End of road to glory
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. – Ohio State senior defensive tackle David Patterson got his hands on a Buckeyes media guide for Monday’s national championship game and started leafing through his bio when he had a revelation.
“It said that I was a 46- or 47-game veteran,” Patterson said with a smirk. “And I just couldn’t believe it. I was in that many games?”
He shook his head in amazement. But then he kept studying the guide and the deeper he went, the more impressed he became.
“I looked at the guys who got here a year before me (and redshirted one season) and they are almost at 50 games or something like that.”
All told, the Buckeyes have 18 seniors – counting fifth-year players. Florida has 21 seniors. Between the two teams, there will be 24 seniors (counting special teams) who should hold down starting positions for the title contest. That’s a lot of veterans who have played in a lot of games – more than 1,000 games of playing time.
That experience should pay off for both teams, should things get bad.
“You know these guys (the seniors) are going to be ready,” Patterson said. “There are so many seniors on both teams that have been through so many different situations. They’ve just about seen it all.”
The seniors hold another factor in the game – coaches on both staffs have been emphasizing for weeks that the younger players need to keep it in their heads that they are playing for those guys.
“You’re just to not playing only for yourself,” said Florida junior wide out Andre Caldwell. “You have to play for the older guys. A lot of the older guys have never won since they’ve been here. We are trying to just send them out the right way.”
Ohio State sophomore cornerback Malcolm Jenkins agrees.
“The younger guys, we love our seniors,” he said. “They got us here. They are the leaders of the team. We’re going to do what we can to play a special game (for the seniors).”
There’s even more emotion among a huge group of veterans that is playing in its final college game.
“Any year, when it has been our final game (of the season) we’ve wanted to try to send the seniors out right,” said Buckeyes center Doug Datish, a senior and All-American. “Now that it is my final game, I am trying to make sure I can do everything I possibly can to make sure that (he leaves a winner).”
A lot of thoughts go through those seniors in the final moments of their college careers.
“I am going to miss all the guys I came in here with, all the guys that I have met that are still on the team,” Datish said. “Everybody has really done something for me or impacted me in some positive way and I will never forget those guys.”
Most of the seniors confess they haven’t done too much reflecting because they are too busy trying to win a national title. But they also realize it will hit them at the same time Monday night – that it’s over.
“It is going to be very emotional for me because this is the last time this group of guys will be together like this in a positive situation where it is the biggest game of our careers thus far,” said Ohio State Heisman Trophy quarterback Troy Smith. “And I think it is scary. I think it is scary for two reasons. One, because you are not promised tomorrow. Who is to say what is going to happen to you as soon as you leave here?
“And, two, I love every single one of my teammates and I won’t be able to sit down in the locker room and sit next to (receiver) Anthony Gonzalez again. I won’t be able to go onto the field and crack jokes with (running back) Antonio Pittman. I won’t be able to slap fives wearing the Ohio State colors with Doug Datish again. That’s kind of scary.”
But if you have to leave, what better way to go, playing in the national title game.
“Being able to play for a national title your senior year really is a great thing,” Gators quarterback Chris Leak said. “I just feel really blessed to be in a situation that the Lord put me in. I just feel, it makes me real proud. The seniors on this team, we put in a lot of hard work and dedication over these four years and to be in a position we are today it really, really makes you proud all the hard work has paid off.”
“It’s a dream come true,” said Gators senior defensive tackle Joe Cohen. “But I don’t want to leave. I don’t want it to ever end. I wish I had one more season.
“To tell you the truth, I wish I could stay here forever. But they won’t let you do that.”