Kirk Herbstreit: Urban Meyer ‘deserves a lot of credit’ for having Ohio State motivated for Cotton Bowl

There was no question where Ohio State’s focus was on Friday night.

Twenty-six days removed from being snubbed by the College Football Playoff committee, the No. 5 Buckeyes completed the task at hand in AT&T Stadium. They cruised to a 24-7 victory over USC and proved that there is no better team that got left out of the top four.

Speaking on ESPN’s SportsCenter following the win, Kirk Herbstreit credited Urban Meyer for having his team ready to go just weeks after receiving the disappointing news of missing the Playoff.

“Especially in this Playoff era, there’s such a focus on trying to be in that top four. When these teams get left out at five, six, seven you wonder — forget the X, O matchup — you wonder how these teams will show up psychologically just going out to compete,” Herbstreit said. “I think Urban Meyer, in this case, deserves a lot of credit for getting his team ready. They were able to kind of shake off not getting into the Playoff and going out and competing. He clearly got his team excited to go out and compete in a big time game against a great school in USC.”

Here’s the full video of Herbstreit’s comments.

Ohio State finished the season 12-2 with a Big Ten title and will finish the year ranked somewhere in the top five.