Well that was disheartening

"Preparing myself for a loss" really didn't help anything.

If you could care less about college football, you might as well stop reading. :)

I gotta say, though, that I feel better about this game than I did last year's. Last year, the Buckeyes mustered all of 82 yards of offense - we got almost that in one play with Beanie. There were numerous times where it looked like OSU might come back and make it close. It was stupid mistakes (i.e. dropping a sure-thing TD pass, hitting the punter instead of the ball) and horrible personal fouls (2 drives with 30 yards in penalties???) that killed the Buckeyes. They're young and they played young.

Regardless, no one ever thought they would make it there. I mean, at the beginning of the season, who would have thought Todd Boeckman, who hadn't really played since high school, could lead them to the national championship game? How many teams could lose a Heisman trophy winner and 2 first-round draft picks and come right back to the national championship?

The people who say the Buckeyes should be barred from National Championship games are ludicrous. It's not like they ranked themselves #1 or could have said, "No, thank you - we're not good enough" to a national championship game.

There are some positives. That team played their butts off. They never gave up and showed how strong they can be. Next year, they're even poised to be just as good, if not better than, this year's squad. They're not losing very many seniors (though they could lose some great starters on D, which would hurt). Beanie set himself up to be a Heisman front-runner next year. Brandon Saine looked good.

Though last night I felt like saying the Buckeyes are a tease, I've rethought my position. When I remember that this team was discounted from the beginning, picked to be third in the Big Ten, I have reason to be satisfied with this season. Happy? No. Pleased? Not really. But satisfied? Yeah, I think so.

Congrats on a good season, Ohio State... but please don't do this to me again next year!