Today is Fathers' Day. It's nice and bright out, the weather is a little milder than it could be, the quiet environmental noises all around are calming. This is the perfect day to relax, isn't it?
Wrong, lollygagger! Ohio State has a national title to defend, and it won't come with you lollygagging around.
The Buckeyes will need to avoid some common pitfalls if they want to be back-to-back champions, and luckily I'm here to point them out. The 2003 post-championship team came achingly close to a title, and I'm here to look at what did them in.
DON'T SQUEAK BY
To make a championship playoff, a team has to show it's one of the best few teams in the country. Therefore, college football turns into a beauty pageant: how attractive is your team, and how attractive is it compared to everyone else?
In this pageant analogy, the cupcake games on a contenders' schedules are like applying fake tanner: it's an artificial enhancement all contestants are expected to use to look better. When teams struggle with those gimmes, though, they just look tacky.
In 2003 Ohio State started the season as the preseason No. 1, but it survived four nonconference games by an average score of 28-19. Worst was a ghastly 16-13 win over lowly San Diego State, in which the Aztecs outgained Ohio State 216-196 and only a Will Allen interception return kept the Buckeyes from being humiliated.
Because of their close calls, the 2003 Buckeyes never had the look of a proper title contender. If this year's team has similar struggles, it'll be hard to win the Miss Teen USA pageant again – er, repeat as national champions.
DON'T PLAY A CREAMPUFF SCHEDULE
The 2003 Buckeyes never looked like world beaters, but playing one of the toughest schedules in the country gave them some leeway.
Despite finishing as the Big Ten's highest-ranked team, Ohio State had the toughest schedule in the conference. The Buckeyes defeated 8-5 NC State, 11-3 Bowling Green, 10-3 Iowa, 8-5 Michigan State, 9-4 Purdue and 11-4 Kansas State to finish the year No. 4 in the country. 11 of 13 opponents won at least six games, and only a road loss to 10-2 Michigan kept OSU out of the national championship game.
For a more recent comparison, the 2003 Buckeyes resemble the 2014 Florida State Seminoles. Both teams were defending champions playing tough schedules, and both received the benefit of the doubt despite a series of close calls; the major difference was that Florida State was lucky enough to finish the regular season unscathed and Ohio State wasn't.
Being graded on a curve only takes a team so far – Florida State received its hilarious comeuppance in the Rose Bowl – but it gives a team time to get its act together. The Buckeyes will have some margin for error if their schedule is tougher than last year's.
DON'T PLAY GARBAGE OFFENSE
There's a reason Jim Tressel's teams were known as defense-first: while most of his defenses (2003 included) were killer, some of his offenses were putrid.
If skill position players are weapons, the 2003 Buckeyes were pacifists. In 2002, the Buckeyes relied on Maurice Clarett, who rushed for 1,237 yards and 16 touchdowns on 5.6 yards per carry. The next year, they had to turn to Lydell Ross, and the effect was staggering.
As the team's feature back, Ross rushed for 826 yards and 10 touchdowns on a pedestrian 4.3 yards per carry. Sadly, that was a team high; the other two primary ballcarriers, Maurice Hall and Craig Krenzel, averaged 3.3 and 2.3 yards per carry.
It wasn't just the running game that struggled. Despite having future NFL veterans Michael Jenkins, Santonio Holmes, Ben Hartsock and Ryan Hamby as primary targets, Krenzel and his backup Scott McMullen only threw for 206 passing yards per game.
At 332 yards of total offense per game (93rd in the country), the 2003 Buckeyes were remarkably inept. The 2015 Buckeyes have better skill position players and a more sensible offensive system; let's hope the days of striving down the field two yards at a time are gone forever.
DON'T RELY ON SPECIAL TEAMS TO WIN
...unless you're really, really good at it.
The 2003 Buckeyes are an example of how superb special teams can elevate a team from decent to great. Behind the legs of B.J. Sander and Mike Nugent, Ohio State's special teams swung several games.
Sander was stuck behind Andy Groom as the backup punter for three years, but he made his one playing year count. He punted 82 times, averaging 43.3 yards per punt, and downed an impressive 39 of his punts inside the opponent's 20-yard line. In the Penn State game, which Ohio State won 21-20, Sander's excellent punting (six punts for a 46.6 average) may have been the difference.
Mike Nugent's moment of glory is easier to point to. Against No. 10 Purdue in November, Ohio State played another of its sloppy, ugly, scintillating games. In overtime, Nugent hit a 36-yard field goal, his third of the day, despite the kick being partially blocked to give Ohio State a 16-13 lead.
Purdue's Ben Jones, the most accurate kicker in school history, shanked a 28-yarder earlier in the game that would have been the difference for Purdue; in overtime, he pulled his own 36-yarder left. Unlike Jones, Mike Nugent came through in the clutch, just like he did throughout his career.
B.J. Sander won the 2003 Ray Guy Award as the nation's best punter; Mike Nugent won the 2004 Lou Groza Award as the nation's best placekicker. It would be unfair to ask Sean Nuernberger and Cameron Johnston to be as good as Sander and Nugent were in 2003, but Ohio State will need that kicking game edge at some point this year.
Ohio State's 2002 and 2003 teams are two sides of the same coin: both did well to contend, but one team had better luck than the other. If the 2014 and 2015 teams are similarly talented, the Buckeyes should be in the title hunt all year long. They just need to hunt those marginal advantages the 2003 Buckeyes lacked.
