Saturday was supposed to be one of the most anticipated days of the year in Columbus.
Under normal circumstances, the Ohio State football team would have played its originally scheduled season opener against Bowling Green on Saturday at noon. More than 100,000 fans would have packed the stands of Ohio Stadium, while Buckeye fans throughout the world would have watched the game on television or listened to Paul Keels call the game on the radio.
Tailgates would have started in the parking lots surrounding the stadium and all over campus in the early hours of the morning, while the postgame parties would have raged into the night. The Shoe probably would have started to empty out by the third or fourth quarter, as Ohio State likely would have made it a lopsided game by halftime, but the excitement to watch Justin Fields and the rest of the Buckeyes begin their chase for another Big Ten championship and College Football Playoff berth would have generated palpable buzz throughout Columbus and among Buckeye fans everywhere.
Instead, even as several other college football teams kicked off their seasons on Saturday, the Ohio State football team practiced in private at the Woody Hayes Athletic Center while Ohio Stadium and the surrounding areas remained quiet.
I made a brief visit to Ohio Stadium around noon on Saturday to get a glimpse of the scene around campus, and was struck by just how quiet it was. The drive into campus came and went without the traffic, music and tailgates that typically surround the area, while the parking lots around the Shoe sat mostly empty. While some students and others walked or ran around campus, enjoying what would have been absolutely perfect football weather – temperatures in the high 70s without a cloud in the sky – the stadium itself sat locked and mostly ignored, aside from occasional groups of fans stopping to take pictures in the stadium’s north rotunda.
In what would have been absolutely perfect weather for a football game, Ohio State would be playing Bowling Green in its season opener right now under normal circumstances. A much quieter scene at Ohio Stadium this afternoon. pic.twitter.com/dGP1g4HITz
— Dan Hope (@Dan_Hope) September 5, 2020
At around 12:30 p.m., a message began playing through the stadium speakers in preparation for a first-year student event set to be held inside the stadium. The setup for the event included social distancing markers on a fenced path leading to the stadium’s ramp entrance, as well as three Purell hand sanitizer stations, both reminders of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic causing Ohio State not to play on Saturday.
The stadium audio included a pre-recorded snippet of the Ohio State Marching Band playing “Across the Field” as well as of fans doing the Stadium O-H-I-O chant. But that was certainly no substitute for the real thing.
In the shadow of it all, about a mile away, the Buckeyes continued to work toward a football season they hope will happen at some point in 2020. Despite the continuing uncertainty surrounding when the Big Ten will allow its teams to play games again, and the fact that the workouts are currently voluntary, more than 100 Ohio State football players were on the field for a practice at the Woody Hayes Athletic Center on Saturday.
Iron sharpens iron: #H2 #ToteNation pic.twitter.com/eSKMyczut3
— Ohio State Football (@OhioStateFB) September 5, 2020
Only at Ohio State would over 100 players gather & practice so hard on a Saturday morning with so much uncertainty ahead of them! It is a privilege to coach here! #theyjustlovefootballtheiruniversity&theirteammates #whatgreatcharacterandcommitment #theydeserveourverybestefforts
— Kerry Coombs (@DB_CoachCoombs) September 5, 2020
Even if the Big Ten ultimately proceeds forward with a season this fall or winter, though, it’s unlikely we’ll see a traditional game-day environment at Ohio Stadium again until next fall. Most of the rumored plans for the Big Ten’s postponed football season have revolved around playing games in dome stadiums, meaning the Buckeyes might not play another true home game for another full year. Even if the Big Ten ultimately comes up with a plan that allows teams to play in their home stadiums, those games would likely be played in front of fractional crowds – if any at all – and without tailgates, skull sessions and many of the other usual bells and whistles that accompany the actual game on the field.
This fall in Columbus simply won’t be the typical fall that anyone who cares about Ohio State has grown accustomed to, and that was evident on Saturday. The lack of a football season starting made it feel far more like just another late spring or summer day on campus than the first weekend of September.
Under normal circumstances, I would have left my apartment at 8 a.m. Saturday – OK, probably more like 8:15 after I struggled to get out of bed – and wouldn’t have returned home until hours after the game, at which point I would still have had more work to do even after the press box had closed. On Saturday, my uneventful trip to and from Ohio Stadium lasted just over an hour.
From the early wakeup call to the writing into the night, though, I missed every moment of those normal game days on Saturday. Seeing other college football teams playing games on television, without knowing when I’ll be back in a press box watching the team I cover actually playing a game again, truly made it hit home what the Buckeyes and their fans are missing right now.
So the next time I get to walk into Ohio Stadium, watch the Buckeyes go through pregame warmups, see The Best Damn Band in the Land perform Script Ohio, follow the game as it unfolds and then write about everything I just saw, I’m going to make sure I appreciate it all just a little bit more.
Hopefully, we’ll all appreciate it a little bit more whenever that time finally comes again, knowing how easily it can all be taken away.
