When the word was muttered to Urban Meyer as he sat at a podium in the illustrious Hyatt Regency McCormick Place hotel in Chicago, Ohio State's head coach wasted no time putting to bed an idea that could affect his team.
"We don't use the word defend," Meyer said at Big Ten Media Days. "We have 20 new players that weren't a part of that, we have young guys."
Actually, Meyer and the Buckeyes welcomed 25 new players to campus — after the departures of Jamel Dean and Mirko Jurkovic Jr. — either in January as early enrollees or this summer.
"I don't want to call it trying to defend it. I want to call it trying to win games in the season and be better because we had a lot of fun last year and we've had fun in the past."– Joshua Perry
Roster attrition takes place in college football with waves of recruiting classes each season meant to fill the void of those vacated scholarships left behind by either graduating seniors or early enrollees to the NFL Draft.
In rare cases, teams have similar makeup in back-to-back seasons. Just look at Ohio State in 2015. Yes, key players like Evan Spencer, Devin Smith and Michael Bennett are gone, but a wealth of young talent returns to a team fresh off a national championship season.
Still, though, 25 new faces add a bit of a different flavor to the program, even if none of them see significant playing time this fall. That's the exact reason Meyer doesn't want to call it "defending" a national title. It's a completely different year.
"This team we have a lot back, but every team is different," Meyer said. "You can't really generalize on how you handle it. Every team is different."
Ohio State returns 15 starters from a team that sliced through the first-ever College Football Playoff, taking down Alabama and Oregon to win the national title.
"People are gonna be like ‘This team is gonna repeat and they’re gonna be a dynasty,'" senior left tackle Taylor Decker said at Big Ten Media Days. "People always say we’re always going to get everybody’s best shot, well I look at that like every team that we play is gonna get our best shot, as well."
There's a mess of talent everywhere from quarterback, to offensive line, to linebacker and safety. Ohio State isn't even clear who will start under center, but Meyer, offensive coordinator Ed Warinner and quarterbacks coach Tim Beck can't really go wrong between J.T. Barrett and Cardale Jones.
On paper, the Buckeyes are loaded. They're the favorites to win it all again this season, another reason they'd rather be on the offensive than call it a title defense.
"I don't want to call it trying to defend it," senior linebacker Joshua Perry said. "I want to call it trying to win games in the season and be better because we had a lot of fun last year and we've had fun in the past."
Meyer noted how after winning his first national title at Florida in 2006, the Gators saw a complete roster turnover with many players heading to the NFL. In 2008, his other championship season in Gainesville, Meyer said they "had them all back."
That team is similar to this Ohio State one in a lot of ways, with so much skill returning and the expectations already being remarkably high.
Meyer, though, knows what it is like to put too much pressure on both himself and his team to repeat and not just enjoy the ride. He said he's set on not letting that happen again.
"Well if you remember back to '09, and I have," Meyer said. "I went back, I don't try to go back, but I did. We won 22 straight games, we went undefeated in the Southeastern Conference and it was a miserable year according to people, including myself. That's my fault.
He continued: "So we're not gonna, if we win every game this year I can assure you it's not going to be miserable. We won the Sugar Bowl I think by three or four touchdowns and 'What a bad year you guys had.' We're not going to do that. We're not going to play that game. I'm not talking about the outside influence, the inside influence would not be that."
