Rod Carey lost his first game as head football coach at Northern Illinois University.
That outing, a 31-10 defeat at the hand of Florida State in the 2013 Orange Bowl, is one of only six games he's dropped in his now two-plus seasons as the head man of the Huskies.
Carey took over for Dave Doeren in December 2012, after the latter left Dekalb, Ill., to take the head coaching position at North Carolina State. Prior to Doeren's exit, Carey was the offensive coordinator of the Huskies (a post he still currently holds), its offensive line coach and run game coordinator.
Tuesday, Carey was asked during his weekly press conference if top-ranked Ohio State — the team he and the Huskies face Saturday in Columbus — is the best team he's seen. Without hesitation, Carey said yes before comparing the Buckeyes to the E.J. Manuel-led Seminoles who skunked his squad by three touchdowns.
From the team website:
"It's real similar to the Florida State team. You know, similar but different. They run a different style offense. Defensively, it's a different scheme as well. You know, listen, we played Florida State. We haven't played Ohio State yet, so I'm going off of what we played and what we see on film. So there's always the little you don't quite know yet until you see it live and in person. But I would say this is right there with as good as team as we played."
The Buckeyes are 34.5-point favorites against the Huskies Saturday, who come to Ohio Stadium 2-0 after home victories against UNLV and Murray State. They've won the MAC three out of the last four years and tallied at least 11 wins each of the last five seasons.
Such success has Carey positive about his team's imminent trip to Columbus, and even though the Buckeyes are über talented, boast loads of playmakers on both sides of the ball and are heavily favored, he doesn't plan on changing his game plan too much.
"Well, they absolutely have playmakers all over the field when it comes to their offensive football team. I don't know that it's any more difficult because you're not going to change who you are. You're going to be who you are. I think that's what we're going to go ahead and do. So you try to take away some of their strengths, try to make them go with the ball somewhere they don't necessarily want to go. Sometimes that works, sometimes that doesn't. Just like in all games. You're still not going to change who you are going into a game like this."
Kickoff Saturday is set for 3:30 p.m. It won't be the first time Carey participates in a game at Ohio Stadium: He lost as a senior at Indiana in 1993, then again as a graduate assistant at Minnesota in 1998. The Buckeyes also beat the Golden Gophers the next season in Minneapolis while Carey was still on staff.
