You don't pass for 316 yards and four touchdowns when you have Lamar Woodley and Alan Branch rushing in your face, Shawn Crable and David Harris stopping your run, and Jamar Adams, Willis Barringer, and Brandon Harrison covering your wideouts and not be able to call a blowout like this "luck," which most argue that it wasn't. Like some espn ****ysts say....the 51 days of off-time isn't an excuse but a reason..ive watched every game osu has played this season (except the michigan st.) and one thing that stood out to me about the florida game was the fact they seemed to have no intensity and willpower to take control of the game like they did in every regular season game (which they had to play two #2 teams, a fierce offense in iowa, and a great defense in penn state). if you refer back to the michigan game this season, it was either when smith threw the pick or fumbled (I forget) and hart ran it in for like 15 yards to close the lead by 7, on that ensuing osu drive there was 11 people in the osu huddle but only one was talking; smith (the commentators commented on this) You saw him take control and act as a leader for the team by the actions he took when he was talking, two plays later--a 50+ yard run for a touchdown....Unfortuantely you were never able to see someone take control of the team yesterday..almost as if they were mentally and physically drained from the wait..i do believe that there isn't any question that osu would have won had this game been played a week or two after the michigan game...
and I do believe the game would have been completely different had Tedd Ginn been playing this game..would have took defenders off of Gonzalez, Smith's primary target, and allowed a faster offense for OSU finding open recievers quickly like the Robenski kid during the Michigan game and avoiding some of those costly sacks. This could of provided more running lanes by spreading out the Florida secondary and provided momentum for the OSU defense to blitz in with more than three people--they wouldn't be losing by 21-- so they would heavily concentrate on keeping Leak on the ground, rather than focus everything on keeping Florida out of the endzone but still giving up three points on almost every drive. But whatever it's in the past...one thing i hate about college ball is there isnt any chance of a rematch...Smith will never get another chance to prove that he is in fact a better QB than Leak.
I can't help but think you are overstating the impact Ginn would have had. Sadly, due to some incredibly buffoonish endzone antics, we'll never know what Ginn would have done, but the breakdown in the o-line, coupled with TS's loss of confidence proved fatal. Florida had so completely whipped your team on both sides of the ball that it seems Ginn's impact would have been small. On offense, Florida moved the ball effortlessly, and confused your team to the point of desperation. On defense, the pressure knocked TS off of his game. I believe when he realized that the defensive line was faster than he was, he began rushing his throws. Ginn couldn't have caught those balls--no one could have. The most telling moment of the game was when TS tried to rally the offensive line in the second half. No one responded to his urgings. They all stood looking sullen, and ashamed. Ohio State was a team whipped.