DALLAS - Ohio State pulled away from Oregon in the fourth quarter of the first national championship game of the College Football Playoff, leaving little doubt that the best team won.
Now that the 2014 season is over and we're back to projecting and judging on "paper season," the 2015 Buckeyes look like they might be the best team again. And with the trophy back in Columbus, it's fair to think Ohio State will be good enough to win another one.
Eleven of Ohio State's 22 listed national-title game starters were freshmen or sophomores. Next month, Urban Meyer will sign his fourth top-10 recruiting class in as many years. Four starting offensive linemen return, the secondary loses only its top cornerback and whoever ends up being the starting quarterback will have a championship resume -- and won't be the only Heisman Trophy candidate in the Ohio State backfield. One day before the NFL Draft's early-entry deadline, no Buckeyes have declared.
Meyer's team is loaded.
"Well, I think we'll be very good," Meyer said of 2015. "I think we have to watch for complacency in the program, and we're going to watch that very closely. We have a little bit of transition of coaching staff. This is a very complicated machine, college football, when you start thinking about all the different hurdles that are along the journey."
Every program has moving parts. Only a few are even in Ohio State's galaxy in terms of talent right now.
Three quarterbacks have experience and eligibility, though Braxton Miller and Cardale Jones have outside options. J.T. Barrett could be recovered from his leg injury in time for spring practice. Whoever's taking the snaps will have Sugar Bowl and national championship game MVP Ezekiel Elliott to run the ball and try to run his streak of consecutive 200-yard rushing games to four.
Three of the four offensive linemen who were new starters a year ago will be returning starters. Even with losses at tight end and wide receiver, the Buckeyes will return talent and experience. The defensive line will return consensus All-American Joey Bosa, five of the listed front seven and seven listed starters in all.
"We've just got to stay a hungry team," Elliott said. "We're losing some great seniors, but we have a lot of great young players that will step up. This year was just a great year to learn a lot of things, and I think we'll be the same team next year, as long as we stay humble, we grind hard in the off-season, don't let our heads get too big, I think we'll be here next year."
Said Bosa: "We know we can get back. We have a bunch of talent, and we'll put in the work."
Speaking 10 hours or so after the Buckeyes celebrated their championship on the AT&T Stadium field, Meyer said he wanted to celebrate and sleep -- not necessarily in that order -- before talking about the quarterback situation or the possibility of a repeat in Arizona next January.
"I've got a bunch of really good players," Meyer said. "I love our coaching staff. The word repeat, we'll have that conversation (but) certainly not today. It's about enjoying it. Elite warriors, which I consider these guys, when they accomplish their mission, they celebrate. The next thing they do is learn from it, and then the final thing is they look forward to the next mission, next assignment.
"Right now we're in the celebration phase. Eventually we're going to get to the learn from it phase, and then the next guys like this wait for the next mission. So that's the pattern we're going to have, and repeat, and those kinds of things, that's certainly not in the conversation right now."
Meyer warned that the "human element...is very dangerous" in terms of overconfidence, complacency and outside influence. He likes the makeup of his team but knows success can bring its own set of new problems.
The celebration phase has begun. Though the future can wait, it appears to be very bright.
"I think the biggest thing with Coach Meyer, he just demands excellence out of everybody," Elliott said.
When the time comes, he'll demand that the Buckeyes get back to work.
