In 2009, the Florida Gators were going for immortality. With 11 starters returning on defense, and Tim Tebow, Mike Pouncey and Aaron Hernandez leading the way on offense, the team that shut down Sam Bradford and Oklahoma for the national title was expected to put together one of the greatest seasons in the history of college football. And it almost pulled it off. But even a 12-0 regular season wasn’t enough to overcome as joyless a campaign as any great team had ever put together. There was Tebow almost getting his head taken off by Kentucky – and the controversy that ensued. There were close wins over good, not great, teams that made everyone complain about why the key SEC wins weren’t more impressive. And along the way, the team acted and played tighter, and tighter, and tighter, until Alabama came in with the right attitude, the right talent and a big bag of knuckles in a 32-13 SEC championship beatdown that made Tebow cry and put Urban Meyer in the hospital. 2015 Ohio State has an older, wiser Urban Meyer, and now his top task for his top team is to learn from the past. Have fun with this, Ohio State. Because Meyer is a football coach, he’ll say all the typical things about how this year’s team hasn’t earned anything, and he’ll turn into Lou Holtz of the early 1990s going Chicken Little about how there’s no way the Buckeyes can beat some vastly inferior team, but this is the No. 1 team in college football coming into the season, and there’s no reasonable or rational argument for anyone else. Of course, Meyer doesn’t want this loaded squad to relax, and he certainly won’t want it to feel any sense of entitlement, but in a long, long season like Ohio State is hoping to have, keeping the intensity through a weak first ten games – no, going to Virginia Tech and hosting Penn State and Minnesota won’t be that big a deal – will require more of an even keel and more of a business-like approach. Considering all the pressure and all the attention the team will be under – it’ll be national title or bust – it has to be able to stop and smell the roses, while also pushing to be better than the Rose Bowl. It’s time for Ohio State to accept the brutally harsh fact that it’s probably better at playing college football right now than everyone else, so it needs to own it.Meyer will argue that the 2015 team needs to build up the swagger the 2014 squad found during the course of the season, but turning the screws to get jacked up for Maryland or Rutgers isn’t going to make that happen. The Buckeyes have to be relaxed, healthy, and rested by late November, or Michigan State just might be 2009 Alabama. As the world learned last year, it’s possible to lose a game at home to a mediocre team and still win the national title. All that matters this regular season is that Ohio State has no more than one loss by the time it faces Michigan State and Michigan to close out the regular season, and then it’ll be time to turn it on. To get there, though, the team needs to be as fresh as possible. Think about it this way. If Ohio State gets to the College Football Playoff national championship, it’ll have played 30 games in the span of 16 months – Urban can’t wear his guys out, because it’s all there. The O line should be punishing with four starters back up front to crush and kill for Ezekiel Elliott and a deep backfield to run wild. The receiving corps has weapons, and, allegedly, the Buckeyes have a decent quarterback or three. Joey Bosa, Darron Lee and Joshua Perry form the base of a pass rushing terror of a defense. The secondary will be a rock, the linebacking corps is phenomenal, the replacements are there up front, and there’s depth and young upside almost everywhere. Throw in the peerless coaching staff and a 38-3 record in three years under Meyer, and for a program used to glory and winning and dominance, what’s going on right now in Columbus, and what might happen this year, could be all-timer type of amazing. And the Buckeyes don’t even have Tebow under center. What You Need To Know About The Offense: A lot depends on who the starting quarterback is throughout the season – it’ll take on a different look if and when Braxton Miller or J.T. …
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