The old saying goes that it’s always windiest at the top of the mountain, but there’s other stuff going on up there too. Specifically, regardless of the wind, a lot of times you feel you can leave the Gortex at home and go up there in your long underwear only, because you’re bullet- (or wind-) proof.
The first half of the first game into the season for Ohio State, Urban Meyer seemed to have the ideal job on his hands: coaching a team that was coming back from a title but still on some sort of vengeance tour.
Virginia Tech made it a game before OSU slammed the door shut with the force of, “Who the hell invited you to the party?,” but the writing was somewhat on the wall: the Buckeyes’ most difficult opponent, no matter who is on the schedule, is Complacency U.
Complacency is arguably the hardest internal team virus to vaccinate out of the system. It usually comes in two forms of severity:
1. Championship complacency
2. In-Game complacency
The second we see all the time. Team A gets up by a bunch, and Team A sort of throws it on cruise control until sometimes it can’t get it back and loses, or it does just enough to win. As a coach, it sucks. You’re sitting in there during a timeout telling your players to view it like it’s a 1-point game against your conference rival, knowing that the other coach is preaching that his team is going to get back in it … because it will.
To continue reading this article by Bart Doan at Bloguin, click here.
