Ohio State Football: Bizarre narrative surrounding Gene Smith comments

The Ohio State football team has lost two straight games to TTUN. We know that’s not acceptable. No Ohio State football fans would agree that it’s acceptable. None of the players or coaches would either. Yet, there is a bizarre narrative taking hold on the internet right now.

Gene Smith recently made comments about how the season ended last year. As we all know, the Buckeyes still made the CFP after losing to TTUN and fell just a field goal short of playing for a national championship. Smith had the following to say about the end of the year on Eleven Warriors’ podcast.

"It’s so funny, everybody’s so focused on just one game,” Smith said during an appearance on Eleven Warriors’ Real Pod Wednesdays podcast of the back-to-back Michigan losses. “We were basically one point away from being in the national championship game, and I think had we got that two points we needed to convert and ultimately played TCU – I feel confident we would have performed well and won a national championship – I’m not so sure about all this chatter.”"

This is the quote that seems to be getting people up in arms. Some are taking it that Smith doesn’t truly care about The Game and that it’s just one game. There’s one specific outlet saying this online and I refuse to give them any credit for a clickbait headline and quotes taken out of context.

If you actually listen to the full statement of what he says, Smith comes out to say that if the Buckeyes won the national title, then fans wouldn’t be so obsessed with that one loss to Michigan. It’s the fact that they lost both games is why they are focused on the loss in The Game.

The fact is, he’s right. If Ohio State wins it all last year, fans wouldn’t care if they lost The Game. A national title would smooth that over. Smith cares deeply about the game. He may have his flaws, but that is certainly not one of them.

Hopefully, the Buckeyes can just beat them this year and put this stupid narrative to rest.