Article published December 19, 2008
OSU not about to bury head in sand
Buckeyes on special desert mission
OSU coach Jim Tressel laughs with defensive back Malcolm Jenkins, but the coaches and players are serious about the Fiesta Bowl.
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ASSOCIATED PRESS
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By MATT MARKEY
BLADE SPORTS WRITER
COLUMBUS — Some folks go to the desert to clear their mind, and scour their soul. John the Baptist was not a snowbird seeking refuge from the winters of Galilee when he ventured into the wilderness.
Others retreat to an arid part of the country to benefit their physical health. They breathe the warm, dry air, and might even venture to a desert spa where old hippies arrange warm stones along your backbone, or smear your face with cucumber mud.
No such plans for the Ohio State Buckeyes. They will travel to the American Southwest in about 10 days on a mission of a different kind. The Buckeyes are going into rehab — hoping to repair and restore their image, which has been tarnished and mottled by a chain of recent losses in games of significant consequence.
Defensive back Malcolm Jenkins knows this trip to Phoenix to play No. 3 Texas in the Fiesta Bowl on Jan. 5 is the last shot at redemption for him and the rest of the Buckeyes’ seniors.
“I know the national perception is that Ohio State doesn’t play well in big games, and I can’t blame them, because we haven’t,” Jenkins said. “If you look at the last couple of big games, we haven’t played well at all.”
Then top-ranked Ohio State got blasted by Florida in the 2006 national title game in Arizona. Last season the Buckeyes got back to the No. 1 ranking and the championship game, and lost to LSU. This year there was the hyper-hyped showdown with No. 1 Southern California in September which ended up a rout, and then a loss at home to No. 3 Penn State.
“That’s something we’re not focusing on,” Jenkins said about the high-profile defeats, and the blemishes they’ve left on the 10th-ranked Buckeyes.
“We can focus on it all we want, but it’s not going to change, looking at all those games and trying to figure out what went wrong. Those games aren’t going to help us against Texas. Our focus is on showing up for this one, making sure we prepare as best we can and then execute in the game the best we can.”
Ohio State coach Jim Tressel said he does not want to separate losses into different classifications, and rank some as more momentous than others, or simply as “big” losses.
“I don’t like losing small,” Tressel said. “It’s not fun to lose, but the biggest thing I don’t like is I don’t like when we think we could have been better. Unfortunately, in most every loss you have, you can point to the things that you could have done better and that’s the things that you regret.”
Defensive back Anderson Russell said he is aware of the image problem the Buckeyes are saddled with as they head west. But Russell prefers to put his energy towards the detailed preparation for Texas.
“Our team knows that we kind of don’t have a good reputation nationally because we haven’t really performed well on a big stage these last few times we stepped out there,” Russell said.
“But at the same time you can’t really worry about that because we’re just out here getting better every day, and that’s really what we’re focusing on. We know there’s always room for improvement, and we’ve been doing that every day.”
Tight end Rory Nicol said the distress over the losses in the championship games has haunted Ohio State, but he chooses to use those experiences as a motivational implement.
“If I sit here and think about the last game we lost or the last bowl we lost, every time you get ready for a game you have an urgency to win,” Nicol said. “What I have been telling myself is, this is the last time I can influence the outcome of a game at Ohio State, where I will physically be on the field and can do something to help the team. That’s what is important for me. I think it is important we go out there and get a ‘W’ for the program, for my teammates and everybody.”
Contact Matt Markey at mmarkey@theblade.comor 419-724-6510.
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