Buckeyes Set Sights to 11-1 Season – Ohio State Buckeyes
11/11/1998 12:00:00 AM | Football
November 11, 1998
%^$
By RUSTY MILLER
%^$AP Sports Writer%^$
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) – Still hurting from its first loss of the season, Ohio%^$State is setting its sights lower.%^$
“Our goal initially was to win the national championship,” Buckeyes coach%^$John Cooper said Monday. “If we can’t reach that goal, then what’s the next%^$best thing? If you can’t play in the Fiesta Bowl, then what?”%^$
The answer to that question for the Buckeyes might just be to settle for the%^$Rose Bowl.%^$
“In years past, that was the pinnacle. That was the highest you could go,”%^$Cooper said of the annual battle between the Pac-10 and Big Ten champs in%^$Pasadena, Calif. “I hope we haven’t reached the point where winning a major%^$bowl game and winning nine, 10 or 11 games isn’t a successful season.”%^$
But in the wake of Saturday’s stunning 28-24 upset loss to Michigan State,%^$many of the Buckeyes have been forced to concede that the Rose Bowl is a%^$distant second choice to playing for the national championship in the Fiesta%^$Bowl.%^$
“It feels like that’s our backup plan,” flanker Dee Miller said. “We set%^$out with one goal and that was to play in Tempe. Saturday destroyed that.”%^$
Ohio State (8-1, 5-1 Big Ten) was ranked No. 1 in last week’s Bowl%^$Championship Series standings, putting it at the top of the mix for the%^$national title game on Jan. 4, 1999. But those hopes evaporated in the chill of%^$Ohio Stadium as the 28-point underdog Spartans stormed back to score the last%^$19 points.%^$
“If the goal is for us to go undefeated and be in the national championship%^$game, we failed at that,” defensive lineman Rodney Bailey said. “It would be%^$great if we went 11-1. But for the fans and other people who look at it in a%^$different respect, it’s hard to look at it other than we lost a goal we had.”%^$
Cooper bristled when it was suggested that some fans might see the season as%^$lost because of expectations that the school could win its first national%^$championship since 1968.%^$
Asked how he would respond to those fans who say the Buckeyes can’t have a%^$successful season now, Cooper said, “I don’t worry about those idiots.”%^$
“What is a successful season? Would you take 11-1?” he asked. “Is%^$anything other than perfect, is that not a successful season?%^$
“We’re not convinced we can’t finish No. 1. But if we can’t finish No. 1,%^$then we’ll try to finish No. 2. If we can’t finish No. 2, then we’ll try to%^$finish No. 3. The main goal you have is to try to win all your football%^$games.”%^$
Over the last 13 years, Cooper and his teams have always talked about%^$winning a national championship. But during three years at Arizona State and%^$his first 10 at Ohio State, that also included winning a Rose Bowl.%^$
With the advent of the BCS and a national championship game this year in the%^$Fiesta, however, the Rose Bowl has gotten lost in the shuffle.%^$
The scenarios to put Ohio State in the Rose Bowl are relatively simple, but%^$require a lot of help.%^$
The Buckeyes – now No. 8 in the latest BCS rankings and No. 7 in both polls%^$- would have to win at Iowa (3-6, 2-4) on Saturday, then defeat No. 15 Michigan%^$at home on Nov. 21. At the same time, unbeaten and eighth-ranked Wisconsin%^$would have to lose at home to Michigan on Saturday and at Penn State a week%^$later if Ohio State is to go to Pasadena.
