With Ohio State already on its second bye week of the season last Saturday, senior middle linebacker Curtis Grant had every intention of going out and doing something fun with his weekend away from football.
But sometimes, things don’t always work out like you plan.
“I actually slept the whole day, I slept for like 14 hours,” Grant said Monday. “I don’t know how I did it. I was looking to go out and have some fun, go out to the country and do something but I just couldn’t find myself to get off the couch."
A second bye week this early in the season was certainly a unique situation for the 13th-ranked Buckeyes.
Their first one — which came after a 66-0 rout of Kent State — came at an opportune time and allowed head coach Urban Meyer to work his team hard as the Buckeyes tried to find an identity after suffering a Week 2 loss to Virginia Tech.
After that, Ohio State has looked extremely efficient in wins over Cincinnati and Maryland — a pair of victories that saw the Buckeyes post 50-plus points. They seemed to be clicking on all cylinders before their second week off in a month temporarily halted the momentum.
"We have to re-take that momentum," Meyer said during his weekly press conference Monday. "This is a little bit uncharted waters for myself to have this many bye weeks this early in the season. We've got to get ready to go."
Ohio State needs to be ready because, surprisingly, Rutgers will bring a 5-1 record with it when it comes to Ohio Stadium on Saturday.
When the Scarlet Knights were announced to join the Big Ten, many thought they'd be bottom feeders in the league. So far this season, though, they've been anything but.
"We've got to crank it up today against a team that their last game was a tremendous effort by their quarterback, threw for 400 yards," Meyer said. "Their defense played well. Obviously an incredible environment at Rutgers. We've just got to be ready to go and I'm sure we will."
For Ohio State, which has played the fewest amount of games of any team in the Big Ten, getting motivated to play a game shouldn't be that difficult.
"I'm glad it's here. Going through the bye week and having bye week practices, it's always good to refine some skills and things of that sort but game weeks are always different," wide receiver Evan Spencer said. "Everybody's excited to get that going and get back in the groove of things."
Because of the two early byes, Ohio State doesn't have a break for the rest of the season. The Buckeyes now have seven games in a row, and could potentially have an eighth if they qualify to play for the Big Ten title.
That might be why Meyer said he approached last week's bye week a little different than the first by giving younger players more reps and letting some of the veterans off the hook, so to speak.
"Coach Meyer gave us a little bit of leeway," Grant said with a smile. "He didn't really kill us last week so we'll be fresh for this week."
