COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) – The pressure is mounting on No. 1 Ohio State – just as the schedule starts to get tougher.
Not only are the Buckeyes carrying the weight of being the nation’s top-ranked team, but now they must live up to it against a stout opponent (No. 18 Wisconsin) in a particularly difficult place (Camp Randall Stadium) before a wildly partisan capacity crowd on Saturday night on national television.
“I would think that this is going to be as difficult a challenge as we could ever imagine,” coach Jim Tressel said Tuesday.
The Buckeyes (6-0, 2-0 Big Ten) rose to the top spot this week after spending the season at No. 2 behind Alabama, which lost at South Carolina on Saturday.
Playing as the poll-leader is nothing new at Ohio State. In the history of the AP poll, the Buckeyes have held the top spot 94 times. Only Oklahoma (97) and Notre Dame (95) have done so more. According to Ohio State, the Buckeyes 66-11-1 when ranked No. 1 in the AP or coaches’ poll.
This will be the ninth time that Wisconsin has hosted a No. 1 team. The Badgers are 3-5 in the previous matchups. Only twice have they welcomed a top-ranked Buckeyes team, winning 17-7 in 1942 and losing 24-0 in 1973.
Tressel’s Ohio State teams have been ranked for much of his 10-year tenure, making 91 consecutive appearances in The Associated Press Top 25. That’s the longest current streak in the nation.
Playing ranked opponents is also nothing new for the Buckeyes.
Ohio State is 24-10 against AP ranked teams under Tressel, and 8-4 against teams in the top 10.
But balanced against that success is the recent history. In their last two games as No. 1 – against Illinois late in the 2007 season and then to LSU in the Bowl Championship series national title game in January of 2008 – the Buckeyes lost both times.
Ohio State defensive end Cameron Heyward would have been perfectly happy to stay behind Alabama throughout the regular season in the rankings. That would have been enough to get the Buckeyes into the title game – and to stay out of the most intense spotlight.
“We always just want to be No. 2, then we just go under the radar,” Heyward said. “We know since we’re No. 1 we’re going to have the bull’s eye on our back even more, but I don’t think anyone’s complaining about it. We know we have great responsibility. We have to take care of business on and off the field and it says a lot about our guys that we have to focus even more.”
He said teams back in the pack don’t have to live up to anyone’s preconceived notions.
“No one expects No. 2 to do everything, but when you’re at No. 1 everyone’s looking to you to fall,” he said. “We know everybody does. And we look forward to just proving them wrong.”
Making things even more difficult for the Buckeyes is the fact that Wisconsin would be a load even without all the hubbub surrounding the rankings.
Led by senior quarterback Scott Tolzien and mammoth junior running back John Clay, the Badgers (5-1, 1-1) have won 13 of their last 14 home games, including the last six. The Badgers haven’t turned the ball over in their last four games and the defense has held 13 of the last 16 opponents under 100 yards rushing.
“What a test it will be,” Buckeyes wide receiver Dane Sanzenbacher said. “But we’re looking forward to it.”
Ohio State will arrive in Madison, Wis., roughly 24 hours before the game. The Buckeyes will have gone through almost all the preparations they can by that point.
Tressel just wishes there were some more friendly faces at Camp Randall.
“It’s a very difficult task when you’re up there,” he said. “We just can’t get a hold of as many tickets as we would like. I know our fans would go, but the Badger fans are going to gobble up the tickets.”
Asked about the worst atmosphere at a game, Heyward said it is “when you’re not winning.”
Several of the Buckeyes joined the happy crowd two years ago when the stadium speakers blared “Jump Around” by House of Pain before the start of the fourth quarter, a Camp Randall tradition.
The Buckeyes ended up winning that game, also against an 18th-ranked Wisconsin team, 20-17.
Heyward was too busy to join in the fun.
“Some guys jump around, but I don’t,” he said. “It was a little too hectic for that.”
It may be more of the same on Saturday.
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