Crediting My Friend Ed for This Well-Written Prose

What did James Laurinaitis, Malcolm Jenkins, and the 23 other Ohio State seniors do to earn this fate? Buckeye fans, at least you still have the 2002 national title in your memory bank to fall back on. The OSU seniors, the ones who actually played on the field, will have to live the rest of their lives with a ridiculously unfair check mark next to their careers, sort of like the Buffalo Bills that lost four straight Super Bowls.

"Oh sure, they had great careers, but ...."

There will always be a stigma overshadowing the special accomplishments that otherwise should be lauded. After getting blasted in the last two national title games, and dealing with the embarrassment that followed, the defense was one stop away from all but closing things out with a brilliant statement that would've all but forgiven the other big January losses. Instead, the Buckeyes got their hearts ripped out knowing they were just two minutes, and a few inches on a key fourth down play, from finishing off one of the greatest eras in school history.

Over the last four years, Ohio State has gone 43-8 with four straight trips to the BCS. Two of the losses were in national championships (which is far more forgivable than this group ever got credit for), one was to a Texas team that probably belonged in the national championship, one was to a USC team that would probably win the national championship if there was some sort of a playoff, one was to a Penn State team that won the Big Ten title and played in the Rose Bowl, one was to an Illinois team that played in the 2008 Rose Bowl, one was to a 2005 Penn State team that went 11-1, won the Big Ten title, and won the Orange Bowl, and the other was to the Vince Young-led 2005 national champion Texas team. The eight losses came to teams teams that went a combined 93-12 (that's an 89% winning percentage) and finished their seasons in the BCS. Let that sink in for a moment. In the end, this year's Ohio State senior class didn't lose to a dud team, had big wins over Notre Dame in the 2006 Fiesta Bowl, at Texas in 2006, and beat Michigan four straight times (five straight if you count a redshirt year of 2004) including the 2006 powerhouse. This will be remembered as an extremely great group that showed tremendous resiliency, but it simply wasn't good enough to be at the top of the mountain. However, these seniors came very, very close.

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Edward L. Ostrowski, Jr.

Attorney at law