OSU, Texas both have something to prove

COLUMBUS - Unlike those who fail at government or business, Ohio State's football team does not have the luxury of putting on a public relations blitz to try to rewrite history.

There's just no way they're going to be able to talk their disastrous duo of BCS national championship games out of the public consciousness, so they don't even try.

They know the only way they're going to scrub up the mess of a 41-14 loss to Florida two years ago and a 38-24 defeat by LSU last year in BCS national championship games is to win a big game.

Actually, it might take more than one big win. But you have to start somewhere.

And somewhere is the Fiesta Bowl next Monday night, where the No. 10 Buckeyes (10-2) will take on No. 3 Texas (11-1).

Not only does Ohio State have those two BCS badges of dishonor pinned to its scarlet and gray jerseys, it is also 0 for its last 4 against Top Ten teams, including a 35-3 humiliation at Southern California and a game it fumbled away against Penn State this season.

OSU's players have heard the familiar refrain of their past failures so often that they can address it without sighs or anger.

For seniors like All-Americans, linebacker James Laurinaitis and cornerback Malcolm Jenkins, this is their last chance to escape being reminded of those final-game flops.

They say that is not the mindset they are taking into the Fiesta Bowl, though.

"I know the national perception is that Ohio State doesn't play well in big games and I can't blame them," Jenkins said.

"If you look at the last couple big games, we haven't played well at all. We can focus on that all we want, but it's not going to change, looking at all those games and trying to figure out what went wrong. We know the national perspective is we have no chance to win this," he said.

Laurinaitis had some numbers to back up his belief that most of the country is skeptical of Ohio State's ability to win a big game.

"You look at those ESPN Sports Nation things and 85 percent of the country thinks Texas is going to win. The only state that votes for you is Ohio," he said. "We've heard it the last two years. We just have to go out there and play football."

The question in the Fiesta Bowl, though, is which team is on a bigger mission.

Texas, which beat Oklahoma by 10 points in a head-to-head match-up and has the same number of losses as the Sooners, thinks it got cheated out of a trip to the BCS title game by the poll voters who jumped OU over them.

Will that disappointment be a bigger incentive than Ohio State's attempt to restore its reputation and pride?

Two examples of Ohio State's performance in bowl games after seeing a chance at a national championship slip away say that's a tough call to make.

In 1998, Ohio State's loss to Michigan State in November crushed its national title hopes. Between then and the Sugar Bowl, it hammered Iowa and Michigan. OSU was solid, but not spectacular, in a 24-14 win over Texas A&M in the bowl.

Three years earlier, in 1995, after a regular-season ending loss to Michigan shattered the Buckeyes' title hopes, they took a disappointing trip to the Citrus Bowl and were even more downcast after losing 20-14 to a Tennessee team quarterbacked by Peyton Manning, who was a sophomore.

Even if OSU's players say they're not looking at the past, they have thought about how nice ending this season differently than the last two would be.

Laurinaitis has daydreamed about what it would be like to finish his career on a high note, with a win at the Fiesta Bowl.

"I remember looking back to my freshman year (2005) and seeing A.J. (Hawk) and Bobby (Carpenter) and all the seniors up on the stage, holding the trophy and kissing it and all that and thinking to myself, ‘Man, I can't wait until next year to get on the stage and do that.' But I haven't been able to get on the stage and do that.

"It would be nice to put on a good one for ourselves and everybody," he said.