In early November 1998, Ohio State and Tennessee were the top ranked teams in the country, on a collision course to meet in the first ever BCS National Championship Game.

But standing in Ohio State’s way was a mediocre Michigan State led by a young and ambitious head coach named Nick Saban. Saban poured over the Ohio State film looking for some any advantage, some weakness or mismatch he could exploit. He found nothing. He honestly believed his team had no chance to beat the Buckeyes in Columbus. 

Of all people, he reached out to the team’s sports psychologist for advice. The psychologist told him to tell his players don’t worry about the scoreboard. Focus on beating them on each play not on winning or losing the game. 

Ohio State was the big loser of this advice in the short term. Saban’s Spartans upset the Buckeyes in Columbus and Tennessee would go on to beat Florida State in the BCS Title Game. In the long term, Tennessee was the even bigger loser. Coach Saban, armed with a new and highly effective coaching philosophy, would land at Alabama and beat Tennessee 16 times in 17 seasons.

I think that the solutions to Ohio State’s problems — with big games and most especially with Michigan — lie in embracing the wisdom that derailed our National Championship hopes in 1998. The sports psychologist gave Coach Saban more than an approach or a philosophy. He gave him a definition of toughness that is worth building a program around. One not focused on running the ball inside. Not even one focused on strength or physicality. One oriented around “mental toughness”, around approaching football with maximum effort on each play, regardless of what happened on the last play.

Nearly 20 years after pulling the upset in Columbus, Saban addressed an Alabama team full of future NFL stars and more thoroughly explained his views on toughness.

“Now one thing you have to do is you have to have toughness. All right, you have to be tougher than everybody that we play, but you know I’ve never stood up here in all the time I’ve been here and ever really defined toughness for you. The way I’m going to define toughness to you because I’m talking about mental toughness and I think everybody can relate to it is it’s all about what does it take to break you?

All right so if you really think about toughness and mental toughness — what does it take to break you? I don’t care what circumstance you’re faced with. What does it take to break your focus because you get frustrated about what happened on the last play? What does it take to make you give in because it’s hot outside or you’re tired or you don’t feel like running to the ball or giving effort or finishing the play like you should because of how you feel, whether you’re a little bit hurt? What does it take to break you? 

I’m not saying it’s our goal to try and break you. It’s just the way it is in football. When you go through camp it’s going to be difficult because you’re getting yourself ready to play an entire season at a high level. So everybody here has to have a lot of mental toughness to sustain what we do at a high level and just because you got beat on the last play, that can’t affect the next play. Or that’s breaking you. Your frustration is breaking you, just because you miss a block, or you get blocked, or you miss a tackle, or you fumble the ball. What does it take to break you?”

It’s hard to hear the rhetoric coming out of Ohio State’s locker room and think that the players or coaches have really taken on this wisdom. The players are constantly talking about the three goals - win the Big Ten, Beat Michigan, win the National Championship (Urban Meyer expressly forbid his players from discussing this one). They are too focused on the results and not nearly focused enough on the process and there’s a corresponding lack of mental toughness. Against Michigan, Ohio State was playing reasonably well until Will Howard threw the interception that set up Michigan at the goal line. The coaches and players tensed up, psyched themselves out, and got really conservative in their play calling. One mistake created many more. One mistake is all it took to break them.

For better or worse, we live in a different college football world than we did in 1998. Nick Saban is retired and one bad loss isn’t enough to stop Ohio State facing Tennessee or potentially competing for the National Championship. But some things are eternal and if Ohio State wants to take advantage of the new system and go on a run, they need to drop the emphasis on physical toughness and build an emphasis on mental toughness.