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ANN ARBOR, Mich. – Celebrating a bid to the bowl that once meant everything with roses in their mouths, Ohio State’s players might aim even higher following Saturday’s win.
Another weekend of upsets at the top of the polls has pushed the Buckeyes up to fifth in the latest Bowl Championship Series rankings, which begs the question: Are the Buckeyes still thinking about a national title?
“Oh definitely,” safety Jamario O’Neal said. “Anything can happen. On any given Saturday, anybody can lose.”
Now that No. 2 Oregon and No. 4 Oklahoma have dropped, the Buckeyes need three of the four teams above them to lose if they’re to head to New Orleans.
Such a scenario seems plausible. No. 1 LSU still has the SEC Championship Game. No. 2 Kansas and No. 3 Missouri play each other Saturday, and the winner of that game would still have the Big 12 title game. No. 4 West Virginia hosts UConn this weekend before heading to Pittsburgh Dec. 1.
For now, at least, the Buckeyes will try not to worry about it.
“It don’t matter where we end up,” left tackle Alex Boone said. “I’ll go to Alaska and play up there. We’ll play in the Snow Bowl. We just beat Michigan.”
The challengerCoach Jim Tressel wasn’t saving his challenge this week.
A week after failing to challenge a controversial fumble, Tressel instantly pulled the trigger on a potentially momentum-shifting Michigan kickoff return early in the fourth quarter.
Michigan’s Greg Matthews returned a punt up the OSU sideline to the Buckeyes’ 34-yard line, but he appeared to step out 12 yards earlier at the 46.
“Our guys were right there. They said they were 100 percent sure he stepped out,” Tressel said. “So I went to the official and said, ‘If they don’t buzz you before that next snap, I want to challenge.'”
Mission successful.
“I won my first challenge,” Tressel said. “Pretty cool.”
Whoa, NellyApparently Michigan was content to waste all their fight before the game.
As the Wolverines and Buckeyes began warmups, a skirmish almost erupted midfield.
“It was like a staredown at high noon,” O’Neal said.
At one point a jawing Mike Hart even leapt on to Ohio State’s side.
“He’s going to get his team riled up any way he can,” cornerback Malcolm Jenkins said.
But there would be no repeat of last week’s post game fight against Illinois, which saw the two schools fined $10,000 by the Big Ten. As coaches patrolled a two-foot DMZ zone, no punching or shoving ensued.
In the end, the players could only laugh.
“If they want to bark, they can bark,” right tackle Kirk Barton said. “But I’d rather be the one who bites.”
Slippery when wet“Cornerbacks are wide receivers who can’t catch.”
The old football proverb might be too cliché for some, but Ohio State’s secondary is doing everything in its power to prove it right.
For what seems to be the millionth Saturday this season, OSU’s last line of defense proved unable to intercept the opposing quarterback.
“We know we gotta make those (interceptions),” safety Kurt Coleman said. “The ball was slippery but no excuses. We have to make those plays next time.”
Coleman stepped in front of a Chad Henne deep ball Saturday, almost intercepting it before losing grip on the ball in midair.
“The picks came to them but they couldn’t take advantage of it out there,” O’Neal said. “The receivers couldn’t even catch the ball.”
Not so super MarioMembers of the Ohio State secondary weren’t the only ones dropping passes Saturday.
Wolverine standout Mario Manningham finished the day with five catches for 34 yards, but his inability to hold on to the ball stood out the most.
The weather might have played a factor, but the Buckeyes prefer to think otherwise.
“He felt us around him and that’s what did it,” O’Neal said.
OSU corner Malcolm Jenkins covered Manningham for most of the day, but the highly-anticipated battle was hardly a fight.
“It was great,” Jenkins said. “The only bad thing is we were dropping some passes too. It makes our lives easier if they just don’t catch the ball.”
As the clock ticked down, the Buckeye secondary had the last laugh.
“It was a great day for (Manningham),” O’Neal said.
Extra points Saturday’s crowd of 111,941 was the second largest in Michigan Stadium history … Former Buckeyes All-American lineman and current radio analyst Jim Lachey served as the team’s honorary captain Saturday … Third-string quarterback Antonio Henton made the trip to Ann Arbor, his first game back since his arrest in September for soliciting a prostitute. Tressel fully reinstated the 20-year-old redshirt freshman Monday after Henton pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor count of loitering for prostitution … Michigan issued a stadium-record 1,248 media credentials for Saturday’s game. The previous high of 1,140 were handed out for the 2003 edition of “The Game”.
Dave Briggs can be reached at [email protected].Zack Timmons can be reached at [email protected].
