The Rose Bowl is set to take place in the coming days between Ohio State and Utah. The “Grandaddy of Them All” is has always been one of the best games during bowl season.
Recently, there’s been an idea that Buckeyes players view this game as unimportant after losing to Michigan back in late November. That loss knocked OSU out of the College Football Playoff and Big Ten Championship discussion.
ESPN’s Kirk Herbstreit wasn’t having any of that idea when he spoke on that topic.
“Even before we had the BCS and the playoff, the goal was always to go to the Rose Bowl (at Ohio State), (but how often did they actually go? Not very often and yet they still went to another bowl game and they were excited,” Herbstreit said during a Zoom teleconference ahead of the College Football Playoff. “I just don’t buy into this narrative of meaningless bowl games. These teams have always had goals of getting to the championship and it doesn’t happen all that often, but you don’t throw in the towel and say, ‘well, we didn’t accomplish our goals.’
“I was on a team that did that. We lost to Michigan in 1990. We went to the Liberty Bowl. We had players on our team basically bad-mouthing the city of Memphis to the media and we went down there and they hated us. I don’t blame them for the things that were said. I get being upset and not beating (your) rival, but it’s the Rose Bowl. We used to have to try to deal with a consolation prize being the Citrus Bowl. But it’s the Rose Bowl.”
OSU finished 10-2 for the regular season with its only two losses coming at the hands of Michigan and Oregon.
Utah won the PAC-12 Championship over Oregon and finished 10-3 for the regular season.
Kickoff is set for 5 p.m. ET on Jan. 1 as this contest could feature a ton of offense.
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