COLUMBUS, Ohio — With his Monday press conference winding down, Urban Meyer was ready to get started on his afternoon activities. So as soon as the Ohio State head coach saw the direction that what he thought would be the final inquiry of the day he was headed, he seized the opportunity to address it directly.
“Does it feel like more of a grind this year than maybe you thought it might?” the reporter asked.
“Oh, I imagine you’re leading to the fact that there are expectations that are so high?” Meyer responded, rewording the question to acknowledge the elephant in the room that the Buckeyes haven’t been playing as well as many thought they would be through the first four games of their national title defense.
“Exactly,” the reporter replied.
From there, Meyer didn’t mince words.
“I could tell you no, but I think so,” Meyer said. “First you’re winning pretty soundly, playing pretty good. And the expectation level—you say, ‘Well, back when you played Alabama, back when you played Oregon in the national championship.’
“But this is a different team. Different time.”
This year’s Ohio State squad isn’t the first to find that out the hard way.
After all, it was just a year ago that defending national champion Florida State found itself seemingly underachieving, despite returning several key pieces from its title team while facing a relatively manageable schedule.
One month into the Buckeyes’ turn at defending their crown, the similarities between the two…
Continue Reading: The Parallels Between 2014 Florida State and 2015 Ohio State
