Football
Memory of 41-14 Lead Buckeyes to Trash Bag Training and Rugged Fall Camp
By John Porentas

OSU defensive end Lawrence Wilson was describing a late-night run he took with Beanie Wells and Brian Robiskie this summer. It happened often actually during this off season. The phone would ring at any hour and the three of them would go out and get in a run, extra work to get in shape for the season.

Lawrence Wilson

"He calls and says 'Let go run.' It's usually me, Beanie and Robo," began Wilson. "We always push each other. One day we had trash bags on and we were running up and down the bleachers outside."

Trash bags?

Did he say trash bags?

"How do you wear a trash bag," Wilson was asked.

"You cut the head out and you cut the arms out so it fits," said Wilson with a straight serious face and without batting an eye.

"I had about three shirts on. I had a regular shirt on, then I had a trash bag on then I had another shirt over that. It was like 90 that day. It was so hot I thought I was going to faint. Me and Beanie had it on. I don't think Robo had it on," Wilson said.

The mental picture of Lawrence Wilson and Beanie Wilson gloriously clad in trash bags while running the bleachers at Jesse Owens stadium simply would not crystallize in my mind. I mean, what do you ask next?

Draw string or twist-tie?

Kitchen height or garden size?

Fitted or loose?

Green, white or black?

I just couldn't get my brain around it, so I figure Wilson was putting us on. The only thing to do was ask Wells if it was true. His response was immediate. He absolutely denied it ever happened.

"It really wasn't a trash bag," Wells said at first. Then he started to waffle.

Chris Wells

"It was like a trash bag. It's more like a sweat suit. It wasn't a trash bag," Wells insisted.

Back to Wilson. When told Wells denied wearing a trash bag, he looked reporters dead in the eye and said "It was a regular trash bag."

The whole sequence made my mind wobbly. Before sanity could prevail, the stupidest question ever asked at a press conference came out of my mouth.

"So, do you guys do a lot of trash talking when you're wearing those trash bags?"

Wilson never flinched.

"Robo always is saying 'You can't keep up with me.' I lost about six pounds that day," said Wilson without taking a breath. "He's a wide receiver so he's a great runner so we're always chasing him trying to keep up."

The trash bag image may be a bit off the wall, but the thought behind it is deadly serious. Wilson, Wells, Robiskie and all the rest of the Buckeyes seem to willing to go to any length to become better football players and to make themselves winners, and there's a reason for that.

"I think last year's results," said Wilson.

Uh, Lawrence, you won 12 games, were ranked number one for twelve weeks, won two one vs. two matchups, one against the defending national champions on their field and one against arch-rival Michigan.

"That last game still sticks in our mind," said Wilson when reminded of all the positives of the previous season.

"We want to be great this year. I think about it (the National Championship game loss) every day. I think all of us think about it every day," Wilson said.

This year's Buckeyes are being haunted by the 41-14 loss last January, so much so that they would wear trash bags on hot days to make their workouts harder. That loss has carried over as motivation into this year's fall camp as well.

Maurice Wells

"After the loss to Florida, we kind of want to put that behind us, but we remember it, we remember the loss, a devastating loss, 41-14," said Maurice Wells.

"None of had really experienced a loss like that before. It definitely lingers and we definitely don't want to taste that feeling again," said Wells.

"It's in the past but it comes up as a motivation for us to do better and work harder," agreed Beanie Wells.

Dwelling on the past, particularly a failure, is sometimes not a good thing. In this case however, it seems the Buckeyes have chosen to face their demon and try to draw strength from the memory. OSU linebackers coach Luke Fickell said he is totally on board with that whole idea and sees daily evidence that the attitude is one that is shared by the entire team.

"They're conscience of it, at least the guys I work with," said Fickell.

"It's in the forefront. I asked James (Laurinaitis) something about it yesterday. I said 'I'm going to have to get that tape back out.' He said 'Don't worry, my dad made me watch it twice when we were home last week.'

"It's there. Sometimes you don't want to be too negative, but I don't usually worry about that as much as some of the others because I tell them they know who I am and how much I care about them. I'm not saying you want to harp on the negative things, but you never want to forget the feeling that you had," said Fickell.

It's an extreme memory that has the capability of eliciting an extreme response. It's the kind of memory that can make a person or team go in the tank, or can goad them into making themselves better at any cost. Which is it for the Buckeyes? You don't run around in a trash bag in ninety degree weather if you've given up hope. You only do that if you have stared your devil in the eye and decided to do something about exorcising him.

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