Buckeyes try to temper all the hype
NCAA Football Betting Lines
08/28/2010 -
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) -Terrelle Pryor doesn't read a lot.
Sure, he keeps up with his classwork. But all those preseason magazines on the rack at the book store? He ignores them because off all the good things they're saying about him and his Ohio State teammates.
``Actually I hate magazines,'' the junior quarterback said. ``I don't even want to see that, because I don't want my mind to be distracted.''
It's hard to avoid all the praise that's being lavished on the Buckeyes
Almost every poll, pundit and publication has them ranked among the top two or three teams in the land. Many have singled out Pryor as the Heisman Trophy favorite, even though Alabama's Mark Ingram is back after winning it last year. And several media outlets have already picked Ohio State to win the national championship.
Pryor looks at all those nice words as more hurdles to the Buckeyes' hopes. To him, all the compliments in the world won't win games. As a matter of fact, they might make it harder.
``We don't need none of the hype,'' Pryor said. ``There's always going to be the roundup of the top teams. We don't need to read any of that stuff. We just need to focus and to take care of the business we need to take care of.''
It's a trap that many teams fall into, or at least blame after the fact. Every single team every year says it is unified and focused, then a loss springs questions about whether players let up or thought they could win without maximum effort.
That was the common refrain from Ohio State players in the wake of their embarrassing, lopsided losses to Florida and LSU in the national championship games at the end of the 2006 and 2007 seasons. Some said the team's stars began to believe their press clippings and didn't work as hard. They said there were schisms on the team.
``You think back to the '06 year where the team was unbelievable,'' defensive lineman Dexter Larimore said. ``We stuck together. Then guys started to kind of think they were better than they were. Then it kind of just all fell apart. In '07 it wasn't as bad as far as the team thinking they were all so good. In '07 we were all humble and stuff, but we just didn't get it done.''
The younger players learn from the older ones. They hear the stories of the root problems behind a loss. So players gradually come around to believe that it is best to avoid all the good things that are said about them.
Defensive end Cameron Heyward was asked how he handles the lofty rankings and predictions.
``Just throw it in the trash,'' Heyward said. ``Because if we believe it, we're going to get beat really quick.''
Heyward is certainly not alone. Almost every Buckeye believes that to pay attention to the good things being said is the first step in a season spiraling out of control.
``We really just try to shut it out,'' linebacker Ross Homan said. ``It's good being in camp because we really shut out all outside sources, all media sources. We kind of just focus on the team. We come out here and we don't even think about that stuff.''
His running mate at linebacker, Brian Rolle, knows it's important to put things into perspective.
``The polls haven't played anybody. So they just go off of what we've done previously,'' he said. ``At the end of the day the way we play is going to determine where we're ranked.''
Just as the Buckeyes try not to dwell on the praise, some of the veterans are spurred on by the snickering they heard after the double humiliations to Southeastern Conference opponents in those back-to-back title games.
For instance, even before the next season began, one e-mail looked ahead to the '09 title game: ``National championship game prediction: (insert random SEC team here) 49, Ohio State 10,'' the anonymous jokester wrote on a blog.
Memories of those losses still rankle the older Buckeyes.
``As a player, that kind of stuff lives with you,'' Larimore said. ``So I never kind of think I'm ever too good because all you have to do is think back to those years. It's just unbelievable the things that they said.
``It's just unbelievable that you can do so well and all it takes is one day for four hours and all of a sudden you're the worst thing that ever happened.''Copyright © 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. The information contained in the AP News report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press.
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NCAA Football Betting : USC's reward: Top spot in Top 25NEW YORK (AP) -By staying away from the cupcakes, Southern California earned itself a slim new ranking.
No. 1 always seems to fit USC.
Southern California jumped two spots to No. 1 in The Associated Press Top 25 on Tuesday, rewarded by voters for opening the season with a dominant performance on the road against a BCS conference opponent.
Georgia and Ohio State, the preseason Nos. 1 and 2, respectively, started their seasons with glorified scrimmages at home against FCS (formerly I-AA) teams. USC, however, traveled across country to face Virginia and could not have been more impressive in a 52-7 victory.
Georgia fell to No. 2 and Ohio State to No 3.
"We realize that rankings so early in a season are certainly fluid. But rankings do help establish a pecking order for things later in the season," USC coach Pete Carroll said in a statement. "As for moving into the No. 1 spot, it's nice to know that people think highly of our team."
Since reaching No. 1 on Dec. 7, 2003, the final-regular season AP poll of that season, USC has been No. 1 in 39 polls, by far the most of any team during that time.
"Some have said the voters are taking our schedule into consideration," Carroll said. "Our philosophy has always been to schedule outstanding opponents. We need to play challenging games like we just did, traveling across the country to open the season at Virginia. Games like that bring out our best and make us stronger as a team."
The latest voting was close. USC received 21 first-place votes and 1,539 points from the 65-member media panel. Georgia had 20 first-place votes and 1,506 points. Ohio State got 15 first-place votes and 1,497 points.
"I'd say we've evolved as pollsters," said Stewart Mandel of SI.com, who moved USC up to No. 1. "In the past, voters just kind of automatically moved teams up and kept teams where they were if they won."
Georgia beat Georgia Southern 45-21 on Saturday and Ohio State opened with a 43-0 win over Youngstown State.
"There's a bit of a growing backlash for the amount of teams that open with I-AA cupcakes," said Mandel, whose book "Bowls, Polls and Tattered Souls" chronicles college football's controversies. "To see a team [USC] go on the road and play a New Year's Day bowl team from last season, and not only play them but destroy them, how could you not reward that team?"
USC also jumped past Georgia to No. 1 in the USA Today coaches' poll, which has the same top five as the AP poll.
"It's definitely a privilege to be No. 1. But it's not heartbreaking to me if we drop," Georgia offensive lineman Josh Davis said. "It doesn't matter right now what we're ranked. What matters is our next game and right now, that's Central Michigan. The only time the polls matter is in December. That's when the polls matter."
While the Bulldogs opened easy, their schedule ultimately should be as difficult as any team's. Georgia's big nonconference test is at No. 15 Arizona State on Sept. 20. The Bulldogs also face six Southeastern Conference rivals that've been ranked in the first two polls.
As for Ohio State, the Buckeyes play at USC on Sept. 13 before getting into the Big Ten schedule.
But of the teams in this week's top 10, USC and Texas are the only ones that don't play an FCS opponent, and the Trojans are the only team that doesn't play a team from a non-BCS conference.
Get the latest 2009 BCS Championship odds at MySportsbook.com.
The last team to drop from No. 1 after a victory was USC last season. LSU jumped from No. 2 to No. 1 when it beat Tulane 34-9, the same week the Trojans edged Washington 27-24 on the road.
The last preseason No. 1 team to lose the top spot after winning its opening game was Florida in 2001. The Gators beat Marshall 49-14, but preseason No. 2 Miami opened with a 33-7 victory over Penn State and the Hurricanes jumped to No. 1 with Florida slipping to second.
The next four teams in the new Top 25 stayed the same: No. 4 Oklahoma (two first-place votes), No. 5 Florida (five first-place votes), No. 6 Missouri (one first-place vote), No. 7 LSU (one first-place vote) and No. 8 West Virginia.
No. 9 Auburn and No. 10 Texas each moved up a spot, taking advantage of Clemson's big drop. Clemson, ninth in the preseason, fell out after losing 34-10 to Alabama on Saturday.
Also falling out after losses were Virginia Tech, Pittsburgh and Tennessee.
Moving into the rankings were No. 21 Fresno State, No. 22 Utah, No. 23 UCLA and No. 24 South Carolina.
Alabama moved up 11 spots after its big victory over Clemson.
The second 10 started with No. 11 Wisconsin, followed by Texas Tech, Alabama and Kansas. BYU and Arizona State were tied for 15th. Rivals BYU and Utah are both ranked for the first time since 1996.
South Florida was No. 17, ahead of Oregon, Penn State and Wake Forest at No. 20.
The final five were all the teams to move into the ranking, except for Illinois, which dropped four spots and tied South Carolina for No. 24.
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