INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. — Despite all that Urban Meyer's been through in the past two weeks—really, the past three months—there the Ohio State head coach sat in the bowels of Lucas Oil Stadium, mere inches from where he was famously photographed embodying defeat a year ago. But as he fulfilled his media obligations on the eve of the Big Ten Championship Game, Meyer hardly appeared shaken, carrying the quiet confidence that took him to the top of the college football mountain.
"For me to say I didn't think about that when I walked in here—I did," Meyer said on Friday. "But then I moved on quickly."
The pressure of a 24-game winning streak became too much for the Buckeyes to overcome in the conference championship game a year ago, Ohio State falling 34-24 to Michigan State. But the Buckeyes' circumstances were certainly different back then, although in a way, they were the same.
The Buckeyes aren't favored this weekend as they were during their last trip to the Circle City, the season-ending broken ankle suffered by quarterback J.T. Barrett helping make Wisconsin a four-point favorite, per Odds Shark. For just the fourth time in the Meyer era, Ohio State finds itself as an underdog, despite spending the 2014 regular season as the class of the Big Ten.
"I didn't know that," Meyer insisted earlier this week of his team's underdog status.
But while the Buckeyes are expected to lose in the conference championship game—just as they did a season ago—they still have just as much on the line. A win over the Spartans last season would have clinched Ohio State the chance to play for the national championship, and a victory in Indy this year could very well land the Buckeyes in the first-ever College Football Playoff.
That, however, will be easier said than done, with Ohio State facing the Badgers' second-ranked defense with a quarterback who at one point was listed as third on the Buckeyes' depth chart in Cardale Jones. When star quarterback Braxton Miller went down two weeks prior to the start of the season with a torn labrum, the reins of the OSU offense were handed to Barrett, a redshirt freshman who hadn't played in an actual game in nearly two calendar years.
And even after the Buckeyes suffered a loss to Virginia Tech in the second week of the season, Barrett managed to lead Ohio State on an unlikely charge back into the national title picture. The Buckeyes' victory over Michigan last weekend moved their record to 11-1 on the season, their spot in the Big Ten title game clinched a week earlier.
But Barrett's season-ending injury has loomed over the Ohio State program, as has the tragic disappearance and death of walk-on defensive lineman KostaKarageorge. Add defensive end Noah Spence's failed appeal for reinstatement, thus ending his college career, and it's been a whirlwind two weeks in Columbus, a microcosm of a Buckeyes season that hasn't been short on storylines.
"It's been a tough week," Meyer admitted. "I told our players, you add in the fact you lost your Heisman preseason candidate the beginning of the season, we didn't have our offensive captains play the first four or five games of the year. I said you shouldn't be in this situation.
"You have to really reflect upon how that happened. There is not good fortune, the ball didn't bounce your way. We don't believe in that. We believe in an extremely close team, an extremely close team that leans on each other in tough times."
And maybe Meyer's telling the truth, that he doesn't believe in bad luck and that he's just going to roll with the hand he was dealt. But that won't stop him from using it as a motivating factor, as the Buckeyes prepare for their biggest game of the season.
"Every red flag is up, every excuse is out there to not play well, to not win a game, to lose a game," Meyer said on Monday. "You have some really good built-in excuses. To overcome the incredible tragedy that happened last night, this is a real challenge. We're going to watch it very closely. I can tell you this: extremely close team that does a lot of things together and cares about each other."
On its third option at quarterback and with all Ohio State's been though this season, one gets the sense that the Buckeyes are playing with house money, and Meyer knows it. Ohio State has every reason to lose, but still so much is on the line, and despite all of the obstacles it's faced, Meyer likes where his team stands.
"There's been a high energy. There's a lot of energy with our team right now. Very positive," Meyer said. "This team's been through a lot. And they keep grinding. And they keep winning."
Ben Axelrod is Bleacher Report's Ohio State lead writer. You can follow him on Twitter @BenAxelrod. Unless noted otherwise, all quotes obtained firsthand. All statistics courtesy of cfbstats.com and recruiting information courtesy of 247Sports.
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