Well this is an awkward narrative...
In his picks for the 2017 season's College Football Playoff, ESPN's Mark Schlabach picked Ohio State to win this year's national title with a 24-20 win in what Schlabach calls "redemption" for Ohio State's Playoff performance last year.
From ESPN:
Meyer has rarely been humbled as much as he was in Ohio State's 31-0 loss to Clemson in the CFP semifinals at the Fiesta Bowl last season. The Buckeyes had only 215 yards of offense with nine first downs and were shut out for the first time since 1993. It was the first time a Meyer-coached team was held scoreless in his 194 games as a head coach.
The Buckeyes are poised for redemption this coming season.
The point there is that Ohio State obviously isn't as bad as they looked in that game against Clemson, and there will be some fight to prove they are a better team. But calling that redemption? The team that's been in the College Football Playoff two of the last three years, including one national title win?
That wouldn't be redemption if they won it all this year, that would be par for the course. Ohio State is 61-6 in Urban Meyer's five seasons with the Buckeyes; they are certainly a team that doesn't need an underdog story for 2017, especially considering they are a near-consensus Top 3 team in most preseason polls.
Ohio State will open the season this Thursday against Indiana.
