COLUMBUS, Ohio — From his perch in the athletic director’s suite at Ohio Stadium, Gene Smith can hear the sounds and see the sights of the 2020 college football season: the roar of artificial crowd noise booming through an empty venue.
Minutes before the Buckeyes kicked off against Indiana in a top-10, unbeaten Big Ten showdown on Nov. 21, Smith was settling into his seat with a healthy dose of anxiety. He had allowed himself, for a brief moment, to glance forward to Ohio State’s final three regular-season opponents: Illinois, Michigan State and Michigan.
While the Buckeyes have championship aspirations, their opponents’ seasons were somewhat already lost.