First Posted: 10/14/2014
COLUMBUS — Jeff Heuerman keeps them guessing. And not just when he’s running pass patterns as Ohio State’s tight end.
As he walked away from an interview earlier this week, a reporter threw a final question at him to ask what he did on OSU’s bye week last week.
“Went to Mexico,” Heuerman said in what presumably was a joke.
There is much more than that to speculate about in Ohio State football these days, though.
With Ohio State’s recovery since a loss to Virginia Tech and a string of losses by teams in the Top Ten there is renewed speculation that, with one loss, the Buckeyes could somehow find their way into the four-team College Football Playoff at the end of the season.
Ohio State (4-1, 1-0 Big Ten) was regarded as a strong contender to be in the final four before quarterback Braxton Miller was lost for the season.
For now, OSU is an outsider that needs some help. But it is closer to getting into the conversation than it was a month ago.
Being an outsider is a different feeling for many of Ohio State’s players after back-to-back undefeated regular seasons in 2012 and 2013.
“It’s a little bit different because we’ve been undefeated two years in a row,” Heuerman said. “For the most part we’ve just worried about ourselves.
“We’ve come miles from where we were when we played Virginia Tech. We’ve built on that loss and tried to improve as much as we can. We’re a different team now. I think it would be a different outcome if we went back and played that game (Virginia Tech) again,” he said.
Safety Tyvis Powell says watching games on television last Saturday when Ohio State was off and not having his team mentioned among the national contenders inspired him to work even harder.
“It kind of makes you angry. That’s why we’ve been practicing so hard lately, because we want to come back into that conversation,” Powell said. “I would say that is great motivation to the team to know that we’re not in that topic of conversation. It makes us come out and work harder so we can be in that conversation.”
Ohio State, which plays Rutgers (5-1, 1-1 Big Ten) on Saturday, is No. 13 in both the Associated Press and USA Today coaches poll this week.
The College Football Playoff selection committee will choose the four teams for the playoffs. The polls do not have an official role in those deliberations.
And winning the rest of its games is not the only requirement for Ohio State to be a serious contender. Even if it gets into the conversation, it’s a very crowded conversation.
There are five unbeaten teams at the top of the polls – Mississippi State, Florida State, Mississippi, Baylor and Notre Dame.
There will be one fewer undefeated team after Notre Dame and Florida State play Saturday. But there are nine
or 10 one-loss teams, like Auburn, Alabama, Michigan State, Oregon, Oklahoma, Georgia, TCU, Arizona and Kansas State who could play their way into consideration, too.
