[osugrad21]

Link

OSU has seen bigger distractions than No. 1
BY JIM NAVEAU - Aug. 31, 2006

COLUMBUS — They say their No. 1 preseason ranking isn’t something they talk much about.
But there was one day where being No. 1 created a bit of a stir in Ohio State’s football locker room.
That was the day Sports Illustrated’s college football preview issue arrived with quarterback Troy Smith and offensive linemen Doug Datish and T.J. Downing on the regionalized cover.
“The only time we really talked about it was when Sports Illustrated came out,” senior wide receiver Anthony Gonzalez said. “That’s kind of neat because when you’re a kid and when you’re an adult, you read Sports Illustrated, that’s the sports magazine you look at.
“But, to be honest, nobody really talks about it. We’re not talking about it in our locker room. Some other teams might be but we’re not talking about it much, if at all,” he said.
Ohio State was ranked No. 1 in The Associated Press and USA Today coaches polls.
The last time Ohio State entered a season ranked No. 1 was in 1998, when this year’s players would have been in elementary school.
But the fifth-year seniors, like Van Wert’s Joel Penton were around for the national championship run in 2002 as redshirt freshmen.
The lesson from that season, where Ohio State wasn’t No. 1 in the polls until after the BCS title game win over Miami, is that rankings only matter when all the games have been played.
Penton said, “I wouldn’t call it pressure being No. 1. We know the important thing is not the preseason rankings but where we finish at the end.”
He said Ohio State’s defense has used the No. 1 ranking as motivation. People point to nine new starters on defense as the biggest factor working against the Buckeyes making the preaseason predictions come true.
“It’s definitely motivating. It’s kind of nice to be the underdog in some way and it’s tough to get that feeling when you’re ranked No. 1 going into the season,” Penton said.
Offensive T.J. Downing said OSU’s players won’t be distracted by the polls because they’ve faced preseason commotions before.
“Last year it was the quarterbacks, before that it was the Maurice Clarett distraction,” Downing said.
Asked which of the three was the least distracting, he chose this year without hesitation.
“We know it’s only talk. We haven’t done anything to deserve that No. 1 ranking. Yeah, we won some games last year, we won the Fiesta Bowl and we did great doing it. But we lost a lot of guys from that team. There are some new faces who are going to have to step up and deserve that No. 1,” Downing said.
Coach Jim Tressel said the only person in the chain of command to mention rankings so far has been athletic director Gene Smith.
“I've never mentioned that,” Tressel said. “Gene Smith mentioned to the team in our team opening meeting, he talked about distinguishing yourself and how do you do that at a place like Ohio State, there have been so many great teams and so forth. He threw out the challenge to us, you know, there is a way to distinguish yourself. That was day one of practice.
“We haven't talked about it since because we've been pretty busy and I'm sure we won't talk about it after, but it was mentioned once.”