COLUMBUS, Ohio — Ohio State won’t officially take the field as college football’s defending national champion until Sept. 7, when the Buckeyes head to Blacksburg for a revenge game against the only team to beat them last season, Virginia Tech.
But that doesn’t mean Urban Meyer will have to wait another six months to find the first opponent of the 2015 campaign.
It’s a battle that started on the first day of Ohio State’s spring practice on Tuesday and could continue all the way through a potential title defense in next season’s College Football Playoff. With a roster full of young players eight weeks removed from winning the national championship—in football-crazed Columbus no less—Meyer knows he’ll have to keep an eye on complacency as the Buckeyes inch toward the actual season.
“Do we have to be aware? We’re human beings, man,” Meyer responded when asked if he has to watch out for a sense of self-entitlement around his program. “Last year, I don’t think we had that sense of entitlement at all. This year, I’m watching it.”
Meyer said he hasn’t seen any of it from his players—yet—but there’s still nearly six months to go until the start of the season. The three-time national champion head coach has been in this position before, defending titles at Florida following the 2006 and 2008 seasons, neither time doing so successfully.
That wasn’t necessarily due to complacency—the ’07 Gators lost a lot of talent, and Meyer’s ’08 squad…
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