Pat Elflein sat in his living room with roommates Craig Fada and Joe Burger, eyes glued to his television screen and the game between Michigan and Iowa. Elflein watched the Wolverines take a two-point lead in the fourth quarter, only to relinquish it as time expired when Iowa kicker Keith Duncan buried a 33-yard field goal.
As the outcome of the contest set in, Elflein turned to his fellow seniors—both who thought the same thing he did about how it affects Ohio State's chances of making it to the Big Ten Championship Game.
“You think about the scenarios and all that but what I said and what Joe and Craig said, we have to win out,” Elflein said on Monday. “First win Michigan State and then win the rest of our games if we even want to dabble with the Playoff and the Championship.
“We have to win Saturday before we can even talk about any of that.”
Elflein is right. Ohio State's capacity for controlling its own destiny in the Big Ten East race took a massive hit with Michigan's loss, as it needed to play and beat an unbeaten Wolverine squad on Nov. 26 to book a trip to Indianapolis. Now, the Buckeyes need Penn State to lose to either Rutgers or Michigan State since the Nittany Lions own a tiebreaker over them with their 24-21 victory in State College last month.
But all of those scenarios—and Ohio State's prospects at making the College Football Playoff—won't matter if the Buckeyes don't take care of business first this Saturday against the only team to beat them a year ago.
“All we can do is win all these next two and we'll be where we're going to be. That's up to the committee. I think we've established ourselves as one of the best teams in the country.”– Sam Hubbard
“It’s a two-game season. You can’t focus on somebody else’s decision making or the committee or whether or not we’re going to make this, or this or the Big Ten Championship game. That’s not really our concern right now,” right guard Billy Price said. “We’re going to play a tough team. They have a great defense, their offense really came on. So we just have to make sure we focus on the task at hand and that’s all that we can control.”
“You think about that and that information is out there. You can't avoid it. But if you don't lock in 100 percent on this team this week, none of that is possible,” Elflein added. “You can throw that out the door if you don't lock in and play your best football this week.”
Michigan's loss coupled with defeats by Washington and Clemson helped the Buckeyes shoot up to No. 2 in the AP and Coaches Polls on Sunday. They will likely be in the same spot on Tuesday night when the next set of College Football Playoff rankings are released on ESPN.
Urban Meyer knows that and sees the uphill climb his team faces in regards to being the Big Ten East Division's representative in Indianapolis. But he did not bring up the topic on Sunday during a team meeting.
He wasn't sure how to.
“I'm debating right now what to do with that. I did not cover that [Sunday]. I have not covered it all throughout the year,” Meyer said. “Normally in the past, I have. I don't know yet. But the focus is obviously Michigan State.”
The Spartans are in the midst of a dismal year, sitting at 3-7 overall and picking up their first conference victory of 2016 with a 49-0 win over hapless Rutgers on Saturday. Quarterback issues and injuries plagued Mark Dantonio's team all season but the Buckeyes are keen to the fact they lost two out of the last three times they played against the Spartans.
That's why the Buckeyes say their focus isn't on the Big Ten scenarios, College Football Playoff rankings or anything in between. There isn't time for that.
“This is how I live my life: If I can't control something, then I don't put a lot of stress or worry or to it because I can't control it. It's out of my hands,” quarterback J.T. Barrett said. “With that being said, the things that happened Saturday and the things that are going to continue to happen throughout the year with other teams, we can't control that.
“That's outside of our little bubble of Ohio State here at the Woody. I don't worry about those things. I don't give them a lot of focus or attention. The main thing is that we control what we can control and that's playing Michigan State.”
Barrett went on to say he doesn't see a way the College Football Playoff committee would leave his team out of the top-4 on Dec. 4, regardless if it wins the Big Ten Championship Game or not as long as it is 11-1. It is an interesting proposition and in the short two-year span of the Playoff, each team that got a chance to play for a national title won its conference outright. But the strength of Ohio State's résumé—provided it wins its final two regular season games—is hard to ignore.
“If we don’t make the Big Ten Championship and we still get in, great. If not, then you know what, great,” Price said. “We have to make sure we focus on Michigan State.”
“I know Big Ten Championship and conference championships are a major thing but then you're talking about one of those two-loss teams and something like that,” Barrett said. “With that being said, I think if we won our games, that's the only thing that we can control.”
Defensive end Sam Hubbard agreed with Barrett's assessment. But like his teammates and coach before him recognizes that is not the important thing for Ohio State this week.
“All we can do is win all these next two and we'll be where we're going to be. That's up to the committee,” Hubbard said. “I think we've established ourselves as one of the best teams in the country.”
The rankings currently reflect that but won't if Ohio State fails to solve the Spartan puzzle that trumped it last season at Ohio Stadium in late November. Even though a conference title is important to Ohio State's head coach.
“Just want to beat Michigan State, man,” Meyer said. “[A Big Ten Championship] means a lot.”
“Obviously, our goal is to win Big Ten Championships and make it to the Playoff,” Elflein said. “When it comes time for that, it's time for that. But right now we just gotta focus on winning these games up front. Then we can worry about that later.”
