NEW ORLEANS — The final 48 hours before the Sugar Bowl, as Urban Meyer explained on Wednesday morning, can best be described as “insanity.” How else do you expect Ohio State’s meticulous head coach to prepare for what’s the biggest game in his three-year tenure there?
As such, today marks the final, most-nuanced preparations for the Buckeyes as they gear up to play top-ranked Alabama in the first-ever College Football Playoff.
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| 2015 SUGAR BOWL |
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ALABAMA (12–1, 7–1 SEC) ROSTER | SCHEDULE |
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8:30 PM – THURSDAY, JAN. 1, 2015 MERCEDES BENZ SUPERDOME NEW ORLEANS, LA |
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ESPN | WATCHESPN.COM |
“The physical part is done,” he said. “The mental part is something we place a tremendous value on. We work the ball. We always say you work the game until the foot hits the ball.”
Ohio State, which enters the contest as nine-point underdogs, figures to have its hands full with the Crimson Tide, winners of three of the last five national championship. But the Buckeyes — which appeared loose, calm and confident during Media Day Tuesday — might also have a chip on their shoulder.
“I think that's maybe a strength of ours that the motivation of a team, the motivation of an individual,” Meyer said. “That's something that I really enjoy.”
With a trip to the national title game in Dallas on the line, though, motivation shouldn’t be much of a problem.
“I don't feel like we're going to have to rock the boat to get them fired up to play the game,” Meyer said.
After all, Thursday night marks history with the sport’s first-ever playoff.
“It's a real honor,” Meyer said, “and an honor we don't take lightly.”
Opponent Breakdown
During the offseason, Saban hired Lane Kiffin, formerly of the Oakland Raiders, Tennessee, and USC, to rebrand and refine an offense that seemed to grow stale last season. After early-season growing pains, Alabama's offense averages 37 points 491 yards. In the process, senior quarterback Blake Sims has emerged as one of the nation's top playmakers after spending most of his career as a backup.
"I don't think there's any question about the fact that Blake Sims has done a phenomenal job for our team this year," Saban said. "And I think he deserves a tremendous amount of credit, not just for his accomplishments, but all the things that he did to become what he is, because there was a lot of people that didn't think that Blake Sims could ever be the quarterback at Alabama.
Wide receiver Amari Cooper will test Ohio State's secondary all night long. / Todd Kirkland/Icon Sportswire
Alabama’s defense, which has been a staple for success in the Crimson Tide’s run under Saban, ranks third in scoring defense and 10th in total defense.
“It's pretty salty against the run, pretty salty against the pass and on offense we're a balanced run/pass. So that's the biggest challenge is trying to find that weakness, and every coach tries to do that … Alabama is the kind of team it's hard to find that,” Meyer said.
But in the pass defense, the Tide rank 58th, giving up 224 yards a game. Against Ohio State’s pass game, which has usually operated with machine-like efficiency regardless of who’s under center this season, it could present a critical battle to watch Thursday night.
“They certainly have good receivers that have made a lot of explosive plays this year. And I think that's going to be one of the key matchups in the game,” Saban said.
“So we played against a lot of good receivers all year long. Sometimes we've done a good job against those guys and sometimes we've given up some plays that we wish we wouldn't have. And I think big plays are going to be probably a key factor in this game and that's probably one of the things that we need to do extremely well in this game is play well in the back end, keep people cut off, and minimize their opportunities for big plays.”
And that, perhaps, might be Ohio State’s best chance to rattle Alabama’s defense.
Buckeye Breakdown
In a season filled with less than ideal situations and season-ending injuries, the Sugar Bowl marks the climax of a journey that's taken Ohio State from the lowest of lows to the sport's biggest stage.
Meyer has said more than once that he didn't expect the Buckeyes, a young and inexperienced team forced to play without star quarterback Braxton Miller, to reach such heights until at least next season.
Of course, thanks to J.T. Barrett, who combined for 45 touchdowns and emerged as Heisman Trophy contender, and a handful of first-year starters, Ohio State slowly but surely climbed back into the national picture after falling out in a humiliating loss to Virginia Tech.
Meyer, who reflected on this path that's taken the Buckeyes to New Orleans, said: "The great teams, coaches learn from them. I've learned from this team.
"I've learned from this group of sophomores. Someone made a point to me about the quality of players we have in this sophomore class, I guess two years ago, recruiting class and I didn't realize it, you get so busy, you start listing the names, and I've learned a tremendous amount from that.
"But most of it I learned from Curtis Grants of the world who was a nonfactor and Jeff Heuerman, who was not a highly recruited guy, has become a very, very important person in our program, and Mike Bennett, who was a guy that has always had the talent, is a great kid, great family but never flipped a switch, and he's flipped it. So, we've learned a tremendous amount from our players."
How It’ll Play Out
In terms of less quantifiable things, Urban Meyer is a master motivator and it’s shown throughout a season that’s watched Ohio State rally from an early-season loss and the absence of two starting quarterbacks in Braxton Miller and J.T. Barrett.
Based on the past few days in New Orleans, the Buckeyes respect but don’t appear to fear an Alabama team that’s at the top of the mountain in college football.
Ohio State and the Crimson Tide would appear to match up athletically. And whatever you do, throw the SEC speed myth out the window — the Buckeye can run fast, too. Devin Smith and Michael Thomas are going to have chances to make big plays against a malleable Alabama secondary.
The question, however, that lingers in the Bayou air is how Cardale Jones will perform in his second-career start. Against Wisconsin in the Big Ten Championship game, the 6-foot-5, 250-pound gunslinger passed for 257 yards and three touchdowns. Playing Alabama — even with its leaky secondary — is a different challenge.
ELEVEN WARRIORS STAFF PREDICTION: Ohio State 31, Alabama 30.
