Look, I know a lot of pundits and Ohio State fans are at the point where the Buckeyes have to win every game by 50 points and win the national championship, or the season is deemed a failure. I think that’s ridiculous, but it is what it is.
This was a great season, by any rational measure. If you are an Ohio State fan, you define season success by whether you beat Michigan. This year, the Buckeyes trounced the Wolverines, in Ann Arbor. Michigan was a darned good team — they smashed an SEC team, Florida, in their bowl game today. And then Ohio State won its bowl game today, convincingly beating a very solid Notre Dame team in the Fiesta Bowl. Those of us who lived through the Cooper era will never forget it, and will always treasure every win against That Team Up North and bowl game opponents because we will always remember, with a grimace, what it is like to end a season with a painful belly flop.
People are upset because Ohio State lost one game, played in a driving rainstorm, on a last-second field goal. But when your team finishes 12-1, wins its crucial rivalry game and pounds a traditional power in a New Years Day bowl game, you can’t fairly be heard to complain. If you do, you’re really as spoiled as the appalling Affluenza Kid.
A lot of Buckeyes have made the last few years really enjoyable for those of us in Buckeye Nation and will (in some cases probably) be moving on. Thanks, Braxton Miller! And Joey Bosa. Ezekiel Elliott. Cardale Jones. Taylor Decker. Adolphus Washington. Joshua Perry. Jacoby Boren. Other seniors who have won 50 games in their four years. And, perhaps, some other juniors who think it’s time to take their talents to the NFL. They have accomplished everything you could ask for, and I will always remember cheering myself hoarse and screaming “ZEEEEEKE” as last year’s national championship game wound down and I got to celebrate a year where my team and many of these same players and coaches won it all.
Thanks, guys, to all of the players, to head coach Urban Meyer and the rest of the coaching staff, and to everybody else who is part of the Ohio State football program. It’s been a pleasure, and today was the cherry on top.
Webner House 