As Luke Fickell strolls the sidelines New Year’s Day and Ohio State’s defense trots out onto the field and lines up for its first snap of the Fiesta Bowl, the Buckeyes’ defensive coordinator will see something has has seen plenty of times before on the other side of the ball.
“I would say, for us, this is one of the more similar games to what our offense does,” Fickell said last week during Ohio State’s Fiesta Bowl media day.
The days of Ohio State and Notre Dame — two traditional Midwest powers — lining up in the I-formation and running the ball down the field are long gone, though.