Buckeyes have long memories of last trip to Penn State

COLUMBUS -- Ohio State defensive tackle Tim Anderson had trouble Tuesday remembering one of coach Jim Tressel's commandments, but his memory was much clearer when it came to rehashing the 29-27 loss at Penn State two years ago.

On Saturday the eighth-ranked Buckeyes (7-1, 3-1 Big Ten) return to the scene of that setback, some pain still lingering from blowing a 27-9 third quarter lead.

"That was a classic case of where we played a great first half and got off to a good lead but didn't finish the game," Anderson said. "It's one of those things where you talk about playing 60 minutes because you never know what's going to happen. That day we didn't play 60 minutes and they did."

Anderson said this OSU defense -- which ranks first nationally against the run (51.5 ypg), second in fewest yards allowed (251.8 ypg) and sixth in fewest points yielded (13.8 ppg) -- is incapable of squandering another big lead in Happy Valley.

Penn State, 0-4 in the Big Ten for the second time in Joe Paterno's 38 years as head coach, appears to be in no position to argue.

"I don't think (it could happen again), if for no other reason than we have great senior leadership on the defense, between me and Will (Smith) ... even some of the younger guys on the back end," Anderson said.

"I don't think we would let that happen. We would be trying to get things going. A lot of us were on that team two years ago and remember how that felt."

What Anderson couldn't remember Tuesday was the exact wording of a message Tressel has delivered many times before and since that meltdown at Penn State -- that the Buckeyes need to focus on the task at hand and not get ahead of themselves.

Take this weekend, for example. Ohio State must guard against looking past the Nittany Lions (2-6 overall ) to regular season-ending showdowns with No. 9 Michigan State, No. 18 Purdue and No. 11 Michigan, in that order.

"I've seen interviews with coach Tressel where he said, once you look ... I can't remember exactly what he said ... something about if you look past someone, something bad will happen."

Tressel interrupted Anderson at that point. "I've been misquoted," he joked as reporters laughed.

But Anderson and the other Buckeyes understand the gist of Tressel's directive and its importance as it applies to the rest of the season.

Wisconsin's loss at Northwestern on Saturday lowered the Badgers to 3-2 in the Big Ten and gave Ohio State sole control of its conference title hopes.

The Buckeyes are tied with Purdue for third place in the conference, a half-game behind Michigan (4-1) and one game behind Michigan State (4-0).

Ohio State will claim the Big Ten's Bowl Championship Series berth if its wins its remaining four games, since victories over Purdue, Michigan State and Michigan would give the Buckeyes either an outright title or tiebreaking edge.

Under that scenario, at worst OSU would be headed to the Rose Bowl on New Year's Day.

"To be honest with you, I'm not sure where we stand in the rankings," Anderson said. "About all I know is that Michigan State hasn't lost yet in the conference. Other than that, I really don't know much about the other teams, and you can't. Maybe it's a good thing because it helps me not to look beyond what we need to do this weekend."

Another Tressel-ism that Anderson could have misquoted: November separates the pretenders from the contenders.

"It's a really important month because we control our destiny," said tailback Lydell Ross, named Big Ten Offensive Player of the Week after rushing for a career-high 167 yards and three touchdowns in Saturday's 35-6 rout of Indiana. "It's important just to focus on Penn State and not look past them, because when you do that you tend to get off focus."

Originally published Wednesday, October 29, 2003