\n We\u2019re wired as people to be drawn to stories of overcoming great adversity. Or by stories of tragic downfalls. <\/p>\n
\n\tRise and fall narratives. Those are human nature. We all imagine ourselves as champions of struggle. We all fall short at times, and also take some sick pleasure in seeing someone or something much more fortunate foiled by its own foibles. At least, when we\u2019re not a fan or friend of that entity.\n<\/p>\n
\n\tDominance just isn\u2019t as engaging. No one writes books or films documentaries about a team winning its 27th championship by dominating everyone with its wallet, no one falls in love with the story of a rich kid inheriting his father\u2019s company and keeping the wheels on the Ferrari.\n<\/p>\n
\n\tOhio State\u2019s 2024 season came with a lot of rise and fall. The Buckeyes entered as preseason No. 1 after retaining a glur of projected NFL draft picks, then fell at Oregon midway through the season. They climbed back up the ranks with a top-three win over Penn State and a top-10 win over Indiana, but two of their three best offensive linemen suffered season-ending injuries. And then they lost to Michigan in the worst defeat of Ryan Day\u2019s now seven-year tenure.\n<\/p>\n
\n\tAll that to scoop themselves from the cold ground and go on the greatest national championship run ever.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\t<\/p>\n
\n\tThis year\u2019s Ohio State team barely had a rise and certainly hasn\u2019t had a fall. Sure, in the offseason, there were doubts by many locally and nationally about the Buckeyes\u2019 odds for a repeat title after a school-record-tying 14 players from the 2024 roster were taken in the 2025 NFL draft. Then the Scarlet and Gray beat then-No. 1 Texas in Week 1 and have won every game afterward by at least 18 points. Week 2 onward, OSU has stood atop every major poll.\n<\/p>\n
\n\tIt\u2019s not true for the players or staff who attack each day to beat Michigan, win the Big Ten and conquer the gauntlet for Ohio State\u2019s first repeat national championship. But for the public, the media and even some Buckeye fans, dominance is boring.\n<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cEvery year is different, it’s a different group of guys, but I think the mindset of this team is that they’re business-like, they’re locked in, they’re focused right now on what they want to get done, and that’s the most important thing,\u201d Ryan Day said on Wednesday. \u201cWe know that we want to be playing our best football down the stretch, and that’s it. And I think these guys embrace it.\u201d\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\n\tA bit of insider baseball here: Every week, the College Football Playoff holds a teleconference call with the chairman of its selection committee every week after the latest batch of CFP rankings are revealed. Ohio State has the largest media contingent in the country. (This is anecdotal, but I\u2019ve seen a lot of beats out there, and few compare in size. Just ask Big Ten communications folks about the difficulties of press box logistics when the Buckeye beat comes to town.) Every week in 2024, without fail, there were multiple Buckeye reports in the 45-minute conference call with questions.\n<\/p>\n
\n\tThis past week, for the first time I can remember, there were none. Ohio State was No. 1 in the first batch of 2025 rankings. It was No. 1 again with no contest in the second. The largest, loudest beat in college football had nothing to ask. The beat was bored on Tuesday night.\n<\/p>\n
\n\tESPN analyst and former journeyman backup NFL quarterback (alright, he was a starter once, for the 0-16 Detroit Lions in 2008) Dan Orlovsky feels he can\u2019t determine how good Ohio State is because the Buckeyes haven\u2019t \u201cBeen down four in the fourth quarter.\u201d Credit to him, it\u2019s hard to drum up any interest when a team\u2019s been too dominant to have anything close to a fall.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cThe least tested No. 1 team in the history of college football,\u201d Orlovsky said. Clearly, when it comes to Ohio State, the national media is bored.\n<\/p>\n
\n\t\tDan Orlovsky on Ohio State:<\/p>\n
Theyre the least tested No. 1 team in the history of college football. Theyve played nobody.<\/p>\n
Week 1 Texas, ever since then they havent played anybody.<\/p>\n
I dont know if theyve played a team thats ranked right now since Texas. pic.twitter.com\/egAtEggiAr<\/a>\n\t<\/p>\n \t\u2014 The Buckeye Nut (@TheBuckeyeNut) November 13, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n \n\tIn fact, some national media members are so bored that they\u2019re willing to take hard-line stances against Ohio State without even watching the games it plays. FootballScoop writer Zach Barnett got smacked with an appropriate community note on X after posting a story that Julian Sayin has \u201cNo business as a Heisman Trophy candidate\u201d because… he\u2019s been dominant and breaking NCAA completion percentage records? The Buckeyes have been dominant, and real Heisman winners have \u201cHeisman Moments\u201d against 3-6 teams? I\u2019m not sure. To paraphrase Zach Barnett\u2019s words, I haven\u2019t read much Zach Barnett this year.\n<\/p>\n \n\t\tGood afternoon.<\/p>\n Ohio State quarterback Julian Sayin has no business as a Heisman Trophy candidate, let alone winning it.<\/p>\n Have a nice day.https:\/\/t.co\/WZGGlK9unj<\/a>\n\t<\/p>\n \t\u2014 Zach Barnett (@zach_barnett) November 19, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n \n\tLike Orlovsky, though, credit to Barnett, enraging the Ohio State fanbase is a tried and true method to generate clicks. It\u2019s equal parts depressing and unsurprising that my most-read story since February is about an 88-year-old former Notre Dame head coach taking another shot at the Buckeyes. <\/a>It was less than 600 words, half of it quotes, and less than 30 minutes of effort. I didn\u2019t even put my name on it. But it broke through the boredom of Grambling State week like the Kool-Aid man breaking a wall.\u00a0Oh yeah.<\/a>\n<\/p>\n \n\tBarnett implied that he\u2019s bored with the Buckeyes. The national landscape is bored with the Buckeyes. The Buckeyes? Not bored.\n<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cWe’re not really satisfied,\u201d center Carson Hinzman said. \u201cLike I mentioned earlier, (the current players) have never been to a Big Ten championship before, so for us to be able to have that edge of, man, we’ve never really done anything with this team yet in any aspect. We don’t have any hardware. We haven’t done anything besides the turtle (Illibuck). But just having that edge about us, wanting to go and prove something for ourselves is big for us. So just having that mentality this year, kind of like how we did last year, is important.\u201d\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n \n\tMore boring dominance is likely in store this weekend for the Buckeyes against Rutgers. Then things get interesting. There are actual rise and fall narratives tied into The Game, the one in Ann Arbor, this year. Michigan has beaten Ohio State four consecutive seasons. Righteous justice is on the line after the NCAA slapped the Wolverines on the wrist for \u2013 in the NCAA\u2019s words \u2013 cheating.\n<\/p>\n \n\tWin there and it\u2019s a guaranteed Big Ten title game berth. A CFP berth is practically already in hand. No outcome will be boring for Ohio State fans there, even without the ultimate fall that preceded last year\u2019s championship pursuit.\n<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cWe’re writing a different story right now, and we’re in control of that,\u201d Day said. \u201cThat’s what’s great about being at Ohio State, you’re in control of what’s going on, and that’s it. That’s what we’re going to focus on, what we can control. And then the rest of it is just noise, and we have to stay focused this time of season.\u201d\n<\/p>\n \n\tNothing will be boring for Ohio State or its fans that happens after this Saturday. But everyone can hope college football at large stays bored while the Buckeyes prove they\u2019ve dominated the sport with the school\u2019s first-ever repeat national championship.\n<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cWe’re chasing history here at Ohio State, and they know that,\u201d Day said. \u201cThat was the vision early on in the season, and then the challenge is to focus every week on being your best and being the hardest-playing team in the country and getting our job done.\u201d\n<\/p>\n