To say Ohio State had high expectations entering the 2015 season may have been the understatement of the year. Hopes for the Buckeyes were astronomically high.
Perhaps too high, if you ask some of Ohio State’s coaches.
Sure, the Buckeyes returned a ton of talent from a team that won the national championship, but there were still losses. Key offensive cogs like Devin Smith, Evan Spencer, Jeff Heuerman and Darryl Baldwin, as well as defensive leaders Michael Bennett, Curtis Grant and Doran Grant all needed to be replaced.
“One thing I don’t think people really understand is every team is a new team,” Ohio State tight ends coach Tim Hinton said Monday. “All of a sudden what happened and has to happen on every team is you have to develop who are your role players. Who are the guys to be your playmakers? How does this guy execute on this play and this play? There is only one way to find out, and that is game reps.”
Growing pains were always going to happen, and through the Buckeyes' first four games, that’s exactly what has taken place.
Ohio State had underwhelming performances in games against Hawai’i and Northern Illinois, but the Buckeyes remained unscathed — as they should against inferior opponents. Head coach Urban Meyer admitted his team should have played better in those contests, but those performances were no reason to be alarmed.
“I would have expected us to play a little better,” Meyer said. “But I hope no one here felt a sense of panic. It’s normal growing pains for early in 2015.”
The Buckeyes were better in Saturday’s 38-12 win over Western Michigan, but still far from a finished product. The good news for Ohio State fans, though, is their team doesn’t have to be a finished product right now.
Sure, it’d be comforting for fans to see the Buckeyes beat every team on their schedule by 50 points, but that’s not realistic despite the schedule being quite favorable for the first 10 weeks of the season. There were going to be some lumps along the way and Ohio State is figuring out a way to adjust to those now.
“I think that’s one part that’s kind of left out,” Hinton said. “You can bring all that talent back, and there is certainly a lot of talent on the football team, but the question is putting in all those pieces and getting it going the right way because it’s a new team.”
The expectations are there and Ohio State is held to a high standard. That’s not going away during in the 2015 season. The Buckeyes are just learning how to deal with and adjust those expectations now.
“It’s great, I love it. Especially myself being a competitor, it just makes me and my teammates work harder,” sophomore wide receiver Jalin Marshall said. “I think we deserve to be the No. 1 team in the country, and we are the No. 1 team in the country for a reason. So every day we go out there and work we try to prove ourselves.”
