COLUMBUS, Ohio – When the Buckeyes take the field against the Oregon Ducks and quarterback Marcus Mariota Monday night, it will be the third game in a row in which Ohio State’s defense has been charged with corralling a Heisman finalist.
So far, they have a perfect record.
First, it was Miss Congeniality, Wisconsin running back Melvin Gordon, in the Big Ten Championship Game.
Then came first runner-up Amari Cooper, Alabama receiver, in the Sugar Bowl.
Two up, two down. And now it’s time to face Mariota, the winner of college football’s most-coveted award.
“You can’t simulate him [in practice]. I was thinking about moving a receiver sometime but then he can’t throw,” Buckeye head coach Urban Meyer said. “He is such a good athlete.”
Mariota’s performance so far in the 2014-15 season has been eye-opening: Completing 66.8 percent of his passes for 10,463 yards and 40 touchdowns while rushing for 731 yards and 15 scores.
Faced with the best offensive players in the nation, OSU’s defense has risen to the occasion multiple times, most recently against Gordon and Cooper.
Gordon finished the regular season averaging 188.3 yards per game and had scored 26 touchdowns. The Buckeyes held him to 94 yards and kept him out of the end zone in Indianapolis on Dec. 6.
Cooper went into the College Football Playoff semifinal in New Orleans averaging 127.4 receiving yards per game, with 14 touchdowns, and was held to 71 yards by the Silver Bullets, though two of his nine catches were in the end zone.
And then, there was one.
Sometimes that phrase “Next man up” can have a double meaning.