Expectations sky high for Ohio State, but can the Buckeyes meet them?
— -- COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Urban Meyer has scrubbed the word "repeat" from the Ohio State vocabulary. He does not want his players talking about "defending" anything. His national championship ring will remain stored away except when recruits drop by his office.
Meyer demands his 2015 Buckeyes look at what's ahead, not peer behind at their incredible run through the first College Football Playoff. He said this week that he's had "zero conversations" with his players about handling the enormous expectations resting on their shoulder pads.
Well, not exactly zero. Meyer did pause a moment this summer to offer one crucial bit of advice.
"We created a monster," Meyer told them. "You've got to feed it."
It's an apt description. Ohio State roared to life in last year's postseason, stomping Alabama and Oregon on the way to an unexpected championship. Most of the key players from that title team are back, raising the specter that this latest incarnation could destroy everything in its path come fall.
But, as Meyer knows firsthand, the monster requires constant feeding. If the Buckeyes aren't careful this year, they could get devoured by their own creation.
Which way is it going to go?
Right on schedule
We should probably be talking about Ohio State making its first bid for a national title under Meyer right now. Last season's team was simply too young to do what it did.
Eleven of its top 22 players in the playoff were either freshmen or sophomores, and another 11 on the official two-deep were either first- or second-year players. That included the offensive MVP of the Sugar Bowl and championship game (sophomore running back Ezekiel Elliott) and the defensive MVPs of both games (redshirt freshmen Darron Lee and sophomore safety Tyvis Powell). Saying the Buckeyes had arrived a year ahead of schedule became a common refrain.
"If everybody said that, then that would mean we should be right on schedule this year," Powell said.
Ohio State brings back 15 starters on offense and defense, 17 if you count all three returning quarterbacks ( Cardale Jones, J.T. Barrett and newly converted receiver Braxton Miller). It did not lose a single underclassmen from last year's team to the NFL draft. Only three defending national champions since 2000 avoided losing an underclassmen from the year before, and none since LSU won it all in 2007.
No wonder the Buckeyes are the overwhelming preseason No. 1, receiving 62 of 64 first-place votes in the initial Amway Coaches Poll. ESPN's FPI gives them at least a 77 percent chance of winning each game on their schedule. As many as six current players have been projected as 2016 NFL first-round picks, led by defensive end Joey Bosa, who could go No. 1 overall.
"There is no ceiling for them if they all play up to their potential," said Gerry DiNardo, a Big Ten Network analyst who was a head coach at LSU, Indiana and Vanderbilt. "They have as much talent as anybody in the country."
The talent is truly evident on the offensive side of the ball. Ohio State sent shivers up the spines of opposing coaches by lining Jones and Miller up in the same backfield during an open-practice viewing session last week. Not pictured: Barrett, the guy who finished No. 5 in the Heisman Trophy voting last year.
One Big Ten defensive coordinator told ESPN.com that the Buckeyes were more skilled offensively than previous recent national champions.
"They've got all the weapons," the coordinator said. "It's very demanding on a defense with what they have offensively. And Urban knows how to use them."
Don't forget a top-10 recruiting class on the way, plus redshirt freshmen from last year's set of blue-chippers who are ready to contribute. Add it all up, and you've got a loaded team that looks ready to rip off an undefeated season and repeat as national champions and perhaps put together an all-time great season.
Which is a whole lot easier to say than to actually accomplish.
'Nine Strong' can handle pressure
During the BCS era, only one team -- Alabama in 2011 and 2012 -- pulled off back-to-back undisputed national championships. The last team to start a season ranked No. 1 and end up there was USC in 2004.
Several recent championship teams entered the following season as favorites to repeat only to encounter road blocks. They include the 2005 USC Trojans, who fell to Texas and Vince Young in that epic title game, the 2010 Alabama team that lost three times, and the ludicrously talented 2002 Miami Hurricanes, who had their 34-game winning streak snapped by Ohio State in the Fiesta Bowl. Just ask last year's Florida State Seminoles how much fun it was trying to defend a title.
Meyer said he considered researching defending champions this offseason but eventually decided against it. He could, after all, simply recall his experience with the 2009 Florida Gators. The one that nearly knocked him out of the sport for good.
Following its 2008 national title, Florida returned Heisman Trophy winner Tim Tebow at quarterback and its entire starting defense. The Gators earned the highest percentage of first-place votes ever in the 2009 preseason Associated Press poll (a record Ohio State may break when this year's first AP rankings are released Sunday). That Florida team went 12-0 in the regular season but drew heavy criticism for some of its less-than-impressive victories, including a 10-point win over unranked Tennessee in Week 3 and a 23-20 escape against Arkansas.
"It was incredible," an assistant coach on that Florida team told ESPN.com "You went undefeated in the SEC, and you'd have never known that. The pressure was off the charts."
Meyer felt so much pressure that season that he would later say in interviews he grew depressed and was "mentally broke." He suffered from chest pains after the Gators lost to Alabama in the 2009 SEC title game and briefly stepped away from his job for health reasons only to come back for one more year before resigning.
He has spoken repeatedly about how much he's changed his habits and lifestyle since his days in Gainesville. Meyer is determined not to make sure those problems don't repeat as his Buckeyes attempt to repeat.
"We went undefeated in the Southeastern Conference and it was a miserable year, according to people, including myself," he said last month at Big Ten media days. "That's my fault. If we win every game this year, I can assure you it's not going to be miserable. We're not going to play that game."
That's why Meyer doesn't want his team thinking or talking about winning another championship, but rather focusing on the little things. His mantra this season is "Nine Strong," meaning all nine position units just worry about playing to their full strength. Players repeated that phrase over and over again during Ohio State's media day on Sunday; expect to hear it ad nauseam this season.
"I guess they didn't have the best seasons after winning a championship," Powell said of the coaching staff. "They're so conscientious of that happening again that they've taken certain precautions. They won't allow people to become individuals. They said that once we become individuals, that's when the team splits up."
Feasting ... or being the feast?
Twenty years ago, Nebraska established the model for how to follow up a national championship.
After winning Tom Osborne's first title in 1994, the Cornhuskers took things to a different level the next year. They won all of their games by an average of 38 points per contest, with the closest call a 14-point victory over Washington. Many consider 1995 Nebraska the greatest team in modern college football history, and there are some parallels with Ohio State in 2015.
Like the Buckeyes, those Huskers did not lose an underclassmen from the previous season. And they also dealt with some quarterback shuffling, as Brook Berringer replaced an injured Tommie Frazier in 1994, only to humbly cede the job back to Frazier in '95. Unselfishness like Berringer's could offer a lesson to Ohio State as it aspires to similar greatness.
"You'll have teams that are very successful one year and then [players] tend to forget what made them good -- work ethic and shooting for a common purpose," Osborne told ESPN.com. "And they become more individualistic and more self-centered. All of a sudden, that willingness to sacrifice for each other dissipates. So every year is a new experiment, because you lose a few people and the chemistry changes."
Jared Tomich, who was an All-American defensive lineman for Nebraska in 1995, said he noticed that opponents were far more hyped to play the Huskers the year after they won their first title.
"You can't get complacent, because if somebody knocks you off, that makes their whole year," Tomich said. "That second year was tough, because every week you have to have your stuff together."
Plenty of potential potholes await the Buckeyes, perhaps none bigger than the playoff itself. No defending champion has ever had to go through 15 games and two playoff matchups against other heavyweights to win it all again.
Ohio State has spent the past eight months being toasted on every corner of the college football world. Complacency is a major concern, and the suspension of four players -- including Bosa -- for the opener against Virginia Tech is not a great start to 2015, though players have insisted the suspensions are not indicative of other problems.
All those draft projections are tributes to the team's talent. But coaches constantly worry about players trying to protect their draft status instead of using the effort that got them there.
The Buckeyes sneaked up on the sport last year, rebounding to earn the No. 4 playoff seed after most had written them off in Week 2. They won't have that luxury this season, as every performance will be thoroughly dissected and critiqued. Winning any game by fewer than two scores could be viewed as a failure.
"They have the personnel, but the mental part will be the bigger challenge than the physical part," DiNardo said. "There will be some off-the-field things the coaches will have to monitor to see if guys' heads are on right.
"I think if you ask Ohio State's coaches, they would tell you last year was probably one of their most fun experiences in coaching, because that's what happens when you exceed expectations. This is just the opposite."
The monster needs to be fed, one way or the other. It's up to the Buckeyes to determine whether they're the ones doing the feasting -- or if they're the main course.
"It's going to be battle against ourselves a little bit," senior linebacker Joshua Perry said. "Everybody is so focused on the destination, on repeating, defend this and defend that. We just have to play ball games and do what we want to do, which is keep playing at a high level."