With Penn State taking on Ohio State Saturday, we went straight to the source for an inside look on Buckeye football. You could forgive Ohio State fans for thinking it would be easy: Not only did the Buckeyes return the overwhelming bulk of last year’s team that skated to the national championship last season, but they came into this season as not only, essentially, a unanimous Number One, but with a schedule that didn’t even hint at trouble until November. But while the Buckeyes have held up their part of the bargain, and enter Saturday’s match-up undefeated and still top-ranked, it’s been a bit of a grind. Ohio State squeaked past Northern Illinois, couldn’t put away Indiana, and even let Maryland hang around before pulling away from a team that was hours away from canning its head coach. Now, in comes Penn State, an obviously flawed team but one that gave Urban Meyer more of a scare last year than any other team in the country could. So, the ultimate question is which Ohio State team will show up tomorrow: The reigning national championships with a clear path to the Big Ten championship and the College Football Playoff, or the talented team that hasn’t quite put it together for four quarters yet, and plays down to its level of competition? Chad Peltier, of Land-Grant Holy Land, our SBNation sister site, covers the Buckeyes and thinks that just maybe, those two are one and the same. We thank him deeply for his insight and graciousness. Black Shoe Diaries: Ohio State is the #1 team in the country, but they haven’t quite played like it, despite a pretty soft schedule. Are Ohio State fans hitting the panic button, or are they confident this team will look like last year’s Florida State squad–making it through the regular season unscathed but playing down to their opponents? Land-Grant Holy Land: I think the main concern among fans is that this team is 2014 Florida State – playing down to opponents until getting blasted in the Playoff or at the end of the regular season…against Michigan, for instance. I’d say the fan base is split in three groups. …
Continue Reading: Brief Interviews with Hideous Men: Buckeye Edition
