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Dios mío, man.

Buckeyes Continue Their Slide in the AP

The Buckeyes are 2-1 so far, but did you know this is the third straight week they’ve fallen in the AP rankings? Well, it’s true.  The Buckeyes fell two spots after the Navy victory after Brian Rolle’s pick-2 was necessary to secure victory over the Middies.  They fell 3 more spots after losing a tight contest to Southern California.  The AP consequence of the nature of these two games is natural, but a mixture of confusion and outrage seem to characterize the reaction to the Buckeyes sliding two more spots in the AP poll released this Sunday.

After all, why should the Buckeyes be punished further?  They just pieced together a convincing 38-0 victory over Toledo.  They’re a MAC snack to be sure, but it seems far-fetched that any team that more than covers the spread against its patsy gets punished in the polls as a result.  Further, Toledo was no ordinary MAC snack.  They were the 7th ranked offense in the nation this young season and their QB was the early leader in total offense.  Further, they had just routed Colorado — a Big 12 school — on a nationally televised game on Thursday.  Yes, having the victory over Southern California would also be really swell, but beating Toledo and beating them in the manner we did should merit some kind of bone from the AP pollsters.

It turns out Southern California played a hand in the slight of the Buckeyes.  For the second straight year, they concluded an impressive victory over Ohio State by wanging it (and honestly, be honest: who didn’t see that coming? No really, you knew this was going to happen.)¹ against a team that most people expected them to demolish.  After laying another egg against a meek Pac-10 opponent, pollsters were unwilling to put USC below the Buckeyes when USC has… sigh… the head-to-head tiebreaker.

Fair enough.

It wasn’t just that USC was kept ahead of Ohio State, but also that Oklahoma, Miami (FL) and Virginia Tech all leapfrogged Ohio State in the process.  Miami has murderers’ row to begin the college football season (Florida State, Georgia Tech, Va Tech, Oklahoma) and have not disappointed so far.  Virginia Tech, who showed just about as much offense against Alabama as we did against USC, got the nod for showing just about as much offense against Nebraska as we did against USC.  Unlike us against USC, Va Tech at least won against Nebraska.  Oklahoma’s nod strikes Rittenberg as curious.

Still, tell me how Oklahoma moves up two spots and Ohio State falls? Oklahoma lost to a BYU team that embarrassed itself against Florida State. Sure, the Sooners shut out Tulsa, but Ohio State shut out Toledo. I’ll have more on this Monday, but the favoritism toward Oklahoma and the hatred of the Buckeyes is getting a little ridiculous.

This isn’t Rittenberg’s first attempt to drag Oklahoma into the inferno where Buckeye fans currently dwell.  It wasn’t his last either, as Rittenberg posted another blog entry expanding on why the Sooners get the pass that the Buckeyes don’t.

Let’s review some of the similarities between Ohio State and Oklahoma:

• Ohio State has a three-game losing streak in BCS bowls; Oklahoma has dropped five consecutive BCS bowls, including games in each of the last three seasons.
• Ohio State suffered two blowout losses in the national title game; Oklahoma fell to USC 55-19 in the 2005 Orange Bowl, which gave the Trojans the national championship. The Sooners also suffered a 20-point loss to a West Virginia team that had just lost its head coach in the 2008 Fiesta Bowl. And they lost to non-BCS Boise State.
• Both teams have had Heisman Trophy-winning quarterbacks (Troy Smith and Sam Bradford) stumble in the national title game.
• Both teams have taken care of business in their leagues. Ohio State has won or shared the last four Big Ten titles. Oklahoma has won the last three Big 12 championships.

Despite the parallels, Ohio State continues to be the nation’s piñata, while Big Game Bob Stoops and the Sooners get a pass. The latest example arrived Sunday, as Ohio State moved down two spots to No. 13 in the AP Poll, while Oklahoma moved up two spots to No. 10.

Meanwhile, Pete Carroll Feels Jim Tressel’s Pain

Following on that point, Buckeye fans know all too well how much of a laughing stock Jim Tressel has become of late for losing 6 straight games against top 5 opponents. Now, after yet another egg laid against a weak conference opponent, Pete Carroll is starting to hear the chorus as well.

Not surprisingly, it’s about the distinction between the nature of Tressel and Carroll’s respective flops.  It begs the question: is it worse to continually lose to the best on the grandest stage? Or is it worse to fall asleep at the wheel and annually lose to a team you should’ve beaten by 40?  Rob Oller prefers the former:

Which reputation is worse? Depends on your allegiance, but I’d rather be pegged as overrated (OSU) than underachiever (USC).

Carroll fans — and they are legion, led by a press corps enamored with Pete’s loosey-goosey coaching style that allows media access to practices — like to point out that he has won two national championships, one of which was shared with LSU. But the Trojans also lost a national title when underdog Texas stunned them in the 2006 title game in the Rose Bowl, played in USC’s backyard. So it’s not like Carroll wins all the big ones.

Beating up Pete is not my intent. It’s just that I’ve always been drawn to The Emperor’s New Clothes style of observation, and the naked truth is Carroll needs to be called out for his clunkers.

This week’s stories linked above — Ohio State’s slide in the AP for a third straight week and the attempts to give Buckeye fans company in the inferno where we reside — both share a common element.  Ohio State is not perfect.  Worse yet, it’s not perfect in a sport where perfection is key.  This is nothing new, as no BCS team in the past 3 years has gone undefeated.  Therefore, a lot of the heat placed on the Buckeyes should be deflected towards other deserving candidates and the Buckeyes themselves should be given some kind of slack.

But I’m with the Dude here.  I share with him an ambivalence towards these recent developments.  Ohio State had a golden opportunity to break free from the chains that bind it against USC.  In spite of USC playing like a team that should’ve lost by two touchdowns, the golden boys from Southern California got yet another “big win” and the hapless chumps from the Midwest lost yet another big one.  With that in mind, no move up or down the AP polls is of any consequence for Buckeye fans.  If Ohio State ran the table and beat everyone on their scheduled by 3 TDs, I’d still expect a 3 loss SEC team to get into the BCS title game ahead of us.

I’m not even that convinced we’d be immune here even if we beat USC.  If we beat USC on that Saturday night like we really should have, we’d suffer for it should USC lose again during conference play.  Let’s not kid ourselves about USC: there’s a precipitous drop-off from last year to the next.  They lost an experienced quarterback, Ronald Johnson to injury and they lost the defense from hell of yesteryear.  Be it a loss to Washington that was likely inevitable following the loss of their starting QB and their best defensive player after playing us, or a loss against California that may happen later, perception of USC would change as a result.  Instead of singing the praises of loosey-goosey Surfer Pete, the big game hunter Trojans and a Pac 10 conference that went undefeated in 2008′s bowl schedule, we’d instead be hearing about USC team mysteriously downgraded from “reloading” to “rebuilding” in a “weak Pac 10 conference”.  Simply put: even if we beat USC, they’d get drunk during the Pac 10 run and Ohio State would get the hangover.  Of course, we didn’t beat USC.  We lose either way.

I’ve felt for the past 3 years that the college football landscape is a Babylon of numerous golden idols — SEC Speed, Surfer Pete, among others.  Unfortunately, due to circumstances partly under Ohio State’s control, the Buckeyes have no pedestal in that marketplace.  Rather than pining to get in the good graces of this Babylon, I’d prefer the Buckeyes strive to destroy everything moving in college football.  At this stage, working hard to court media favor bores me.  What Ohio State needs is a outlook-altering rampage like what USC did to Oklahoma in 2004 or what Florida did to us.  If the recent slights referenced above piss off the players enough to play like madmen for the rest of the season, I’ll consider it good for Ohio State football this season and good going forward.

Failing that, docking Ohio State two spots for beating Toledo 38-0 is just like, uh, your opinion, man.  We’ll abide.

1. Which, by the way, Washington: you’re welcome.  You get the victory, but who knocked out their starting QB and their best player on defense? Yeah.  In all my arrogance, I’ll consider that reparation for 1993, 1995, 2003 and 2007.  Huskies owe us for 1986, though. [↩]