COLUMBUS, Ohio — Hawaii coach Norm Chow isn’t having his team make a 9,020-mile round trip just to be a pushover for Ohio State on Saturday in the Buckeyes’ first game in Ohio Stadium since winning the national championship.
“It’s just another game. It’s one game. That’s what we told our players,” Chow said.
Even so, it’s a rare occurrence when Hawaii gets a chance to face the defending champion, one that defeated Virginia Tech 42-24 on Monday in Ohio State’s opener to avenge its lone loss during the 2014 season.
The only previous matchup for the Rainbow Warriors against the titleholder was a 63-17 home loss to Southern Cal to start the 2005 season.
“Obviously, we know what’s at stake,” Chow said. “We know who were playing. We understand all that. We’re honored to play them, but it’s just another game and our guys will play hard and we’ll see what happens.”
The Buckeyes are heavy favorites as they will be in most games but if there’s any advantage for Hawaii it’s that it defeated Colorado 28-20 on Sept. 3. Ohio State will have the unusual task of playing for the second time in five days.
“It’s awful,” Ohio State coach Urban Meyer said of the quick turnaround.
He noted Thursday was spent practicing special teams compared to a normal week when the work is done on Tuesdays.
Still, Chow isn’t sure the added time afforded Hawaii will be enough to stop the Ohio State juggernaut.
“We probably could have taken two months, but I don’t know if we would ever be prepared for those guys,” Chow said.
The Buckeyes promise they won’t experience a letdown after the mega-hyped and much anticipated prime-time rematch at Virginia Tech.
“Whoever comes out of the tunnel, we’re going to treat them the same,” OSU sophomore linebacker Raekwon McMillan said.
