Denzel Burke (above): “The Buckeye fans, the media, they just want to see the Buckeyes be the best versions of themselves.” (Press Pros Feature Photos)
The Buckeyes don’t know what it’s like to be the nation’s best team when they’re supposed to be. This year, with no reason to be complacent, maybe Ryan Day’s team can be what they’re expected to be.
Indianapolis, IN – Great expectations and Ohio State football are like a one-sided rivalry. Not a rivalry you always win. Not a rivalry you used to win but haven’t for a while.
More like a rivalry you never win.
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In your lifetime – no matter how long that is – when the realistic preseason expectation is hammer Michigan, win every game and watch the confetti fall on your beloved team in January, what happens? Something less than that. And whether they came close or not, it doesn’t matter.
They failed to come of age.
Veteran columnist Jeff Gilbert writes Ohio State football and OHSAA sports for Press Pros Magazine.com.
The Buckeyes’ best days come when they exceed expectations, when other teams fail to meet expectations and when you least see it coming. The last three times the Buckeyes won it all they were ranked preseason No. 11 in 1968, No. 13 in 2002 and No. 5 in 2014. And after that early-season loss to Virginia Tech in 2014, they fell to No. 22.
Between 1958 and 2015, the Buckeyes were preseason No. 1 eight times. Not once did they finish No. 1. Whether the Buckeyes start No. 1 or No. 2 this season doesn’t matter. Everyone inside the program and everyone who roots for the program has a singular expectation: National Champion.
How will this team handle the weight that others collapsed under?
Head coach Ryan Day and three of his best players said all the right things Tuesday afternoon on Day 1 of the three-day Big Ten Media Days event at Lucas Oil Stadium. They said their goals are to win moments and situations to build a foundation that will allow them to win all the big games. And in this new age of the 12-team playoff, there will be more big games to win.
Now the Buckeyes – young and old, experienced and inexperienced – must do the right things with the right attitudes or they will fail.
The 1969 and 2015 teams were loaded with returning players and were supposed to repeat as champions. Just like those teams, the 2024 team is loaded with returning stars. A dozen of them could be in NFL camps right now. And that might just make the difference.
The 12 chose to make another run at a championship, whether for NIL dollars, to win it all, to see themselves in the new college football video game, or all of the above. Their talent is not in question. But far more importantly, their hunger is not in question.
“The team that we have right now is working with urgency. They’re working with purpose.” – Ryan Day
Day’s media performances are not tell-all speeches. So when he says something unprompted – no matter how cliché it might sound – in a short, declarative sentence, he means it.
“The team that we have right now is working with urgency,” he said. “They’re working with purpose.”
This team, coming off three straight losses to Michigan and a Cotton Bowl sleepwalk, has no excuse to be complacent. Yes, the offensive line needs to play much better and the quarterback play must be more game-changing than last year. But a team mindset determined not to repeat the recent past matters more than anything.
“You can see the look in their eye,” Day said of the 12 who stayed when they could’ve gone.
One of the players who joined Day on the short flight from Columbus was senior cornerback Denzel Burke. He admitted he became complacent after a stellar freshman season in 2021. After a down season in 2022, Burke played at a high level again last year.
“We were talking on the plane ride over here about how you approach preseason camp a lot different now in his point of his career than he would as a freshman,” Day said. “He’s much more intentional with everything he does. I think he has a chance to be the best corner in America next season.”
The Buckeyes need that from Burke. He admitted he was quiet when he was younger, but his personality has evolved into that of a vocal leader and someone who says what he thinks.
He described the fans and media as crazy. But he also respects their passion and expectations.
No one who’s been a part of the team as far back as 2021 owns a pair of gold pants that symbolize beating Michigan.
“The Buckeye fans, the media, they just want to see the Buckeyes be the best versions of themselves,” Burke said.
The talent, the experience, and the coaching of coordinators Chip Kelly and Jim Knowles suggest the Buckeyes have more than enough to be the last team standing.
And while this team faces larger-than-life expectations, it has something going for it that past teams didn’t.
Burke, and everyone who has been a part of the team as far back as 2021, do not own a pair of gold pants that symbolize beating Michigan. And no one has called them champions of anything. Can this team avoid being wound too tight, play like it has nothing to lose, and win it all?
No reason to be complacent makes it possible for Day to earn the big wins that have eluded him since the playoff win over Clemson following the 2020 season. Still, there’s no guarantee that high levels of execution and avoiding lots of injuries will result in a career-defining season for Day.
Sometimes – like Alabama’s generationally great team that beat Ohio State after that great Clemson win – another team is simply better. But maybe this Ohio State team, one full of talent and motivation, is the one to change the narrative.
“Our job this year is just to win the moment and take care of little things, win the situations and have fun,” Burke said.
This could be the year. Then again expectations – like footballs – sometimes bounce sideways.
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