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For this game, motivation's the easy part
Column by The Post's Lonnie Wheeler
The University of Cincinnati football roster includes 62 players from the state of Ohio, and the other day coach Mark Dantonio was asked how many of those had been recruited at some point by the sprawling school that the Bearcats play Saturday in Columbus.
"Well, Freddie Lenix was recruited by Ohio State," said the former OSU defensive coordinator, referring to the freshman linebacker who originally signed with the Buckeyes but didn't meet their academic standards. "I would say the majority of our guys were not.
"Like 61."
Therein lies one of the many difficulties of spending an afternoon in front of a crowd the size of Charleston, S.C., and dead across from the top-ranked team in the nation. What Dantonio will bring to Ohio Stadium, basically, is the type of player that his mentor, Jim Tressel, doesn't bother with.
But that can go down better than it sounds. It didn't work out too terribly in 1999, when UC lost there by only 24-20. The Bearcats shouldered the chip extremely well in 2002, when Ohio State, stopping at Paul Brown Stadium on its way to a national championship, had to hold off the little fellows in the final seconds, 23-19. And Cincinnati, in fact, even put up a proud front two years ago, in Dantonio's first game as head coach, before falling 27-6.
As thankless as it is for a lightly armed coach to devise a plan to deal with a hyper-dimensional quarterback such as Troy Smith, and "a cheetah" (as Dantonio calls him) the likes of receiver and kick returner Ted Ginn Jr., and a meat-eating (ask the Texas Longhorns) offensive line, and the type of pre-NFL defense that Ohio State rolls out annually, it actually has its advantages. For instance, motivation is not an issue.
"You don't need to say much about this one," observed former walk-on linebacker Ryan Manalac, who grew up outside Columbus as a 200-pound defensive back. "It's Ohio State."
Among the various and compelling incentives, there's that defining-moment sort of feeling as described by reserve quarterback David Wess, who also grew up in the town that Woody built and also had little chance of playing for the team that Woody built, unless, in his case, he wished to be considered as a safety, which he didn't. "I grew up dreaming of running out on that field," said Wess. "Not necessarily as part of the away team or the home team. Just running out on that field."
For his part, Brent Celek, Cincinnati's tight end and possibly its best player, has a bit of a different provocation regarding Saturday, inasmuch as he was raised as a Notre Dame fan and, frankly, "I was never too fond of Ohio State.
"My dream was always to play college football. I didn't really care where. But they're the team everybody talks about in Ohio, and with us going up there this weekend, we can help put a stop to that and get our name out there too."
That would be a fine development for Dantonio, to whom the name out there is a handy thing for recruiting, which is a handy thing for building a program that will never match Ohio State's but can aspire to what Louisville, for instance, is accomplishing, and Pitt and now even Rutgers, all members of the Big East.
Dantonio took the UC job three years ago in part because Tressel, when consulted about it, said, "Are you crazy? You're taking that job." And also because he knew the Bearcats were about to join the Big East and were building state-of-the-art facilities and were favorably situated in an exceedingly football-friendly community.
"We've recruited on a vision for two years," said the Zanesville, Ohio native, speaking at a press conference in the color-coordinated auditorium of the new and fabulous Lindner Center. "Now we can put some substance with that vision.
"You guys from Columbus, you've been in the Woody Hayes (Athletic Center). Look around here. Look at the weight room. Who's got a better weight room? We do. Who's got a better team room right now? We do. Now, they're building a $10 million facility, but we've got some things going for us here.
"We don't have the tradition here as far as it being a place everybody's going to come to right now," the coach continued. "We need to build and grow in certain areas. But the Big East Conference will help us do that, and the BCS affiliation, and these facilities are brand new, so we're just on the cusp of getting people here to see them."
So it is - in the interest of being seen - that Dantonio is willing to take his not-ready-for-Ohio-State boys to Ohio State this week, and to Virginia Tech next week, risking rough results now for better ones later. Not that he's conceding the now, even after what the Buckeyes did to Texas last week.
He points out, for instance, the fits given Ohio State by Cincinnati on at least two recent occasions, and by Bowling Green, and by San Diego State. Along those lines, it's not entirely inconceivable that UC's talented and maturing defense could keep the game close.
The defense, after all, is patterned after the one he coordinated for Tressel when the Buckeyes won it all in 2002. In fact, Dantonio noted, "A lot of the things we did at Ohio State we've brought here.
"In terms of what we do in goal-setting, what we do off the field, the winners manual we have, how we run our program, terminology. A lot of things we've brought here are intangibles."
The tangibles, of course, are a different bag of nuts; and very tough nuts, at that. Buckeyes, as you're probably aware, don't easily crack.
For this game, motivation's the easy part
Column by The Post's Lonnie Wheeler
The University of Cincinnati football roster includes 62 players from the state of Ohio, and the other day coach Mark Dantonio was asked how many of those had been recruited at some point by the sprawling school that the Bearcats play Saturday in Columbus.
"Well, Freddie Lenix was recruited by Ohio State," said the former OSU defensive coordinator, referring to the freshman linebacker who originally signed with the Buckeyes but didn't meet their academic standards. "I would say the majority of our guys were not.
"Like 61."
Therein lies one of the many difficulties of spending an afternoon in front of a crowd the size of Charleston, S.C., and dead across from the top-ranked team in the nation. What Dantonio will bring to Ohio Stadium, basically, is the type of player that his mentor, Jim Tressel, doesn't bother with.
But that can go down better than it sounds. It didn't work out too terribly in 1999, when UC lost there by only 24-20. The Bearcats shouldered the chip extremely well in 2002, when Ohio State, stopping at Paul Brown Stadium on its way to a national championship, had to hold off the little fellows in the final seconds, 23-19. And Cincinnati, in fact, even put up a proud front two years ago, in Dantonio's first game as head coach, before falling 27-6.
As thankless as it is for a lightly armed coach to devise a plan to deal with a hyper-dimensional quarterback such as Troy Smith, and "a cheetah" (as Dantonio calls him) the likes of receiver and kick returner Ted Ginn Jr., and a meat-eating (ask the Texas Longhorns) offensive line, and the type of pre-NFL defense that Ohio State rolls out annually, it actually has its advantages. For instance, motivation is not an issue.
"You don't need to say much about this one," observed former walk-on linebacker Ryan Manalac, who grew up outside Columbus as a 200-pound defensive back. "It's Ohio State."
Among the various and compelling incentives, there's that defining-moment sort of feeling as described by reserve quarterback David Wess, who also grew up in the town that Woody built and also had little chance of playing for the team that Woody built, unless, in his case, he wished to be considered as a safety, which he didn't. "I grew up dreaming of running out on that field," said Wess. "Not necessarily as part of the away team or the home team. Just running out on that field."
For his part, Brent Celek, Cincinnati's tight end and possibly its best player, has a bit of a different provocation regarding Saturday, inasmuch as he was raised as a Notre Dame fan and, frankly, "I was never too fond of Ohio State.
"My dream was always to play college football. I didn't really care where. But they're the team everybody talks about in Ohio, and with us going up there this weekend, we can help put a stop to that and get our name out there too."
That would be a fine development for Dantonio, to whom the name out there is a handy thing for recruiting, which is a handy thing for building a program that will never match Ohio State's but can aspire to what Louisville, for instance, is accomplishing, and Pitt and now even Rutgers, all members of the Big East.
Dantonio took the UC job three years ago in part because Tressel, when consulted about it, said, "Are you crazy? You're taking that job." And also because he knew the Bearcats were about to join the Big East and were building state-of-the-art facilities and were favorably situated in an exceedingly football-friendly community.
"We've recruited on a vision for two years," said the Zanesville, Ohio native, speaking at a press conference in the color-coordinated auditorium of the new and fabulous Lindner Center. "Now we can put some substance with that vision.
"You guys from Columbus, you've been in the Woody Hayes (Athletic Center). Look around here. Look at the weight room. Who's got a better weight room? We do. Who's got a better team room right now? We do. Now, they're building a $10 million facility, but we've got some things going for us here.
"We don't have the tradition here as far as it being a place everybody's going to come to right now," the coach continued. "We need to build and grow in certain areas. But the Big East Conference will help us do that, and the BCS affiliation, and these facilities are brand new, so we're just on the cusp of getting people here to see them."
So it is - in the interest of being seen - that Dantonio is willing to take his not-ready-for-Ohio-State boys to Ohio State this week, and to Virginia Tech next week, risking rough results now for better ones later. Not that he's conceding the now, even after what the Buckeyes did to Texas last week.
He points out, for instance, the fits given Ohio State by Cincinnati on at least two recent occasions, and by Bowling Green, and by San Diego State. Along those lines, it's not entirely inconceivable that UC's talented and maturing defense could keep the game close.
The defense, after all, is patterned after the one he coordinated for Tressel when the Buckeyes won it all in 2002. In fact, Dantonio noted, "A lot of the things we did at Ohio State we've brought here.
"In terms of what we do in goal-setting, what we do off the field, the winners manual we have, how we run our program, terminology. A lot of things we've brought here are intangibles."
The tangibles, of course, are a different bag of nuts; and very tough nuts, at that. Buckeyes, as you're probably aware, don't easily crack.
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(BTW, Carpenter went to Lancaster)
