State of the Union: Thoughts on Ohio State's Place in the National Picture

By Patrick Maks on October 8, 2014 at 8:35 am
Urban Meyer said he'll give his annual "state of the union" this week to talk Ohio State's place in the national picture.
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Saturday morning began with a ridiculously-dressed Katy Perry doing ridiculous things and making ridiculous game predictions on ESPN's College GameDay.

So it was only natural when the college football weekend — which began with Arizona's upset of No. 2 Oregon Thursday night — ended in equally bizarre, let's-get-weird fashion.

For the first time ever, five of the top eight teams in the Associated Press poll went down on the same day to cap what was arguably the most chaotic weekend since 2007.

Meanwhile, Ohio State, which blasted Maryland on the road, managed to escape the carnage. And while the Buckeyes are still on the outside looking in when it comes to the first-ever, four-team playoff, they find themselves suddenly no longer a written-off afterthought in the national picture. Crazy how things change, huh?

With a bye week before the meat of their schedule, head coach Urban Meyer said he'll address the matter with his team. 

"I do this every year: we’ll have a little state of the union conversation because everybody’s talking about it," Meyer said Tuesday during the Big Ten coaches teleconference.  

"So we’ll talk about it, and then put it to bed and try to get better as a team because there’s still a lot of areas we gotta — you know — every team has to get a lot better in. But I think you do need to address it because I know every family’s talking about it, on campus, on TV. They’re all talking about one-loss teams and the upsets and all that. So we’ll discuss it — where we’re at, what opportunities are still available for them and then move on." 

What exactly are those opportunities?

Here are some thoughts on Ohio State's (current) place on the national stage.

Ohio State’s made significant progress since losing to Virginia Tech in early September, but whether the Buckeyes are a playoff contender remains to be seen

I was especially critical of Ohio State when it lost to the Hokies, and I still think every bit of it was fair. That said, the Buckeyes have been able to regroup and rebound in impressive fashion. A month ago, a potential spot in the first-ever college football playoff was non-existent and a return to the Big Ten title game looked like a tougher-than-expected mountain to climb.

Instead — and credit Meyer and his staff — Ohio State has found a way to restore order in the force after that sobering defeat to Virginia Tech looked like it was the beginning of perhaps more bad things and deflated expectations. 

On offense, it's night and day from the unit that was slapped around that evening. Redshirt freshman quarterback J.T. Barrett is getting better every week (we'll more on him later). The offensive line, which let Barrett get sacked seven times, is coming together. Ezekiel Elliott is emerging as the team's feature running back. Michael Thomas, Dontre Wilson and Jalin Marshall have shown flashes of being the kinds of playmakers the Buckeyes talked of having on the perimeter.

On defense, Ohio State was ultra-aggressive against the Terrapins and it paid off. The defensive line manhandled their offensive counterparts at the line of scrimmage and helped force turnovers that turned into 42 points for the Buckeyes. Joey Bosa might be a first-round NFL Draft pick in a few years and previously-unknown linebacker Darron Lee is emerging as one of the team's premier playmakers. The secondary, which has been maligned for so long, tightened itself up against an opponent with comparable speed and talent in the passing game. 

Things are coming together for Ohio State and the way it smashed Maryland should put other teams in the Big Ten on notice. 

But it's hard to tell whether the Buckeyes are a playoff contender until they play Michigan State. Choke-slamming the Terrapins was nice and all, but that hardly should be a signature win for a team and a program like Ohio State. Rather, it's a benchmark of progress for a team that was demoralized not that long ago. 

The Big Ten and its cesspool of mediocrity isn’t going to do Ohio State any favors in the playoff race, but it does mean a league title is a real possibility 

As already alluded to, the Buckeyes' league championship hopes will probably rest in a nighttime bout with the Spartans on Nov. 8 in East Lansing. Aside from the obvious and multiple layers of intrigue here (Michigan State snapped Ohio State's 24-game winning streak in the title game last year), this very well could be the best team it plays before the bowl season — or whatever you want to call it now. 

The Buckeyes should be favored in every game outside of this one considering the train wreck that is the Big Ten. On one hand, it means Ohio State — if it can indeed topple the Spartans —  does a ton for its chances of capturing its first conference crown under Urban Meyer. It would would control its own destiny in the East Division and potentially meet up with either a Nebraska team that just lost to Michigan State last weekend or a Wisconsin team that sort of inexplicably lost to Northwestern.

The path to the Big Ten title isn't paved in gold, but the Buckeyes are a contender — and a favorite — in this realm. 

Things get more complicated when you look at the national arena. The perception of the conference seems so poor that —even if Ohio State wins out and wins its league — it'll take some serious dominoes to fall for it to have one of four sports given to the best teams in college football. And as of now, the Buckeyes aren't one of them. 

J.T. Barrett is good enough to guide his team to a Big Ten title 

But, for the love of god, can we please have some perspective?

Let's start with something we can probably all agree with: Outside of a pretty bad game against Virginia Tech, Barrett has been superb as Ohio State's starting quarterback. And needless to say, he's also been leaps and bounds better than probably most people expected him to be after it was officially announced Braxton Miller would miss the season after re-tearing the labrum in his throwing shoulder a week before the season-opener against Navy.

With every game, Barrett seems to have improved and his control over the offense was noticeable against the Terrapins Saturday. It's why he's suddenly a Heisman Trophy dark horse and why the Buckeyes, which were probably/admittedly prematurely pronounced dead after that loss to the Hokies, are very much in the thick of a Big Ten title hunt. Every ounce of praise is warranted. 

But talk of a quarterback controversy or comparing Barrett's first five starts with Miller's first five starts in 2011 is kind of dumb. It's apples and oranges. Miller walked into a dumpster fire of a season that went down as one of the worst seasons in school history. He was given a loose leaf piece of paper and some crayons and asked to paint the Mona Lisa. Barrett has a competent coaching staff that's 28-3 since coming to Columbus in 2012, capable running backs to hand it off to and a fridge full of weapons to throw to on the outside. 

You can applaud J.T. as much you want and deservedly so. The kid's been a stud and handled this season with a level of maturity far greater than that of a redshirt freshman. But let's hold off on having he and Braxton having a Thunderdome showdown to debate A) who's the better quarterback and B) who should start in 2015. 

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