Football
Differences In Buckeyes, Tigers, Striking
By John Porentas

Things are different around the national championship game this year, and we're not talking about just with the Buckeyes, though things are without a doubt different with OSU.

Media members were allowed to visit practice sessions for both teams yesterday and there were striking differences between the two.

The LSU Tigers practiced at the Superdome and their practice, at least for the thirty minutes we were allowed to see, could only be described as very loose and very relaxed.

LSU's players took turns doing drills, and when players weren't participating, they were on the sidelines laughing, talking with each other, and having what looked like a good time. Very little time was spent watching drills if you weren't participating, and the pace of the practice was not exactly what could be described as break-neck.

The Buckeyes, meanwhile, were originally scheduled to practice outdoors at Tulane University, but elected instead to move their practice to the New Orleans Saints indoor practice facility. According to OSU spokesperson Shelly Poe, the primary consideration was wind conditions. OSU was scheduled for the Tulane facility before the NFL playoffs were set, but once it was known that the Saints were out of the playoffs and the practice facility was available, the Buckeyes were given the option of practicing there if they so chose.

OSU's practice was not tight, but players seemed extremely focused. The Buckeyes were definitely in the heavy sweat mode while the Tigers were kind of moseying through their drills 10 miles away. The approaches were different, and for the Buckeyes, different from their approach to game preparations at the bowl site from last season. OSU running back Beanie Wells said he could see that difference the moment he arrived in New Orleans.

Beanie Wells

"I could immediately, as soon as we got here," said Wells.

"Last year we were out there a while and it was more like a vacation.

"This year everybody's taking it more like a business trip, like we're down here for a purpose." said Wells.

"That's just to go out there and give it our all in a football game. Last year, I really didn't sense that at all from our team," Wells said.

"Definitely changed it up," said OSU offensive lineman Kirk Barton describing the difference between this year and last for the Buckeyes.

"We're pretty excited, like I said, to get out to practice.

Kirk Barton

"I mean, last year we were kind of lackadaisical and this year there's more urgency. Because when you have an opportunity like this, you know, you can't just fill in all the dots like stay at the same hotel, do the same routine and then expect the same outcome.

"I mean, that might have been the case last year, but this year it's different. And, like I said, we're just excited -- I've never been this excited to be out to practice. I just want to go out and practice today. That's all I think about now. Because we only have so many opportunities and we have to take advantage of them," Barton said.

Throughout the day yesterday LSU's team members also talked about the focus of their team, and there is no doubt that the Tigers know the importance of the game they are about to play, but the pasting the Buckeyes took last year from Florida and the national scorn they have endured all year as a result seems to have them nearly maniacally focused on the upcoming game.

"Last year we got embarrassed. And everybody remembers that and that's all anyone wants to talk about," said offensive lineman Alex Boone.

Alex Boone

"Now they're saying we don't deserve to be here. They can say what they want and we feel a different way. But obviously it's a blessing for us to be here. Not a lot of people even get the chance to go one time. Now we're back here again for a repeat. So this year we know what's at stake. We're not taking anything for granted anymore. We're a team and we're going to play like a team and there's no superstars and that's just the way it is," said Boone.

"I think what's better about this year, last year everyone was like, man, you guys are going to win. You guys got Troy, you got Teddy, Gonzo, you have all these superstars, you can't lose. This year it's like, who do you have? You have Beanie and James, that's great, but who else?

"I think this year we're just a blue-collar team. No one knows who we are. We're just playing for ourselves and that's the mind-set right now, we're going to play for ourselves and nobody else and we deserve this. Last year people kept saying, you're going to win, you're going to win.

"You start to think, we're going to win. Maybe we don't have to practice as hard as we are. This year it's opposite. You're too slow, you're not going to make it, you don't hit hard enough. We've been taking practices up another level and running and hitting as hard as we can and I think it's going to be different."

Different is definitely true, but different doesn't necessarily mean better. A team can be too tight and not perform, can psyche itself out. Remember all those Michigan games in the 1980s and 90s? Then you know what we're talking about. That could be true this time around for the Buckeyes, but Boone doesn't think so.

"I wish we had going into the game like this last year," Boone said.

"Last year people told us we were going to win and there was no worries, we had Troy, Teddy, Gonzo all those guys. This year we have nobody. We're a bunch of nobodys and we don't amount to anything. You hear that for a while and you just want to play so bad. This year I can't wait, I can't wait for this game. This is going to be a great game. It's a great feeling this year. It's a lot better than last year, I'll tell you that," said Boone.

The memory of their last failure in the national championship game last year has haunted the Buckeyes, not that they've needed much help remembering. They are reminded almost daily by the endless stream of chatter on radio, television, on the internet and in newspapers. The OSU coaching staff has embraced that chatter as a motivator, so much so that just before Christmas a 10 minute DVD was produced and shown to the team to remind them of their loss and what has been said since. Each member of the team was then given a copy. Boone said he watched his at home with his grandmother, Noreen Sulzer, and got an entertaining reaction.

"I had my grandma watch it with me and she started crying. She wanted to kill somebody," said Boone.

"She said that Mark May is a liar, that I'm not slow. She said that I'm pretty speedy. Other than that that DVD kind of hit home. It started out with the Florida game and then kind of went through the season with people talking about us. It was hard to see those guys hold up that trophy and stuff like that. You know you lost that game and now people are saying you're slow, you're slow, you're slow, they're going to be fast. You kind of listened to that and you start to think that maybe they're wrong," Boone said.

The Tigers are definitely in town to win a national championship. So are the Buckeyes, but the Buckeyes have just a little more of an agenda.

"Everyone is taking this game as serious as they can take it," said Boone.

"This is THE game and we need to wipe the slate clean, come up and show people that we deserve to be here. A lot of people don't think that, so we need to prove them wrong."

Boone is convinced that the changed attitude will serve the Buckeyes well when the ball is kicked off on Monday.

"Football is on emotion and how hard people play. X's and O's are a little over-rated I think," said Boone.

And that emotion, according to Boone, was missing from the Buckeyes last year in Arizona.

"Absolutely," he said.

"Everybody was off doing their own thing and not thinking about the team, myself included.

"I'm thinking about other things not thinking the game was going to be as hard as it was going to be and we got our asses handed to us. That's just the way football is.

"If you don't give it all you have it's going to smack you right in the face.

"This year everybody is focused, tuned in, nobody cares about anything except this game.

"This is the most important game of our lives and everybody understands that."

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