Winning Ugly

Today was a day when John Cooper was missed at The Ohio State University. Cooper has never received much love in Columbus but in September you could count on Coop's teams to blow out the opposition leaving little doubt come the second half. Cooper's 1996 Rose Bowl team opened up the year 42-0 and 52-0 in the first half respectively against Rice and Pitt en route to outscoring his opponents 142-7.

Unfortunately Jim Tressel doesn't share the same killer instinct against all teams. As a Buckeye alum it would be nice to see Tressel show less heart against the over matched opponents. Today the Buckeye O-lineman looked fat and slow. The defense looked lethargic with the exception of Kurt Coleman who was responsible for setting up the Buckeyes for 14 of their 31 points in route to a lackluster 31-27 victory over an inferior Navy team. It took the efforts of an undersized linebacker, Brian Rolle to return a 2-point conversion the other way that would have tied up the game with under three minutes to go to salvage some breathing room for the Buckeyes.

These tight games in September against inferior opponents are nothing new for Tressel teams even in their national championship season when it took a late end zone interception by current Tampa Bay Buccaneer Will Allen with a half minute remaining to salvage a 23-19 victory. Since 2001 when the "Sweater Vest" took over the sideline responsibilities for college Hall of Fame coach John Cooper he has at least one under performing effort against inferior opponents every year in September.

In his inaugural season defeated Akron in a lackluster 28-14 in-state battle. One year after the 2002 Championship season the Buckeyes edged San Diego State in the Shoe by a field goal 16-13. In 2004, current Jet field goal kicker came to the rescue with a time expiring 55 yard field goal to squeak by Mid-American foe Marshall? The 2005 Buckeyes with a slew of NFL players including Troy Smith, Ted Ginn, Super Bowl hero Santonio Holmes along with superstar linebacking trio all playing on Sundays, AJ Hawk, Bobby Carpenter, and Anthony Schlegel were able to semi-route Miami of Ohio 34-14 in their close September non-conference call. The last three seasons the Buckeyes have a gone to two national title games but have still managed to find ways to keep it close against MAC schools in September with 35-12, 20-2, and 26-14 scores against teams the likes of Northern Illinois, Akron, and Miami of Ohio all in Columbus.

It's one thing to not show anything for upcoming big battles but based on last year's beating in Los Angeles to USC these close calls might not be good for the psyche's of the players with big time September battles. This year the Buckeyes get the team of the decade coming to town as USC tries to tack on a home and home sweep of the Buckeyes. Based on the performance of the Buckeyes today, a top team that was stuffed by Navy on two short yardage plays these so-called blue chip lineman can't be feeling too confident going up against some elite athletes from Southern California and whether the game is played in the Shoe or not the Trojans probably don't care.

I wouldn't trade the "Sweater Vests" record in November especially the 7-1 mark against hated rival Michigan but in a perfect world John Cooper's squads were more enjoyable to watch in September.