Looking at just the past 20 years in college football, we've seen both U$C and Texas use their dominant and electrifying performances in Pasadena serve as previews for what they'd do that following season. In the '03 Rose Bowl, U$C showed and proved they were a force after making easy work of TTUN. In '04 they made a run all the way to the national title. That next season it was Texas in which Vince Young first showed the college football world what he was capable of in Pasadena also against TTUN. That was their springboard to the 2005 season. A season in which Young was quite ready for when he told his teammates that offseason, "If you want to beat Ohio State, meet me here at 7."
Fast forward several years later and we saw what impact those Rose Bowl wins in '09-'10 and '18-'19 had for the Buckeyes. That Rose Bowl win after the 2009 season was their first in four years so it was Tressel getting a gorilla bowl off his back. It was also a win against a spread, speedy team which the Buckeyes at that time nationally were perceived as having their greatest struggles against. Needless to say that win propelled that Buckeye team going into 2010 as a top 2, 3 team which eventually became #1 controlling their destiny to Glendale until an iceberg in Madison namely J.J. Watt who gave us the blemish that kept us from winning another national title. I firmly believe that we were the only team equipped to beat Auburn and Cam Newton that year. For one because we had the ideal QB (Pryor) who could simulate Cam in practice. Also our defensive guys would not have missed that tackle on Michael Dyer. Plus even on his worst day no way Tressel loses to Gene Chizik. But we blew it with the loss to Wisconsin and had to settle for our first-ever win vs an SEC team in a bowl game vs Arkansas.
2018 was a very frustrating season to watch however after during the Rose Bowl vs Washington, we saw many positive signs especially on defense of what 2019 would look like. And after the win, J.K. Dobbins proclaimed that we were going to compete for the national title that next season. And that's what they did. Day takes over and makes numerous new staff hires and it turned out to be one of the most well-balanced Buckeye teams we've ever seen here. Prolific offense to go along with a top defense. This team was #1 for most of the regular season and unfortunately lost the #1 seed in the CFP after struggling to beat Wisconsin in the B1G Title Game. That decision by the CFP to give us the #2 seed may be what ultimately cost us in the end. LSU had an easy time vs Oklahoma in the Peach Bowl where we had to take on an uber talented Clemson squad once again. And though we were robbed by bad calls from the refs, the fact remains is that we needed to control our fate all the way through in order to seal the deal so to speak.
And that's the lesson that this 2021 Buckeye team can take and learn from past Buckeye teams as well as other teams outside the B1G who used their Rose Bowl performances and wins to catapult them to title wins that following season. This Buckeye team next season needs to do all it can to control its fate. IOW you know you have ND to start things off against. You know Iowa's back on the schedule as well as Wisconsin and road games vs Penn State and Sparty. So no need to overlook all of them while still thinking about how it's 330 days from the *ichigan game. Focus, dominate and control your destiny. Don't let it fall out of your hands because if and when you do, we know the committee will seek to put another SEC program in front of us. We again have to recognize the moment we're in and seize on it. Be that dominant team of an era, something we have never done around here. It was supposed to have been in '69 and we know what happened then. So let's change that dynamic around here.
Fast forward several years later and we saw what impact those Rose Bowl wins in '09-'10 and '18-'19 had for the Buckeyes. That Rose Bowl win after the 2009 season was their first in four years so it was Tressel getting a gorilla bowl off his back. It was also a win against a spread, speedy team which the Buckeyes at that time nationally were perceived as having their greatest struggles against. Needless to say that win propelled that Buckeye team going into 2010 as a top 2, 3 team which eventually became #1 controlling their destiny to Glendale until an iceberg in Madison namely J.J. Watt who gave us the blemish that kept us from winning another national title. I firmly believe that we were the only team equipped to beat Auburn and Cam Newton that year. For one because we had the ideal QB (Pryor) who could simulate Cam in practice. Also our defensive guys would not have missed that tackle on Michael Dyer. Plus even on his worst day no way Tressel loses to Gene Chizik. But we blew it with the loss to Wisconsin and had to settle for our first-ever win vs an SEC team in a bowl game vs Arkansas.
2018 was a very frustrating season to watch however after during the Rose Bowl vs Washington, we saw many positive signs especially on defense of what 2019 would look like. And after the win, J.K. Dobbins proclaimed that we were going to compete for the national title that next season. And that's what they did. Day takes over and makes numerous new staff hires and it turned out to be one of the most well-balanced Buckeye teams we've ever seen here. Prolific offense to go along with a top defense. This team was #1 for most of the regular season and unfortunately lost the #1 seed in the CFP after struggling to beat Wisconsin in the B1G Title Game. That decision by the CFP to give us the #2 seed may be what ultimately cost us in the end. LSU had an easy time vs Oklahoma in the Peach Bowl where we had to take on an uber talented Clemson squad once again. And though we were robbed by bad calls from the refs, the fact remains is that we needed to control our fate all the way through in order to seal the deal so to speak.
And that's the lesson that this 2021 Buckeye team can take and learn from past Buckeye teams as well as other teams outside the B1G who used their Rose Bowl performances and wins to catapult them to title wins that following season. This Buckeye team next season needs to do all it can to control its fate. IOW you know you have ND to start things off against. You know Iowa's back on the schedule as well as Wisconsin and road games vs Penn State and Sparty. So no need to overlook all of them while still thinking about how it's 330 days from the *ichigan game. Focus, dominate and control your destiny. Don't let it fall out of your hands because if and when you do, we know the committee will seek to put another SEC program in front of us. We again have to recognize the moment we're in and seize on it. Be that dominant team of an era, something we have never done around here. It was supposed to have been in '69 and we know what happened then. So let's change that dynamic around here.
