Pat Elflein remembers the first time he saw it. He knew what was coming first, but not last.
"I noticed it, but we had Virginia Tech first," Ohio State's starting right guard said Monday. "That's what I was focusing on."
It is the 2015 Ohio State football schedule. The slate pitted the Buckeyes with a rematch in Week 1 on Labor Day Night against the lone team it lost to in 2014, Frank Beamer's Hokies. Then, nothing really caught your eye until mid-November, when Michigan State was scheduled to visit Ohio Stadium and then the Buckeyes headed to Ann Arbor for its annual end-of-season bout with Michigan a week later.
That time is finally upon the defending national champions of college football.
"You see it just how we see it. It's do or die time. Make it or break it these last few games," Elflein said. "If we want what we're training for, we have to show up one game at a time and prepare, prepare, prepare."
Elflein and his teammates downed Virginia Tech and their next nine opponents to debut and stay at No. 3 in the first two sets of College Football Playoff rankings. They're in great position, but really, truly haven't been challenged yet.
“It's make or break time. Everything we've worked for is right in front of us. We just have to go take it.”– Pat Elflein
Michigan State, though, presents an entirely different animal. Mark Dantonio recruits in the same area as Urban Meyer. The Spartans are the only team in the Big Ten to beat the Buckeyes in what is now Meyer's fourth season at the helm. At 9-1, they too are battling for Big Ten East and national positioning.
The bar's been raised, and Meyer is aware of it.
"I'm very concerned. I live my life concerned so, yeah, we'll go out and practice," Meyer said Monday. "We're facing the best defensive line maybe in college football. Theirs and ours are very comparable and just very, very good players. One of the best quarterbacks in Big Ten history."
Connor Cook hurt his shoulder Saturday, but the chances he misses Saturday's 3:30 p.m. kickoff are slim — "he's a competitor, so he'll play," Buckeye co-defensive coordinator Chris Ash said.
He's Michigan State's best player, and even though the Spartan defense isn't as stout as it has been in year's past with former defensive coordinator Pat Narduzzi roaming the sidelines as the head coach at the University of Pittsburgh, their defensive line is among the nation's best. The unit is led by end Shilique Calhoun, who with Cook could have left early and been an NFL Draft pick.
All eyes will be on Columbus Saturday — a staggering 19 pro scouts are set to attend — and the Buckeyes at last have an opportunity to show they truly belong in the same breath with the nation's best college football teams.
"I don't think we've necessarily been pushed to the limit, or really, really been tested," left tackle Taylor Decker said Monday. "This will be a huge gauge for us going into some of the big games in the end of our season because this is the biggest game we've played this far yet this season."
Saturday is set to be a personal day for Decker too, playing his final game at Ohio Stadium as a senior. Michigan State also employs Jim Bollman as its tight ends coach, who didn't recruit Decker out of Vandalia, Ohio, when he was Jim Tressel's offensive line coach at Ohio State.
"He didn't want me either," Decker said. "So hopefully we win."
The Buckeyes haven't lost a game since September 2014. They're the reigning Big Ten and National Champions of college football. Yet, with all the supposed talent returning from last year's title-winning club, some aren't impressed with the lack of 50-point scoring outbursts and dominant victories they've tallied in winning their first 10 games this season.
Meyer feels that, too, recalling how after Saturday's victory he visited with family friends and watched a postgame show breaking down Ohio State's 28-3 win at Illinois from hours before. An anchor said the Buckeyes "just got to get on a roll here," even though they've won 30 straight Big Ten regular season games and 23 games overall.
"My friend looked at me and said, 'get on a roll here?' So it just tells you, I guess we've got to get on a roll," Meyer said. "You always, when you watch and evaluate a team, is it good enough to beat the best? And you've got one of the best coming in here Saturday."
Meyer knows the bar is raised Saturday.
The Spartans are that, and if it wasn't for a last-second loss at Nebraska two weeks ago, both teams would be 10-0. Who wins will go a long way to determining the who the Big Ten East will send to Indianapolis and the Big Ten Championship in three weeks.
"This is definitely the biggest games of our year so far," All-American defensive end Joey Bosa said. "We try to treat every game like that, but we're facing a really good team and they're good every year."
Elflein was more succinct, enacting the thoughts he and his teammates have had in their heads since the first time they saw the schedule.
"It's make or break time," he said. "Everything we've worked for is right in front of us. We just have to go take it."
