COLUMBUS — They’re good at it, but they won’t admit to it.
Revenge is in the air in Columbus this week, but the Ohio State Buckeyes claim they aren’t smelling it. In sports, anything can be perceived as a slight, and any slight can be turned into motivation, so when a team actually beats you, and then you get to play them soon after, with many of the same players, that’s the good stuff.
It’s not a world Ohio State often gets to participate in, though. In the Urban Meyer and Ryan Day eras, through 14 seasons of theoretical revenge opportunities, the Buckeyes have only actually been able to play that card six times.
It’s another cost of winning so much — you don’t get as many chances to be motivated by a loss.
(Note: This is not counting Michigan games, because that’s just a different deal to me. I’ve been thinking that way about this revenge factor, I’ve just excluded Michigan, but I forgot to note it initially.)
Ohio State has admitted that the Texas loss this season spurred some change. And the way the Buckeyes lost to Indiana and Miami to end last season — 10 sacks in two games — led to a focus on pocket awareness that has been applied this season.
So aren’t you mad, Ohio State, for this Top 5 showdown in Bloomington on Saturday? Indiana beat the Buckeyes in the Big Ten Championship Game last season, and 316 days later the Buckeyes will get another crack at the Hoosiers in the biggest game in the history of Indiana’s Memorial Stadium.
“They took something from us that we really wanted,” defensive tackle Eddrick Houston said right after Ohio State’s win over Maryland on Saturday. “So it’s time to go to their place and handle business.”
That was obviously before the No Revenge Talk edict got passed down to the Buckeyes for this week. Ryan Day on Tuesday said nothing that happened before matters for this game. Different team and completely different season, Julian Sayin said.
Here’s the thing. Though the Buckeyes aren’t particularly practiced at revenge, nor particularly interested in talking about it, they’re perfect at applying it. They are 6-0 in non-Michigan revenge games since the first chance in 2014. Here’s how they did it.