Monday night was a cleansing of the soul of this Buckeye fan on many levels. I'll start by saying I'm 31 years old, old enough to remember losing to Michigan a LOT in the 90's. Old enough to remember the 2002 National Championship, which was a literal dream come true. Most of my real Buckeye memories have come since the hiring of Jim Tressel, whom I still am grateful for - he brought the Bucks out of the funk that was the Cooper era. No disrespect to Coach Coop, but he couldn't win the big one with piles of NFL talent.
After the 2002 National Championship, the next few years were when I REALLY got into Buckeye football. I started paying attention to recruiting, trying to understand play calling (which was painful at times with #TresselBall) and really trying to grasp the game more. I never played football, so my knowledge of it was purely from a fan perspective.
Fast forward to the 2006 season, the most amazing culmination of talent I had witnessed to that point. Beating #2 Michigan 42-39 was one of my proudest Buckeye moments. Entering the game against Florida, I was as (or more) confident as the team obviously was. I thought there was no way this "new coach" at Florida could hang with our Senator. I was wrong, and on that night - when nothing went right, my Buckeye heart was broken. I remember watching all 41 of those painful points, thinking it was unfair and that it was OUR title.
Fast forward again to the next season, when somehow - after an insane chain of events - we ended up back in the game against LSU. Obviously redemption was going to happen, right? We couldn't possibly lose this game two times in a row. Wrong, even though I think we were the better team (See: Beanie Wells) - we lost again to the almighty SEC.
A few more years go by, and I'm still die-hard Buckeye fan - and we finally get the BCS monkey off our backs by beating the gimmicky, overrated Oregon Ducks in the Rose Bowl. Finally, some level of redemption for my beloved Buckeyes. Still though, it's not quite the same. Another year goes by, and we beat Arkansas from the SEC. NOW we're getting somewhere, or so I thought.
Tatgate comes and goes, and the lowest point since the freaking 1800's comes with it - in the form of a 6-7 season capped by a LOSS to Michigan and a LOSS to Florida in a meaningless, crappy December bowl.
Enter the Urban Meyer era. I'll admit I was skeptical we would "get him", but once the news came - my immediate thought was "if he doesn't win us a National Championship I will still not forgive him for the beating he gave us in 2006". Fast forward a couple more years, and the stockpiling of an ungodly amount of pure, NFL talent - and here we are.
Last week, beating Alabama in the Sugar Bowl felt like the National Championship for me. The SEC monkey is finally and actually off of our backs. And for real this time, not via a proxy SEC team called the Razorbacks. This was Bama. This was Saban. This was Smart. This was the Alabama team that had dominated College Football for the last half-a-decade. That game meant everything, and frankly - when the result was decided, I knew in my Buckeye heart there was no fucking way Oregon would stand between us and the CFP trophy.
Monday night was the final healing of the soul for me, beating a chronically overrated Oregon team - who consistently struggles with physical, powerful teams. I love this brand of football we have with Urban, the physicality blended with the speed, with some occasional trickery is beautiful. The Silver Bullets are back, which is maybe more exciting than our brand of offense. It's a great time to be a Buckeye, and after 8 years of waiting - Urban Meyer has redeemed himself fully to this particular Buckeye fan. Scoring 42 points (which mathematically is more than 41) on the way to the National Championship meant everything.
Losing to Florida the way we lost to Florida hurt, but winning the way we won this year has removed all remnants of that painful loss. Thank you Coach Meyer, coming home means so much to the Great State of Ohio, the Great City of Columbus, and the Best Damn Fans in the Land. Bringing a Title home this year means Everything, and having the coach that started the SEC dominance on our sideline has truly brought us full circle.
