NEW ORLEANS (AP) -Just a few blocks from Bourbon Street, where partying was perfected, the Ohio State Buckeyes are getting primed for their national championship date with LSU by staying in their hotel and staying out of trouble.
It's almost like they're in a monastery. No, wait - that happened almost 40 years ago.
So that his players were walled off from all the distractions - or, as some would put it, fun - of going to a bowl game, coach Woody Hayes used to make his Buckeyes spend the nights before their Rose Bowl games in a monastery.
"Have you ever been to one?" laughed Rex Kern, the Buckeyes quarterback in 1968 when Hayes first conceived of putting his linebackers in with the monks. "It's really peaceful, which is obviously why Woody wanted us there. I remember walking among the olive trees, all the shrubbery and the landscaping - it was great for meditation."
The current Buckeyes aren't exactly contemplating their navels. They're surrounded by plenty of things to keep them occupied, including a world-class workout facility and a game room that includes piles of the latest video games and large flat-screen monitors.
Still, they believe their singularity of mind and purpose will be reinforced by sticking around the Hilton instead of collecting strings of beads down at the French Quarter.
That ethic comes from their head coach. Jim Tressel constantly repeats the age-old coaching caveat, "Nothing good ever happens after 10 o'clock."
So the Buckeyes are all but sequestered as they count down to Monday.
Harrah's Casino is mere steps from the front door of the team hotel, but Tressel has banned the Buckeyes from going there.
Several LSU players were spied enjoying the gambling tables and one-armed bandits late on Thursday night. (The jury is still out on whether slot machines strengthen or weaken a player's arm.)
Hoping to somehow "protect" his players from the wild side, Hayes took his teams in 1968 and 1970 to a monastery on the outer reaches of Los Angeles. There was no carpet in the entire complex, and no TVs or radios. There was one bed to a room - a single, barren cot.
"We laugh about it when we get together at reunions," Kern said.
Before the Buckeyes played O.J. Simpson and Southern Cal in the 1969 Rose Bowl, Hayes showed the John Wayne movie, "The Hellfighters."
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