Despite the tongue in cheek subject line, I have been lingering on this thought for some time now...

I watched nearly every game of the 2014 World Cup this past summer. For me, the World Cup is the only other sporting event that can even come close to touching college football. I am a fanatic. I don't intend to boast on myself (or maybe I do just a little bit) - but I picked Germany to win the World Cup before the tournament started. *I usually lose to middle aged women in my work pool during March Madness though, a blind squirrel finds a nut eventually.

But I can recall the narrative after the Germans did in fact hoist the World Cup trophy, and that was where they may have lacked a world class superstar like a Messi or a Ronaldo, what they did have was the best overall team - A physical and imposing group that played sound defense and oftentimes dictated the flow of the game (The buzz term "Game Flow" was actually stolen by the CFP committee from international soccer).

Before the CFP began, I couldn't help but think that with all the attention being given to the superstars - Mariota, Winston, Cooper - That maybe Ohio State was more like the NCAA's version of Die Mannschaft ("The Team" - German National Team nickname). Sure we have guys like Bosa (and Zeke has emerged now, but people like lawtide and Hoss may or may not have known his name beforehand) - but when JT went down, Ohio State seemed to lack the polarizing offensive talent that the other 3 teams had.

Perhaps the greatest irony in all this is that Germany had to beat Lionel Messi's Argentina team to win their crown - And Messi is very much one of the best players in the world (He is THE best in my opinion, but 18 - 35 year old women who follow Cristiano Ronaldo in Twitter may disagree). So while Mr. Mariota is widely regarded as the best in his sport today, and he certainly concerns me as a fan, I have confidence that it is teams that win championships. And there is something about this Ohio State team.

I just don't think we are going to be denied.