OHIO STATE

Hung over or hell-bent? How will OSU respond vs. Michigan?

Jon Spencer
Reporter

COLUMBUS – For better or worse, the regular season grinds to a halt for the Ohio State Buckeyes in Ann Arbor.

Coach Urban Meyer's decision to name this year's mission "The Grind" — after "The Chase" led to a 2014 national championship — has proven more prophetic than he would have wished.

The 10-1 Buckeyes have had to grind to vanquish even the biggest of underdogs, the hope being they were simply playing down to the level of their competition. But when they finally played their first ranked opponent last week in Michigan State, the results — without rehashing the ugly details — were disastrous.

Now we wait to see if the Buckeyes will be too hung over to rebound in Saturday's High Noon showdown against reborn archrival Michgian.

"There's two ways we can take this loss," defensive end Joey Bosa said. "We can feel sorry for ourselves and not come back and work and lose the rest of our games this season, which, obviously, none of us want to do. Or we can come back and use it as motivation like last year (when the 14-1 Buckeyes overcame a loss in Week 2) to get better.

Joey Bosa (97) and the Ohio State Buckeyes have had trouble reaching the bar set during last season's run to a national championship.

"Crazier things have happened. We have no idea what could happen. We still could get a chance to play in the Big Ten Championship Game."

The Ohio State-Michigan winner will represent the East Division in Indianapolis next week only if Penn State pulls the upset at Michigan State. The Spartans own the tiebreaker since they've beaten both OSU and Michigan. And even if MSU quarterback Connor Cook sits out a second straight week with a shoulder injury, the Spartans proved last week in Ohio Stadium they could win with backup Tyler O'Connor.

In Penn State, they'll be facing a team that has only one win over an opponent with a winning record all season.

If the Buckeyes fall short of getting back to Indy and into the College Football Playoff, offensive tackle Taylor Decker doesn't think it should taint what his senior class has accomplished.

"It's tough, it can be stressful for sure because of the high expectations but that's what we came here for," Decker said. "That pressure can yield great results. And it has. We've had some historic years here. We've broken a lot of records, won a lot of championships. I think that pressure, and the coaches making you feel uncomfortable (in training sessions and practice) makes you a better player. It yields great results not only for players, but as a team."

Three offsides penalties on Bosa last week, one on fourth down on MSU's game-tying touchdown drive, fueled speculation that, mentally, he has already jumped early to the NFL. Although he hasn't made it official like fellow juniors Ezekiel Elliott and Cardale Jones – who showed extremely poor timing in announcing their intentions after Saturday's loss – it's been common knowledge all season that Bosa is leaving.

He would have been a first round pick after his sophomore season and his stock hasn't dropped even though his sack total has, from 12 last season to three this year.

But if Bosa has checked out, he put on a good act for reporters Monday.

He talked about a couple of sleepless nights in the wake of his undisciplined play against Michigan State. Without elaborating, he mentioned a couple of times that he has dealt with personal battles, including his suspension for the season opener. He and three members of the offense — Jalin Marshall, Dontre Wilson and Corey Smith — sat that game out for undisclosed violations of team rules.

"Football is a stressful, stressful, stressful thing," Bosa said. "It's a great thing, brings a lot of people together and makes great memories, but it's a very stressful thing, especially at a place like this where eyes are on you 24-7. It just wears you down. This (loss) is another bump in the road, but we've gotten over things like this before and we'll do it again."

With the suspensions clouding the opener at Virginia Tech, up went the red flags. Did the defending national champs feel entitled? Had complacency already crept in? How many of the decorated players were plotting their move to the NFL?

"There's nothing that tells me anybody has selfish motives," senior linebacker Joshua Perry said. "It's not even the pressure to repeat, because that's this huge, abstract thing you look at at the beginning of the year. It's making sure we're prepared and have all the bases covered.

"It's a day by day journey, and you obviously want to see things happen; you want to see results. It's a matter of chipping away, breaking the rock every day. Having the loss makes people reevaluate what we've been doing."

Figuring out how to react to the first Big Ten regular season loss in Meyer's three-plus years as coach and how to respond to the end of the nation's longest winning streak (23 games) has overshadowed talk of arguably college football's premier rivalry.

The Wolverines, 5-7 last year under Brady Hoke, are in the midst of a renaissance with new coach Jim Harbaugh. They are ranked 10th in the CFP poll, two spots behind the Buckeyes, and are a flukey last play against Michigan State and a seven-point loss at Utah in the opener from being undefeated.

"This rivalry is so huge," Bosa said, "and it's been huge (my) last two years, but to know we're playing such a good team and it's back to how it used to be — two of the best teams in college football going at it — it makes it more exciting."

Decker said this isn't about Meyer vs. Harbaugh, or an underachieving Ohio State against an overachieving Michigan. It goes much deeper.

"The rivalry transcends me and my teammates being here," Decker said. "It's a lot bigger than that. There's a lot of people before us that made this the greatest rivalry ever. It's our duty to keep the tradition going."

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