How will OSU, Texas respond?

By KEN GORDON

The Buckeyes and Longhorns have a lot to prove when they collide in the Fiesta Bowl on Jan. 5.

Since the Fiesta Bowl falls on a Monday night, it seems appropriate to ask that iconic question: ‘Are you ready for some football?”

While fans of Ohio State and Texas might reply with a resounding, “Yeah!” the two teams’ coaches will have no idea.

Oh, the Buckeyes’ Jim Tressel and the Longhorns’ Mack Brown will say all the right things, just as they always do: I think we’re ready, we’re working hard, I like the guys’ attitude and focus.

But really, it’s all a bunch of blah, blah, blah.

Both coaches have been an underdog and a favorite in big games. Both coaches have tried different techniques and tactics to prepare for bowls. And both coaches have won and lost in all the above scenarios.

The logical questions surrounding the Fiesta combatants this year are:

Will third-ranked Texas (11-1), which came one play from a spot in the national title game, be motivated to prove it was robbed? Or will the Longhorns come out flat because they view it as a consolation game?

Will 10th-ranked Ohio State (10-2), which lost the past two national championship games, be fired up to finish off a disappointing season on a high note, or will the Buckeyes once again appear ill-prepared?

This is one of the great mysteries not only of football but in all sports: How best to get a team mentally ready to play?

The only way to tell for sure is after the game.

“You never know when you’re dealing with 125 kids,” Brown said. “You wouldn’t think it would be hard, over a four- or five-year period, to have kids play hard every week, but it is.”

And that helps explain the variety of results from year to year, despite the same coaches, same practice routines, even many of the same players.

How else to figure the Florida Gators? During preparation for the 2006 national championship game against OSU, coach Urban Meyer fired up his charges with the classic “Nobody thinks you can win” angle.

The Gators won 41-14.

“For 30 days our team got motivated, and that’s why they played so hard,’ Meyer crowed.

At that point, Meyer had not lost in five seasons when his team had at least two weeks to prepare. But the next season, with many of the same players, his Gators were upset by Michigan in the Capital One Bowl, 41-35.

“I don’t think we coached very well in certain areas,’ Meyer said.

In contrast to Meyer’s record, in his OSU tenure Tressel is just 6-7 when his teams have at least two weeks to prepare: 4-3 in bowls and 2-4 after bye weeks.

Long layoffs before bowl games are a challenge to any coach, certainly. But they might be more so for the detail-oriented Tressel, who thrives on routine.

The Buckeyes’ debacle against Florida caught him by surprise, and it was months afterward before he admitted the team lost focus sometime after it traveled to Arizona.

Last season, then, Tressel made a big deal out of changing the team’s preparation. Rather than go to the bowl site early as he did in December 2006, the Buckeyes arrived in New Orleans only five days before the game.

There was much talk about getting lazy and overconfident in 2006, and how OSU had learned its lesson and was treating the 2007 bowl like a business trip.

Also, unlike in 2006, the Buckeyes were clear underdogs to Louisiana State. Tressel played that card, as well, sending players home for the holiday break with DVDs full of clips of commentators belittling OSU’s chances.

The Buckeyes were beaten decisively, anyway, 38-24, apparently going from too relaxed one year to too pumped up the next.

“We were kind of just uptight,’ safety Anderson Russell said.

This season, he once again tweaked things. Players reported more of an emphasis on full-contact drills, more of a game-week feel much earlier in the month than in years past.

“I hope the third time is the charm,” safety Kurt Coleman said, grinning.