COLUMBUS, Ohio – This wasn’t supposed to be Ohio State’s year.
Even before losing one — then a second — star quarterback, coach Urban Meyer’s third year on the Buckeyes sidelines was supposed to be a table-setter for what was coming.
The Buckeyes came into the season with four of five new starters on the offensive line and without their leading passer, rusher, receiver and tackler from the year before.
Yet here they are, meeting Alabama at the Sugar Bowl (8:30 p.m./ESPN) in a national College Football Playoff semifinal
It’s been a weird season, with an awful loss and 12 frequently spectacular wins, record-setting performances by veterans and especially important contributions from stellar youngsters.
Now, it’s time for two coaches with six national titles between them to square off and renew what appears to be something of a personal rivalry.
The Buckeyes’ Urban Meyer is the nation’s winningest active coach, with two national championships on his resume; Alabama’s Nick Saban is a four-time national champion and owns a 2-1 record against Meyer:
2010 – Alabama 31, Florida 6 (Florida Field; Gainesville, Fla.)
2009 – Alabama 32, Florida 13 (SEC championship game)
2008 – Florida 31, Alabama 20 (SEC championship)
Meyer is 7-2 in his career in bowl games and 15-5 all-time on neutral fields. The Buckeyes are 36-3 overall under Meyer, second-highest winning percentage among FBS teams since the start of 2012, and enters the game having won 11 in a row, the second-longest active streak in the nation.
OSU and Alabama have met just three times the Tide has won all three games.
Although the Crimson Tide has spent most of the season at or near the top of various polls and rankings and the Buckeyes have had to claw their way back to the top four, neither team appears to enjoy a dominant statistical edge.
Ohio State (12-1) is ranked eighth in the NCAA in total offense with 507.6 yards per game and fifth in scoring offense at 45.2 points per game. The Tide (12-1) gains 490.5 yards and scores 37.1 points per game.
The Buckeyes’ offense has had to absorb numerous setback, not the least of which was the loss of two Heisman Trophy quarterbacks in a single season. Two-time Big Ten Offensive Player of the Year Braxton Miller reinjured a shoulder in training camp and never played a down.
His replacement, J.T. Barrett, a redshirt freshman who had not taken a snap in a game since high school, stepped into the breach and started the season and disappointing 1-1 before exploding to amass 3,772 total yards and a Big Ten-record 45 touchdowns, rushing and passing.
Then Barrett – near the front of the Heisman voting by the final game of the regular season – went down in the fourth quarter of OSU’s win over Michigan and was replaced by sophomore Cardale Jones, who was merely named the Big Ten Championship Game MVP the following Saturday after throwing for 257 yards and three touchdowns in his first career start.
Ohio State’s defense, led by sophomore Joey Bosa, Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year and a unanimous All-American, holds opposing offenses to 328 yards/game while Alabama allows only 312.4.
Bosa, a finalist this year for the Lombardi Trophy, Bednarik Award and Ted Hendricks Award, recorded 50 tackles, 20 tackles-for-loss and 13.5 sacks.