Buckeyes Fall Back To Earth

Welcome back to The Professor, a weekly guide to what we learned in college football. For more from Week 12 in college football, check out our five takeaways and game recaps from Saturday night. Week 12 Takeaways: Clemson, Iowa are the last undefeated teams Game Recaps: Michigan State 17, Ohio State 14 | Notre Dame 19, Boston College 16 | Baylor 45, Oklahoma State 35 | Oklahoma 30, TCU 29 | Florida 20, Florida Atlantic 14 (OT) | Ole Miss 38, LSU 17 | North Carolina 30, Virginia Tech 27 (OT) | Connecticut 20, Houston 17 | Oregon 48, USC 28 | The Citadel 23, South Carolina 22 | Mississippi State 51, Arkansas 50 * * * Two weeks ago, to justify the placement of Ohio State at No. 3 in the top 25, College Football Playoff selection committee chairman Jeff Long said that even though the Buckeyes had been inconsistent and weren’t scheduled to play their toughest opponents until the end of the season, the committee believed the Buckeyes had not played their best football yet. This was an odd statement to make, given that the committee’s job is to rank teams based on what has happened, not what might happen in the future. However, the logic itself seemed reasonable. The defending national champions had not lost since September 2014. They returned much of their talent from the team that won the title. They have one of the nation’s best coaches in Urban Meyer. While they had some struggles — particularly on offense — over the first two months, they remained perfect and were in the midst of a run of five straight wins by double-digit points, with Ezekiel Elliott rattling off 100-yard games with ease and the defense mostly meeting expectations. Ohio State had problems, but at times they felt a bit exaggerated because of what we expected the Buckeyes to be: a machine that would dominate hapless opponents on a weekly basis. Instead, the Buckeyes looked good but human in starting 10-0 against a schedule in which its best wins were against Virginia Tech and Penn State. …

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