• Follow us on Twitter @buckeyeplanet and @bp_recruiting, like us on Facebook! Enjoy a post or article, recommend it to others! BP is only as strong as its community, and we only promote by word of mouth, so share away!
  • Consider registering! Fewer and higher quality ads, no emails you don't want, access to all the forums, download game torrents, private messages, polls, Sportsbook, etc. Even if you just want to lurk, there are a lot of good reasons to register!

Behind the scenes at Ohio State: 10 lessons from the Buckeyes

Jump to latest Follow Reply
Sort by date Sort by votes
Buckskin86

Buckskin86

Moderator
Behind the scenes at Ohio State: 10 lessons from the Buckeyes

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- To understand how frenetic a college football game-day operation can get, consider the belt loops on Ohio State coach Urban Meyer's pants. At times on fall Saturdays, those loops become the most important resources on the Buckeyes' sideline.

Brian Voltolini, Ohio State's director of football operations, shadows Meyer on the field during games, something he has done since their days together at Bowling Green more than a decade ago. As both Meyer and Voltolini's hair has faded from pepper to salt, they have refined a react-and-respond system for when Meyer's temper boils over at officials.

"You have to pull him, you can't just nudge him," Voltolini said, wedging two fingers into one of his own belt loops to demonstrate. "He'll look at me like he doesn't know who I am."

Voltolini added with a smile, "The good part is that he doesn't remember any of it the next day."

The Buckeyes granted me behind-the-scenes access during the week leading up to their season-opening 40-20 win over Buffalo on Aug. 31, an experience I wrote about for this week's issue of Sports Illustrated. In all, I spent four days with the team, culminating with game-day access to the coaches' headsets. I got to listen in on what an FBS game really feels like for coaches. Here are 10 things I learned from my time with Ohio State.

Photo gallery: Behind the scenes with Ohio State's football program

1. What happens on the headset stays on the headset. On game day, there are volatile swings of emotion. There is arguing. There is cursing. But everything is forgotten soon after. "You can't take anything personal that happens on game day," Voltolini said. "If you do, you're done."

2. The word grind is overused in the football lexicon -- but there are few better ways to describe how a coaching staff prepares for Saturday. As the word is used in locker rooms at all levels of the game, grind has evolved from a noun into a verb, from a grind to the grind. To grind through a game week with the Buckeyes' coaches lends some perspective, as the Ohio State staff fought a constant battle against fatigue while attempting to keep its edge. The coaches began their 7 a.m. meetings with steaming cups of McDonald's coffee, moved on to Propel water around mid-morning and turned to all sorts of caffeinated additives throughout the rest of the day.

cont...
Click to expand...



Read More: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/co...5/ohio-state-behind-the-scenes/#ixzz2fxx0QA7f
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top