Wolverines and potentially head into a repeat national title game.

That chance was stripped from them, though, as Tressel did what he felt was right instead of doing what was logically necessary for that chance. Tressel put in an injured quarterback who was struggling slightly to connect with his receivers even before he went down. Krenzel had overthrown on key passes. One was a short pass up the middle to an open Ben Hartsock, and the other was a deep pass up the right to Michael Jenkins that had potential to go all the way to the end zone.

As Krenzel took the field, it was clear that he would not be one of those miraculous quarterbacks – the kind where adrenaline pushes past the pain and they somehow lead their team out of the trenches into a victory.

Really, not being that quarterback should not shame Krenzel – they are rare and unnatural. Krenzel threw three incompletions in a row. He was not placing the ball correctly as he threw the ball into excellent defensive coverage and failed to hit Hartsock in the center.

It was time for Tressel to realize that he gave Krenzel a final shot at scoring. It was time for Tressel to walk over, put his arm around the quarterback, and tell him that it has been a great season and he wants him to start another national championship game before graduating. But what it was time for and what actually happened differ completely.

Instead of inserting McMullen on the Buckeyes next offensive opportunity, Tressel stuck with Krenzel, who continued to struggle. There were a little over seven minutes to play, and OSU was again down by 14 points. Krenzel completed one pass for seven yards and after an incomplete pass was sacked for a loss of seven to bring the drive back to its starting point.

A keen eye saw Krenzel sulk over to the sideline and hold a discussion with an anxious McMullen after that drive. It was probably the time when Krenzel admitted his defeat and handed the torch over because with 2:28 left, McMullen came back in to finish out the struggle.

If only that revelation had been made five minutes earlier, the Buckeyes might have put the game in overtime. On a day that could have been McMullen’s greatest, the senior wasn’t given the tools necessary to have it be such.

Then again, every Buckeye fan has to face the music at some point. The Michigan Wolverines played a better game than the Ohio State Buckeyes. Lloyd Carr coached a smarter game than Tressel, and the nation’s top defense gave up 35 points to the 100-game rival.

When everything lines up, the Buckeyes had a chance when they entered Michigan Stadium, but they lost that chance because of a number of decisions, one being that Tressel concerned himself more with what his starting senior quarterback would want than with what his team would need.

Melanie Watkins is a senior in journalism and the sports editor of The Lantern. She can be reached for comment at [email protected].