As they seek rare feat of repeating as national champions, Buckeyes embrace ‘The Grind’ ahead

COLUMBUS, Ohio A massive sign at one end of the indoor field at the Woody Hayes Athletic Center reads “The Chase,” the slogan for Ohio State’s improbable national championship run last season.

Its companion hanging at the other end says “The Grind.”

The newer one represents what will be required, not all of it enjoyable, as the Buckeyes strive to repeat. They open defense of the title Monday night in Lane Stadium against Virginia Tech, the only team to defeat OSU in 2014.

Ohio State was the first school to be voted a unanimous No. 1 in the preseason Associated Press poll, receiving 61 first-place votes in a ranking that dates back to 1950.

Virginia Tech offensive coordinator Scot Loeffler said in a recent telephone interview that Ohio State has “16 players who have first- and second-round 1/8NFL3/8 grades right now.”

Whomever OSU coach Urban Meyer sends out in Blacksburg, Va., as his starting quarterback either J.T. Barrett or Cardale Jones will likely vault to the top of the list of Heisman Trophy candidates. But he will have to fight off Sullivan Award winner Ezekiel Elliott, the Buckeyes’ junior running back, in the Heisman race.

Meyer, who won two national titles at the University of Florida, is steeling himself for the worst, and the best. The inevitable adversity and the best each opponent can give, even with a schedule that after the Hokies seemingly doesn’t include a daunting foe until Penn State on Oct. 17.

When considering Associated Press national titles, seven schools have won back-to-back championships 11 times, including Southern California’s triumph in 2004 vacated by the BCS because of NCAA violations. The 11 start with Minnesota in 1940-41 and also include Army (1944-45) and Notre Dame (1946-47). Since 1955, the feat has been accomplished eight times, last by Alabama in 2011-12, and never by OSU.

Making Ohio State history is a huge carrot for the Buckeyes, but there are more inside the Woody Hayes facility than just Meyer to provide cautionary tales.

Defensive coordinator Luke Fickell started a school-record 50 consecutive games at nose guard for Ohio State from 1993-96. He joined then-OSU coach Jim Tressel’s staff for the 2002 national championship season.

Fickell remembers 2003, when the Buckeyes had more talent returning 13 starters than they did before the 2002 campaign. The 2003 Buckeyes had 14 players drafted the following spring. But the ’03 team went 11-2 and beat Kansas State in the Fiesta Bowl.

“Learning from those kinds of things, it’s not about talent,” Fickell said last week in a news conference in the team meeting room. “Every single year, sitting in these seats, there’s going to be enough talent.

“The expectations are always big, but really people think it’s about scheme and different things like that. But the reality is it’s really how those guys all come together. It’s what they truly believe deep down in their hearts, how they handle those adverse situations, and can they stay together and handle the human elements that all the hype and things bring to the forefront? I tell them all the time, it’s harder to handle praise than it is criticism.”

Meyer is watching closely the indicators of distraction, like slipping academics and violations of athletic department policy.

“There are no ineligibility issues. Our graduation rate I was told is the highest it’s ever been at Ohio State, so those indicators have been fine,” he said. “We had a couple other indicators where we did take a speed bump where four guys won’t play. That set up the red flag to what’s going on here, but we found out they’re very isolated. Work ethic in the weight room and on the field, that’s not touchable. Those guys have done great. So far, so good.”

The speed bump was the suspensions of four players All-American defensive end Joey Bosa, H-backs Jalin Marshall and Dontre Wilson and receiver Corey Smith for the Virginia Tech game, reportedly for marijuana or academic issues.

Meyer knows the hurdles ahead. The previous two times Ohio State opened the season No. 1, in 1998 and 2006, it finished No. 2. The preseason No. 1 has won the AP national title 10 times, but only twice (Florida State in 1999 and Southern California in 2004) has it gone wire-to-wire.

“How many teams have a great year after they win the Super Bowl? How many national champions have a great year after a national championship year?” Meyer said. “There are so many outside influences that can get in and saturate your program and cause damage. But we’ve watched it very closely, and I don’t feel it at all.”

Senior linebacker and co-captain Joshua Perry said he doesn’t talk about repeating and said he hears little from teammates on the topic.

“What we talk about is coming together, being a sound team, brotherhood of trust and being nine units strong,” Perry said. “If we do that, we prepare the way we have prepared in the past, we don’t take anything lightly and nothing for granted, we’ll be able to be in a position to be successful.

“The more you start talking about, ‘How are we going to repeat? How are we going to make this happen again?’ That’s when you start losing what really happens and you start straying off the path of success.”

There is pressure. There could be distractions. Adversity seems a certainty. But junior receiver Michael Thomas seems to relish all that comes with defending a national championship.

“This is what coach Meyer came here to build,” Thomas said. “This is what guys who got recruited here, this was always our dream. We can’t get complacent. This is how we want it.”

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