Next 6 OSU opponents are all strugglingAssociated Press
College Football News Wire
COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Ohio State is looking at an easy October
schedule, and that might be hard to handle for the top-ranked
Buckeyes.
The task at hand will be trying to get pumped up for Bowling
Green, followed by the five bottom teams in the Big Ten, after
handling the likes of defending national champion Texas and Top 25
teams Penn State and Iowa in September.
"Even harder than September," Buckeyes guard T.J. Downing
said. "October is going to be hard for us because we're going to
have to make sure we're on top of our game, that we're bringing our
'A' game every time we play.
"Yeah, it was tough playing Iowa, Texas and Penn State. And
Cincinnati was one of the toughest games we played. But we've just
got to be sure when a team like Bowling Green comes in that we're
not misfiring. It's going to be hard to get up."
Don't bet against the Buckeyes (5-0).
Ohio State coach Jim Tressel will try to keep his team motivated
and on top of its game, knowing full well the next six opponents --
leading up to the annual showdown against No. 6 Michigan -- went a
combined 2-10 the past two weeks.
First up is Saturday's game against Bowling Green (3-2), which
has been pounded by Wisconsin and Kent State.
"Now I guess the question at hand is just how good would we
like to get?" Tressel said. "There's no way that you can keep
getting better if you don't make sure that you're focusing on
what's happening right now, right this second. (That is) maybe one
of the most difficult things for human beings to do, but that's
what we have to make sure that we do."
After Bowling Green, it's back to the Big Ten basement. Only one
of the five bottom teams has a winning record, Michigan State. The
other four are each 2-3 -- Illinois, Indiana, Northwestern and
Minnesota.
The Spartans may be over .500, but have become one of the most
disappointing teams in the nation. They blew a big fourth-quarter
lead to Notre Dame and then lost at home last week to Illinois, a
26-point underdog that had lost 24 of its last 25 league games.
There is no question, however, that the upcoming opponents won't
be looking past the Buckeyes.
"If I were Bowling Green and hadn't had the season to this
point that I had hoped for, I would be saying to myself, what
better way to right this wrong, so to speak, than to come out and
beat the No. 1 team in the nation?" Ohio State receiver Anthony
Gonzalez said. "There's no better way to get a season back on
track than to do something like that. So I'm assuming that's what's
going through their minds and we have to be aware of that."
Safety Brandon Mitchell has never forgotten what it was like
when the Buckeyes were unbeaten and ranked No. 7 four games into
the 2004 season, only to be upset at Northwestern, 33-27, in
overtime.
"I vividly remember walking off the field and the fans
screaming, 'Overrated!' Just running past me, screaming,
'Overrated!' And I felt terrible," he said.
He ended up feeling even worse. The demoralized Buckeyes lost
the next two games.
Mitchell said the way to avoid hearing the 'Overrated!' chant
again is to tune out a lot of the outside talk.
"Everyone is going to pat us on the back and say, 'Well, you
made it through September. You beat three ranked teams. Now you can
just go on cruise control into Michigan," he said. "But we know
that you can't do that. As soon as you start getting full of
yourself and ... feeling like you don't have to prepare for a team,
that's when you get in trouble."
![:\](https://bluelight.org/xf/BL_Images/Orig_Emoji/wrygrin.gif "wry grin :\")
