We’re a little over a month from the college football season kicking off, and this year it opens with a bang, especially if you are an Ohio State fan, because the Buckeyes host the Texas Longhorns in Week 1. It’s a game everyone has been pointing to in the offseason, and for good reason. There’s a great chance that it’ll be a top-three matchup and a rematch of the classic College Football Playoff semifinal from last season.
It’s a little too early for us to dissect this thing and provide a prediction, but that has stopped others from weighing in on the game, especially as the season draws nigh. The latest to pontificate on how this one will play out are two guys with ties to each school. On a segment from the Triple Option podcast, former Ohio State head coach Urban Meyer and former Texas head coach Mack Brown each provided a prediction for the game. To nobody’s surprise, really, each went with their rooting interests and allegiances.
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For Meyer, it boiled down to one player that will be the best on the field.
“They have Jeremiah Smith, the best player in college football, and I don’t think it’s really that close,” Meyer said on the podcast. “You can roll up on him, you can double him, and you can slow him down. But you can’t stop him. … But they have other weapons. They’ve recruited so well at the skill positions there.”
For Brown, it had more to do with the experience at quarterback and when the game is going to be played that will swing the balance.
“I didn’t like that it’s the opening game for either team, especially when one loses in the (College Football Playoff) semifinals and one wins the national championship and loses its quarterback,” Brown said. “We had Louisiana-Lafayette the week before we went to Columbus and to the Shoe (in 2005), so we had a warmup and won 60-3. So we at least had the routine of getting on the bus and getting all of those new players together and Friday before the game and pregame — you’re not gonna have that. You have that young quarterback at Ohio State (Julian Sayin), and this is Arch Manning’s really big deal and it’s gonna be in front of millions of people. “I like Texas because they’ve got Arch back and Ohio State’s inexperienced at quarterback. And I like the fact that it’s at noon for Texas. I played at 8 o’clock at night (in 2005).”
Well then, that doesn’t give us much insight into this one really, does it? You’d expect both to lean towards their emotions and look for a reason the team they want to win, to do just that. Not to take away from Meyer and Brown, but we’ll continue to look at those in the media that don’t have some ties to each program to see how they feel. In fact, ESPN’s Heather Dinich has also already weighed in with a prediction.
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Let the countdown continue …
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This article originally appeared on Buckeyes Wire: Urban Meyer, Mack Brown make early prediction for Ohio State vs. Texas
