COLUMBUS, Ohio – It’s been a driving force all season: Somebody puts them down or praises an opponent and the next thing you know the Buckeyes are celebrating on their way off the field.
Fans are invited to gather on Borror Drive, on the north side of the Schottenstein Center, before 2:00 p.m. Friday to wish the team good luck. Buses are scheduled to leave the Woody Hayes Athletics Facility around 2:15 p.m. Parking for fans will be free in the surrounding athletics facility lots.
Oddsmakers have made Oregon (13-1) nearly a one-touchdown favorite in Monday night’s national championship game in Arlington, Texas (8:30p.m./ESPN).
Head coach Urban Meyer admits to playing the underdog card in the past, but wasn’t sure he would use it fire up this team.
“It depends where we’re at. I don’t, like, pull out my underdog script that we have in my file there. It’s what kind of team you’ve got, who are we playing?” he told reporters. We played since I’ve been a head coach, we’ve gone berserk with it a few times and there’s other times, this last one, we didn’t really play it up much.
Many of the TV pundits also like Oregon to grab the inaugural playoff crown and Sports Illustrated predicts the Ducks will win 45-41, possibly jinxing them, however, by putting receiver Byron Marshall on the cover.
The Buckeyes (13-1) take it personally and seethe while awaiting a chance to prove the experts wrong in a third consecutive game.
Meyer didn’t need the underdog speech on New Year’s Day. Wisconsin delivered a very effective pep-talk when the Badgers beat Auburn 34-31 in overtime at the Outback Bowl just hours before Ohio State kicked off against Alabama at the Sugar Bowl.
“I really believe that the shot in the arm was Wisconsin beating Auburn,” Meyer said. That’s when I saw everybody walked a little different to the bus and when I saw that…I could see everybody: That was the legitimacy of what they have done.”
Ohio State rallied to beat the Crimson Tide, which had been favored to win by 9½ points.