NEW ORLEANS — The Ohio State football team jetted off to New Orleans in a double-decker charter plane that looked fit to be a mobile command center for the Woody Hayes Athletic Center, the team's headquarters, if need be.
Among the first to saunter off the aircraft and into the muggy air on an already rainy Saturday were Urban Meyer and his wife, Shelley, who flashed bright and wide smiles. They, like each member of the team, vigorously shook with hands with an assembled line of high-level Sugar Bowl officials before making their way over to a fleet of buses that would carry them to their hotel quarters for the next week.
"You’d have to really check the pulse of a human being if you’re not in a great mood to be headed where we are headed," Meyer, who met with reporters and other media members inside a small cabin-like structure tucked back and away from the commercial bustle of Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport.
On Thursday night, the Buckeyes, which clinched the fourth and final spot in the inaugural College Football Playoff three weeks ago, will play No. 1 Alabama in the Sugar Bowl, one of two semifinal games.
In the days that have followed a 59-0 drubbing of Wisconsin in the Big Ten Championship Game, Ohio State seems to carry a certain level of confidence that has grown exponentially ever since a concerning loss to Virginia Tech in the second game of the season. There would also appear to be a high degree of respect for the Crimson Tide, which have claimed three of the last five national championships under head coach Nick Saban. But fear is another and, perhaps, lesser matter.
"Everyone knows about Alabama, how they are and how they win championships," said junior defensive tackle Adolphus Washington. "But we feel like if we come out there and play the way we did against Wisconsin, there isn’t anything that we should worry about. And the way we prepare, there isn’t any reason to worry about what they do; it is about what we do.”
Washington said: "They have a lot of explosive players on offense. The receivers, running backs, the quarterback and offensive line are very good. We just have to come out and be on our A game just like we did against Wisconsin.
"If we played like we did against Wisconsin, we will be fine.”
Likewise Alabama, who followed Saban, its fearless and meticulous leader who wore a crimson sport coat while offering presidential-like waves and brisk smiles, off the plane and into the Bayou State held Ohio State in high regard.
"They’re an outstanding team in every phase of the game," he said. "I don’t think there’s any team that gets to here that is not a really good team. They’re all really well coached and it’s pretty typical of an Urban Meyer team.”
In a bowl billed as a clash between traditional college football bluebloods, this careful intersection of respect and confidence appeared evident on the tarmac the teams shared.
For Ohio State, this expedition is a chance to assert itself back on the national stage after collapsing in the postseason last year.
For Alabama, it's another bout against another contender with clenched fists, ready to take a punch at what Meyer called the nation's "No. 1" program.
"It’s just another opportunity to play under the lights and show the world what Bama’s made for and Coach Saban’s gonna lead us the right way," quarterback Blake Sims said. "Just another game — that’s all it is to us."
These sorts of sentiments are sewn from a string of success that's vaulted the Crimson Tide to the top of college football's Mount Olympus.
But Ohio State, currently 9.5-point underdogs, is confident, too.
"We were the underdog last time. You saw that," Nick Vannett said, harkening back to the beat down of the Badgers in Indianapolis.
"Come January 1, we’ll see what happens.”
