Columbus: When the first college football playoff rankings are announced Tuesday night, don’t be surprised to see Ohio State coach Urban Meyer rooting on the Indians in Game 6.
A rather upbeat Meyer took to the podium Monday in advance of the Buckeyes’ game with Nebraska on Saturday and insisted what comes out in the rankings won’t affect him.
“I’d be disappointed if that was even brought up anywhere around here,” Meyer said. “That’s just — we know what we are. We’ve got two tackles with — their ankles are going to be fine — but two sprained ankles during the course of the game, so teams don’t think that way.
“Really, we just flipped the film on a team that I think [is] still ranked in the top 10. A top 10 team. They play like it. They look like it. And that’s the only concern.”
That’s just how Meyer’s players talked about the first of the six playoff rankings to take place from Nov. 1 to Dec. 4.
Likely sitting one loss away from not playing in a college football championship tournament, Ohio State insists what happens this week is what matters most.
“I don’t care about it too much, being that there’s still a lot of football to be played,” Buckeyes quarterback J.T. Barrett said. “I understand last year we were in it and then we lost a game [to Michigan State] and we weren’t in it.
“The year before that we weren’t in it, and we won a couple of games at the end of the year and we are in it. It all depends. That’s the thing — we’re not playing the playoffs this Saturday, so it’s not that much [in our minds].”
That’s why it’s so easy for Meyer and Co. to focus on the here and now and not worry about what happens in the first week of December or the days to follow after that.
What Ohio State knows is it beat two top 15 teams in No. 8 Wisconsin and No. 12 Oklahoma this season.
Only Clemson has a better resume with wins over No. 5 Louisville and No. 11 Auburn, while the Badgers have wins over No. 9 Nebraska and No. 15 LSU.
With the Cornhuskers coming to Columbus this weekend, it would bring win No. 3 against a top 15 team and should Ohio State find a way to beat No. 2 Michigan on Nov. 26, the rest takes care of itself as long as the Wolverines don’t lose somewhere along the way.
It’s why there’s such a Saturday-first mentality with the Buckeyes.
“I’ve seen the commercials [for the playoff rankings],” defensive end Jalyn Holmes said. “I just have to take it one week at a time. If I’m thinking about that right now, we have to beat Nebraska before any of that can be possible.”
Notes
• St. Vincent-St. Mary graduate Parris Campbell’s diagnosis came out better than expected. Meyer indicated it was a high ankle sprain and that Campbell is questionable against the Cornhuskers, but that’s much better than his staff originally thought, which was good news for Barrett.
“He’s a very valuable player to our team,” Barrett said. “I think he does a lot for us, especially on special teams, and I think somebody is going to have to step up and fill that role.”
• Massillon graduate Gareon Conley was named the defensive player of the week for Ohio State.