Success breeds more success, but winning all the time also brings the threat of a hated concept: complacency.
"Complacency is comfort," Ohio State head coach Urban Meyer said in March as he kicked off spring practice with his team, the only squad in college football fresh off a national title. "When you sit in a meeting and you sit back in your chair, you’re sitting on the edge of your chair because you might get called on and if you’re not ready it could be a bad one. That triggers things in your body to start learning.”
The feeling of being great enough and having already reached the highest point in your respective sport is something coaching staffs of championship teams deal with every year.
This offseason, it's Ohio State's turn in the realm of college football.
"Well I think the challenge is for every team — can they get better from the last day of spring ball until they come to training camp?" offensive coordinator and offensive line coach Ed Warinner said minutes after the Spring Game April 18.
"That’s gonna be a tough task, we already know that, but at the same time that’s what you look forward to as a leader. You want those situations where it’s not necessarily easy because that’ll show what you really have."– Joshua Perry on Complacency
Warinner's right — each team faces the hurdle of grinding through offseason workouts during the four-plus months between spring drills and their season opener. Not every one, however, has to deal with balancing the weight of a national title trophy on its back.
"It doesn't take long; when you go to the first practice in August and you jog out there with your team after the second practice, you know whether this team improved from today 'til then or that they didn't," Warinner said. "If they didn't, we won't be where we need to be."
Ohio State's players have become property of strength coach Mickey Marotti since the completion of spring ball midway through April, but it's on them to hone their craft and not lose a step when fall camp opens in a month.
"That’s everything. If we don’t get better as a team then our goals are not gonna happen this year," safety Tyvis Powell said after the Spring Game. "Everybody knows we’ve got high expectations and we’re trying to reach those expectations."
The expectations include an unbeaten season, a second consecutive Big Ten Championship and another berth in the College Football Playoff.
With droves of talent returning from the 2014 title team and sufficient depth available to Meyer and Co., the thought of doing anything other than achieving those goals isn't discussed at Ohio State. Finding something to improve upon, though, is the first step to avoiding falling into the pit that is houses the snakes of complacency.
"We just need to find something — especially a group of leaders — older guys on the team need to find what it is that’s gonna help us improve as a team," linebacker Joshua Perry said. "That’s gonna be a tough task, we already know that, but at the same time that’s what you look forward to as a leader. You want those situations where it’s not necessarily easy because that’ll show what you really have."
Added Powell, "If we don’t get better as a team, it’s a team sport, it’s the ultimate team sport, so you have to have depth and figure it out. We’ve gotta figure it out real soon."
Fall camp opens in less than a month, so with summer nearing completion, it's almost time to find out if the Buckeyes stayed true to their word and combated the sense of security that comes with winning a title.
"We’re firm believers in the way you learn and discomfort is good," Meyer said this spring.
Whether or not the players continue to learn and get better to avoid feeling too good about what they did one season ago is entirely on them. It's the only way to thwart the personal satisfaction of what was accomplished in 2014.
"Last year, I thought we made tremendous progress from spring ball ‘til we started," Warinner continued. "When we started in August, I saw a different football team than I saw the last day I walked out of the spring game. We're hoping the veteran leadership and the maturity of this team and the competitive nature of these guys, that they'll push themselves to do the same thing and grow as players."
