COLUMBUS — The next four Saturdays have a particularly ominous glow for a young and suspension-riddled Ohio State team. The Buckeyes face the Big Ten equivalent of the Murderers’ Row of the Yankees. It’s Michigan State, Nebraska, Illinois, and Wisconsin — four teams that are a combined 15-1 at this point.
This is like Clint Eastwood taking that bus through a blizzard of gunfire in The Gauntlet, or a group of climbers tackling Mount Everest along the northeast ridge route from Tibet.
Ohio State (3-1) just hopes there’s no October demise lurking.
“Our guys understand that,” Ohio State coach Luke Fickell said about the challenges the coming stretch presents. “They’re not blind. They can walk in every day and see the schedule on the board.”
Fickell, who said he is so preoccupied with the task of improving his team that he was not aware Nebraska and Wisconsin will knock heads on Saturday, hopes his players stay locked in on the moment and are not distracted by future opponents.
“Someday I hope I can balance it out well enough that I can enjoy watching other people play, but for now, unfortunately, I’ve got blinders on, and I just worry about what we got.”
In three days Michigan State (3-1), a team that shared the Big Ten championship with the Buckeyes and Wisconsin last season, will give Fickell a decent measure on how far his team has come, and where it might need to be for those upcoming battles.
“We’ll see real quick here,” Fickell said. “It’s hard to look past any one game. We take it one week at a time. Our focus is on getting better. The type of team we have, the amount of youth we have, if we continue on focusing on getting better each and every day, each and every week, I think we have a chance to get better every month.”
Ohio State junior running back and kick returner Jordan Hall said Michigan State provides a severe trial. Hall, who sat out the first two games of the season serving an NCAA-mandated suspension for accepting $200 cash for attending a charity event earlier this year, said he expects the Spartans to be the most difficult opponent OSU has faced.
“[The bar] will definitely be raised going into Big Ten play,” Hall said. “They’re a good, physical team. I think it will be a good test for us.”
Michigan State is led by Mark Dantonio, an Ohio native and former defensive coordinator with the Buckeyes who is 36-20 in four-plus seasons as the head coach in East Lansing. Dantonio said yesterday that his roots in the program and in the Buckeye state offer plenty of motivation to make a good showing in Ohio Stadium.
“You want to go back, you want to play well, and you want to do the things that have to be done to try and make a statement,” Dantonio said. “I grew up down there ... I used to be there, so it’s got added incentive.”
Fickell, who will get four suspended starters back next week for the trip to face Nebraska, has maintained a close friendship with Dantonio. Fickell said he intends to keep the personal aspect out of the game while making sure his players are aware of the importance of getting off to a good start in Big Ten play.
“I don’t know what else there is to say about it. It is. It’s a big one,” Fickell said. “Again, we stay focused on getting better. I think we knew that when this thing started off. No matter what the situation was, it was going to be a grind. This is going to be a grind. That’s how you get better.”
Contact Matt Markey at: mmarkey@theblade.com, 419-724-6510, or on Twitter @MattMarkey.
First Published September 28, 2011, 4:47 a.m.
