Ohio State Buckeyes

Meyer wants Buckeyes to focus on the moment

Updated Nov. 10, 2022 10:25 a.m. ET

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Whether or not Ohio State is playing like a top-10 team, top-five team or a top-two team like it ultimately wants to be, the initial BCS rankings have the Buckeyes at No. 4.

There are eight weeks of football left before those rankings matter, and Urban Meyer spoke to his team on Sunday about the most important week it faces.

The next one.

Ohio State is 7-0, has won 19 straight games and will be favored in every game it plays the rest of the season. It looks like the Buckeyes will need some help from teams currently above them in the BCS standings even if they win the Big Ten and finish 13-0, and Meyer is already addressing the issues of staying in the moment and focusing on the next game.

He's neither dumb nor sheltered. He thinks the same of his players.

"Well, we had our first state of the union address on (Sunday), and it's the first time that I did talk about polls because I wanted to," Meyer said. "(The players), they're going to hear it, this BCS thing came out. And my comment was that we are, indeed, in the mix, (so) embrace it.  In the mix for what?  Don't worry about it.  We are in the mix, though.  People think very highly of you. Maybe some people don't. You just have to go out and be the best team on the field on Saturday, not in the country.

"I addressed it. We did talk about it. Somewhat briefly, but at least it was addressed. That was the first time I did that."

Meyer, who won BCS titles at Florida in 2006 and 2008, said throughout the summer that he thought Ohio State "wasn't there yet." He made clear last week that he likes this team -- its talent, its makeup and its potential -- but wants it to focus only on what it can control. He said he really liked how Ohio State played in its Sept. 28 win over Wisconsin but "other than that, we have room for some improvement."

A bowl ban kept the 12-0 Buckeyes out of last year's BCS standings and quite possibly out of a chance to play for the national title. After last week's 34-24 win over Iowa -- another win, but not an especially pretty one -- Meyer said, "I want us to be on one step closer to where we want to go.  Where we want to go it's to beat Penn State next week.

"I wish I had our guys living on a desert island, because I don't want to hear anything else except to go win No. 8.

"That's twice now we've come back from being behind after all season. And something I want to make sure is that there's no noise in the system, because for some reason we're not starting as fast as we used to. So I'm going to address that real hard tomorrow and Monday and Tuesday in practice."

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