INDIANAPOLIS — After a comprehensive destruction that’s the current zenith of Urban Meyer's three seasons at Ohio State, the head coach beamed with pure, unadulterated childlike joy during a frilly postgame celebration that was supposed to happen last season.
For the past year, Lucas Oil Stadium has been a chamber of bad memories and broken dreams.
The Buckeyes, who watched their postseason aspirations crumble once here before, talked of a return to the Big Ten Championship Game like it was a divine promised land of milk and honey that could cleanse them of past shortcomings.
On Saturday night and amid a week that’s emblematic of a season marked with hardships from season-ending injuries to the tragic death of a teammate, fifth-ranked Ohio State crushed Wisconsin, 59-0, in the league's annual title bout in Indianapolis.
The triumph yielded the first conference crown under Meyer and made for a scene that was a complete exorcism of old demons that have gnashed at the insides of the Buckeyes since last December.
After going two-and-half-years without a win against a top-15 opponent, the Buckeyes seemed to absolve themselves of last year's postseason unraveling that left them empty-handed and broken-hearted.
“We were changed when we lost here last year," said redshirt freshman linebacker Darron Lee, whose voice tinged of conviction. "That refocused us. It kind of humbled us, too. We were 24-0 at that time, too. It humbled us. It brought us closer together.”
So did a stomach-turning loss to Virginia Tech in Week Two that looked like it might be just the first setback for a young team already without star quarterback and program centerpiece Braxton Miller. Three months later, that hot night in September just feels like an old nightmare because that's all it is anymore. It was duly replaced with the realization of a dream Ohio State says it's been chasing for almost three years with Meyer at the helm.
Perhaps that moment was never more striking when coach triumphantly raised a up silver football trophy on a makeshift stage at midfield that echoed back to older times.
Meyer, who captured two national championships at Florida, has been before.
But not with the Buckeyes.
And not like this.
"This is, without question, the most improved from start to finish team that I've ever been around," Meyer, who's coached for almost three decades, said.
"All I can speak to is I've been around teams that have competed and won national championships. This team, the way it's playing right now, is one of the top teams in America."
After dominating the Badgers in game where it outgained them by 300 yards and controlled the contest with a death-grip type of lock from start to finish, it's a comment that's starting to become less of an opinion and more of a fact.
With their playoff hopes at stake, Ohio State delivered an emphatic statement amid amid a trying week where its players and coaches mourned the disturbing loss of Kosta Karageorge, who was found dead in an apparent suicide less than a week ago after disappearing for four days.
And, oh yeah: They did it without starting quarterback J.T. Barrett, who blossomed into one of the nation's best players in place of the injured Miller.
It's why the Buckeyes expect to be among those who hear their name called Sunday when the playoff's selection committee makes final sense of a muddled national picture that's slowly cleared as fall turns to winter.
“I don't know how you don't put us in the top four, honestly,” senior tight end Jeff Heuerman said. “I've kept my mouth shut about that for a pretty long time.
"I'm done with that. We’re definitely one of the top four teams in the country.”
He is not alone in that belief.
“Just watch the film of what we just did,” senior defensive tackle Michael Bennett said. “We just functioned on all cylinders tonight and when you see something like that happen, you have to take a step back and wonder, well, who can’t they beat when they’re functioning on all cylinders.”
Without Barrett, who had been the fulcrum of a powerful and balanced offense, Ohio State didn’t need gimmicks or trick plays to beat Wisconsin, who entered as four-point favorites. This was a simple domination, even if it was unexpected. As clean as it gets.
In his first-career start, Cardale Jones passed for 257 yards and three touchdowns. The 6-foot-5, 250-pound gunslinger with a rocket launcher for an arm was named the game's Most Valuable Player.
And on a day that saw them amass 558 yards against the nation’s second-ranked defense, the Buckeyes battered Wisconsin’s massive offensive line and abused the Badgers’ secondary with the likes of senior wide receiver Devin Smith, who scored three touchdowns on four catches.
Running back Ezekiel Elliott ran for 220 yards and two touchdowns. At one point, he took off for 60 yards without one of his shoes.
The defense — which unraveled on this stage a year ago —held Wisconsin's vaunted run game to 71 yards on 37 carries. It made Heisman candidate Melvin Gordon look mortal. And without his steady legs, the Badgers were left without an answer for an Ohio State team that seems to finally have everything together.
“When everybody steps up the way that they did and responds to adverse situations this week, I mean, this is a tough team and now it’s a fundamentally sound team,” Michael Bennett said. “And it’s a team with passion and a vision.”
On Friday, Meyer talked of titles like they were holy relics.
"When you decide to play athletics — and football in particular," he said, "you’re measured by championships." He said they change teams. He said they bond men forever. Playoff or not.
Yet if the point of college football's new postseason system playoff is to showcase the nation's four best teams, Ohio State says it deserves in after a performance that showcased it as worthy.
“We’ve done what we can do,” senior tackle Taylor Decker said. We finished it off with a bang … we’ve done what we can. If we’re not viewed as one of the top teams, that’s out of our hands.”
But it'd sure seem like a shame.
