As the defending national champions with the bulk of its roster returning for next season, Ohio State seems to be the clear-cut favorite to win the 2015 title. But like any team looking to win back-to-back championships, there's a major hurdle: complacency.
It's a word you'll be hearing a lot in Columbus from now until the Buckeyes open the 2015 campaign Sept. 7 at Virginia Tech — the lone team to defeat Ohio State last year.
You'll likely hear it beyond that game, too. Complacency is the biggest challenge the Buckeyes — and most teams looking to repeat as national champions — will face all season. As head coach Urban Meyer would say, "That's real."
"You don’t want guys to be entitled to winning games," offensive tackle Taylor Decker said back during Ohio State's first week of spring practice. "There’s a reason we won games and a reason we had the season we did. There’s a culture that’s been building here and that’s what helped us have the season we did."
“We’re firm believers in the way you learn and discomfort is good. There’s a little discomfort right now because it was not a good day.”– Urban Meyer
The Buckeyes had their third practice of the spring Tuesday and, according to Meyer, it "was not a good day." Part of it had to do with Ohio State limiting many of its veteran players due to the 2,000-rep club. As a result, younger, more inexperienced players are getting reps. They're simply not as good as the older guys and thus the on-field product won't be as strong.
Meyer doesn't like to use that as an excuse, though, and he's hoping to simply chalk it up as a bad practice and nothing else. Those things happen in spring ball.
What Meyer doesn't hope is for this kind of thing to become a trend and for the Buckeyes to become comfortable with what they accomplished last season.
“We’re firm believers in the way you learn and discomfort is good," Meyer said following Tuesday's practice. "There’s a little discomfort right now because it was not a good day."
Meyer wants his players to always be on edge, to never know what to expect. If they get comfortable, even for a short period of time, that's a bad thing.
"Complacency is comfort," Meyer said. "When you sit in a meeting and you sit back in your chair, you’re sitting on the edge of your chair because you might get called on and if you’re not ready it could be a bad one. That triggers things in your body to start learning.”
The battle with complacency is ongoing. It's certainly not the first time the term has been used and won't be the last.
Meyer knows how tough that battle is and now he's got to make sure all of his players know, as well. To the average fan, how the Buckeyes respond to a poor spring practice in March likely won't tell you much about how Ohio State will perform on the field come September.
But to Meyer, it might.
"The bottom line is today is Tuesday and on Thursday it better be better,” Meyer said.
