Because, see, as a lifelong follower of college football, I’ve come to realize disaster is a way of life in this sport.
They could call it, “Waiting for the other shoe to drop ball” because that’s how most seasons feel once you’ve been burned a time or two by thinking you know which teams are good and which are not.
Is there any other sport where everything can change so much from week to week?
Yes, the NFL is similar (just look at the Steelers’ Weeks 3 and 4), but the stakes aren’t as high because there are more games. The cream still rises to the top, and a high enough percentage of the league’s teams play each other every season to get a reasonable idea about who really is good and who is not.
In college football, schedules are still disparate enough we will never get a full, clear picture of who is really the best. Lots of stuff happens and the chips fall where they may. Then two or four teams play for the championship, then we start it all over again.
Anyway, about that “disaster” thing.
I’ve seen a lot of disasters in my day. I’ve seen many dominant teams turn into dust overnight.
So it’s impossible to watch Ohio State decimate opponent after opponent and wonder if it’s all fools’ gold.
But I think there really is something to the idea that competition has already given this team an extra edge.
I observed during the Buckeyes’ blowout of Rutgers that the reserves seem to come in and look pretty similar to the starters, and there is a reason for that.
Other than a handful of positions, there’s not much separation between the starters and the backups in terms of age, experience or both.
The receivers look like at least a half-dozen interchangeable parts with a handful of seniors and several freshmen and sophomores all sharing snaps. None have played much regardless of their class.
Running back is primarily manned by three freshmen.
Tyquan Lewis is a veteran returning starter, but Sam Hubbard is actually older than his primary backup, and three freshmen (two true) fill out that depth chart.
Defensive tackle? Four redshirt freshman and a junior in his first season as a starter.
The secondary is entirely new and/or inexperienced outside of Gareon Conley, but its production is off the charts thanks to players all over the two-deep.
Chris Worley has looked strong replacing Darron Lee at SAM linebacker, but Jerome Baker might be too good to keep off the field when Dante Booker is back to 100 percent. (None of those guys have played before, BTW.)
So while everyone has a plan until they get punched and rhetoric can reverse itself on a dime in this sport, there’s reason to buy what they’re selling this week in terms of avoiding complacency.
That was something that seemed to bite John Cooper’s yearly collection of NFL talent but was less a problem for Jim Tressel’s teams, whose well-documented early- and postseason troubles were often a matter of being outmanned.
But Meyer (as expected when he was hired) may have cracked that code, stacking Cooper-like classes on top of each other and getting them to play like Jim Tressel players.
If so, look out.
That other shoe just might defy gravity for the foreseeable future.
Or Indiana might shock the college football world on Saturday.
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