Ohio State Buckeyes head coach Ryan Day and Ohio State Buckeyes players celebrate Monday after winning the College Football Playoff National Championship Game in Atlanta. (Press Pros Feature Photos)
The reality of Buckeye Nation can be summed up in one thought: It’s hard to appreciate winning a national championship…because they didn’t beat Michigan!
On the morning after beating Notre Dame for the College Football Playoff National Champion in football…the sun apparently rose on some of ‘Buckeye Nation’, but not all.
What?
Whiskey, tango, foxtrot…! How can you complain about being the national champs in football, especially if you claim to be an Ohio State fan?
At 1 am on Tuesday morning my phone rang…a friend on the other end celebrating the Buckeyes 34-23 win over Notre Dame, and their ninth national title.
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“I don’t know what to think,” he said, with some heavy inference to Ryan Day and play calling late in the game. “I’m glad we’re national champs. But we could have beaten Michigan, and we didn’t.”
Moments later, a text came from a family member.
“Yeah, it was cool,” he said, paying tribute to a 14-2 season and four consecutive wins against premium competition to claim the national title. “But, you know…I would rather beat Michigan. That would have been sweet.”
Two thoughts immediately crossed my mind.
One, who’s surprised, given the number of people who didn’t even go to the Tennessee CFP playoff game because Ohio State didn’t beat Michigan…or said as much.
And two. When it comes to Ohio State football fans and Michigan , they’d bitch if you hung them with a new rope. Even when you win, you can’t win good enough!
There have been other responses this morning (Tuesday) with similar sentiments. Mostly, “It’s just a shame that we didn’t beat Michigan.” And in the meantime, in Ann Arbor a lot of Michigan people are sitting there laughing because the rivalry disease is so chronic among Ohio State fans that they can’t even appreciate winning the national championship…because they lost to us (Michigan).
As in…we own you!
At a Michigan-Ohio State baseball game last spring an usher at Ray Fisher Stadium explained the relationship between Ohio State and Michigan this way.
“It’s a big deal,” he said. “But I think it’s different here than there. I think we move on from it when we lose. They don’t seem to.”
“But, you know…I would have rather beaten Michigan. That would have been sweet.”
The usher at Michigan….
I know, too, that the majority of Ohio State fans were thrilled to win Monday and bask in the glory of a ninth national championship. Titles come hard, and they’re not always perfect. The person with their priorities and their head screwed on straight understand.
And I can’t prove that 40,000 people actually stayed away from the Tennessee game, but I’m sure there were some who are so arrogant as to believe that winning one football game is akin to, or greater than, eternal life. Pride cometh before the fall, its says in the book of Old Testament Proverbs. And that translated, means…being full of yourself can lead to your destruction.
I’ve learned to be more impartial than the average Ohio State alum because of my line of work. And yet, like Kirk Herbstreit claims, I’m always pleased when the Buckeyes are successful.
Publisher Sonny Fulks writes OHSAA sports and the Buckeyes for Press Pros Magazine.
And if Ryan Day is the most successful of all active coaches in college football (and he is), I can deduce that there’s no one out there better to replace him just because he lost four games in a row to Michigan.
I’m smart enough to know that he’s obviously good enough to beat Tennessee, Oregon, Texas, and Notre Dame for the national title. I’m impressed by that.
He’s 70-10, with a 39-4 record in the Big Ten, Sugar Bowl, Rose Bowl wins…and now a national championship. He joins Paul Brown (1947), Woody Hayes (1954,’57, ’68, ’70, and ’72), Jim Tressel (2002), and Urban Meyer (2014) as the only Ohio State coaches to have EVER won a national title…and yet he’s not good enough for you?
Because he lost to Michigan?
If your first words this morning were, “Yeah, but”, I urge you do yourself a favor. Save your money and use what you’ve got in the barn.
You don’t deserve a new rope!
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