Meyer believes OSU is special

Associated Press

COLUMBUS

Nine games and as many wins into his first season at Ohio State, Urban Meyer believes his Buckeyes are onto something.

“This is a special team. They’re fighting for each other. It’s a refuse-to-lose type atmosphere,” he said on Monday. “Some of us have seen teams that play really well, and they’re blowing teams out all the time. We’re not that type of team and I can give you 150 reasons why. However, we are a bunch of guys that work really hard, a blue-collar approach, that show up every [week] and want to get better. You don’t want anything else as a coach.”

His sixth-ranked Buckeyes have won close games and routs, relied on their defense and on quarterback Braxton Miller. When the stars didn’t come out, a no-name made a big play. Through it all, despite being within a whisper of losing at least a couple of times, they’ve persevered.

“I wish that everybody in the world could see the kind of camaraderie that we have between all of us. It’s unbelievable,” wide receiver Devin Spencer said. “We haven’t played perfect. And we haven’t really played good at times. But at the end of the day we’d give our right arm for the guy next to us and that’s what making us win.”

Ohio State (9-0, 5-0 Big Ten) came into this season in flux. The Buckeyes had a new coach who brought with him a new spread, hurry-up offense. The defense was basically the same as in years past, although it was thin in spots.

No one knew exactly what to expect since the Buckeyes were banned from going to a bowl game because of NCAA violations committed under 10-year coach Jim Tressel.

Without that big carrot at the end of the stick, what would they play for? With no possibility of a Bowl Championship Series berth, or even being listed in the BCS rankings, would the team lose focus and founder?

Instead, it has shown a certain resilience.

The Buckeyes trailed in the fourth quarter against California, but Miller found Devin Smith on a 72-yard scoring pass with 3:26 left to forge a narrow win. They were barely hanging on with 10 minutes left at home against lopsided underdog UAB, but the defense held and Miller scored on a short keeper for a 29-15 win. They went to No. 20 Michigan State in the Big Ten opener and made a narrow lead stand up in an 18-17 victory.

Indiana ran off 22 points in the fourth quarter and fell just short of catching Ohio State, 52-49. Then Purdue led by eight points with 47 seconds left but backup quarterback Kenny Guiton came on for an injured Miller to lead a gutty drive that forced overtime with 3 seconds left — with the Buckeyes going on to make all the big plays again for another close win.

“We find ways to win football games,” defensive line coach Mike Vrabel said. “We’ve got a bunch of guys that are believing in themselves.”