Ohio State Football: The pressure to win the Rose Bowl
By Alex Shobe
In Urban Meyer’s last game as the Ohio State football coach there is pressure on his players to bring home a win in the Rose Bowl.
The Rose Bowl will be the last time that Urban Meyer will take the field as the head coach of the Ohio State football team. Because of the potential for this game to be his brief farewell tour, it actually relieves the pressure to win.
What’s different from other bowl games is that the expectations of next season are much more significantly affected by the new figures in control rather than success of the current chief; furthermore, the leading players on both offense and defense aren’t committed to next season either.
Next year will be a building year. They will have to take the success of this year’s first three games and turn it into a sustainable program ran by Ryan Day. This is true whether or not Ohio State wins on New Year’s Day.
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The build up to the Rose Bowl has focused greatly on these facts. If the Buckeyes take the field with the same fiery offense that they have all season, they will have fun playing a game that means more to them than winning the Heisman Trophy.
A team having fun means they aren’t trying to force plays. It means they’re less likely to be affected by the defense playing on their back foot, which they may do considering it’s still the same defense we’ve seen all year.
Dwayne Haskins will have the opportunity to play freely. He will likely be playing with a green light to try things he wouldn’t in an otherwise more competitive situation.
Haskins has been impressive all year, so a chance to play his game could be the exclamation point he needs heading towards the pre-draft season.
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Lastly, Urban Meyer can coach with the same freedom with which Haskins can play. He knows he is done after this game, so expect him to try things he might not otherwise.