I too was in Glendale (including Buckeye, Tempe, Phoenix, etc) for the entire weekend, and was also at the pep rally on Sunday. The players looked tired and unmotivated to me. I know it was only a pep rally, but there were 35,000 + fans there supporting them. I watched the
OSU / Illinois game in Buckeye on Saturday hoping to win a pair of tickets to the NCG (they gave away 3 sets). I felt great going into the weekend, but for some strange reason, the closer it got to kickoff I lost that "we are going to dominate" feeling. I was in the stadium, but was across the street in the Westgate area along with thousands of other fans with no tickets. It was scarlet and gray as far as you could see. Funny thing is, the Gator fans seemed to come out of the woodwork towards the middle of the fourth quarter, and it was a sobering feeling. I live in about 4 hours south of Glendale, so the drive home was better than a plane flight back to Columbus. I tivo'd the game and watched most of it over again (must love the punishment) a couple of times (mostly the opening kickoff)
and that was not the team I watched all year as they went 12-0. My eleven year old daughter called during the game (she could not get into the Wesgate area, and went back to the hotel with her mom to watch the game) and asked why they were losing so bad. I told her it was still early, but I knew at that point it was over. No sense of urgency, no motivation, no adjustments, etc. It was still a fun weekend and got to meet a lot of Buckeye fans that made the trip out here, either at the pep rally, in the parking lot before the game, or at the other happenings throughout the weekend. Still damn proud of what the team accomplished this year, and proud to be a BUCKEYE!