Former Wayzata star James Laurinaitis still a big deal to Buckeyes, Big Ten

The Big Ten Network's schedule of televised football games was set to start Thursday evening with Rutgers hosting Temple in a nonconference game. James Laurinaitis, in his fifth season as a BTN analyst, had been in Piscataway, N.J., for a couple of days already, preparing to have full insights to offer on the Scarlet Knights and Owls.

Then came the rains associated with Hurricane Ida, causing flooding in the East and pushing the game back to Saturday.

Laurinaitis' Piscataway visit will end as scheduled on Friday, when he's off to Iowa City to serve as the analyst for the Hawkeyes and Indiana on Saturday. The Temple-Rutgers washout meant the three-time All-America for the Buckeyes was able to focus his attention viewing the Fox telecast of Ohio State's 45-31 victory over the Gophers on Thursday night.

The Buckeyes sent half of their 2020 lineup to the NFL. Ohio State started a quarterback (redshirt freshman C.J. Stroud) who had not thrown a collegiate pass, and the linebacking crew — manned brilliantly in most seasons (including Laurinaitis' four, from 2005-08) — featuring a whole new collection of suspects.

And yet, the Buckeyes came here rated No. 4 in the country and as 14-point favorites against the Gophers, who magically have gone from the "youngest team in America" in coach P.J. Fleck's earlier seasons to one of the country's oldest in, let's see … zero, one, two, three, so this is Year 4.

Laurinaitis was a big part of an amazing run of linebackers at Wayzata High School (Class of '05). He had a verbal commitment with the Gophers as a junior, but there was a significant Minnesota connection to Ohio State:

Dick Tressel, the longtime Hamline coach and AD, was working for his brother, Jim, then the Buckeyes' head coach. Endorsements of Laurinaitis' talent and dedication started to arrive from Minnesota sources and the Buckeyes asked him to make a recruiting visit.

And in the Big Ten, well, once a true football player has seen the Horseshoe, and has been told it can be his field on which to matriculate, well, it's like a romantic seeing the Champs-Élysées in Paris.

"I didn't really have any perspective before making the visit," Laurinaitis said this week. "I had not watched a ton of Ohio State football. One thing that caught my attention was the trophy room. Michigan and Ohio State, this greatest rivalry in the Big Ten … the game doesn't have a trophy. The game's the trophy.

"Minnesota, it seems like there was a trophy for every rival. Ohio State had one trophy: with Illinois … something called the 'Illibuck.' It's a carved turtle. It actually started off as a traveling live turtle in the 1920s, but they had to go to a carved one eventually."

Turtles are known to live a long time, but a bunch of behemoths carrying around a live one in celebration might be considered tacky — if not in the 1920s, but certainly a century later.

That trophy room offered a subliminal message to Laurinaitis:

There's no need for trophy games at Ohio State. You don't need an Axe, a pig, a Jug or a Bell — not when every game brings with it the necessity to win.

Laurinaitis is the co-host with Beau Bishop of a three-hour sports show, 9 a.m.-noon, on 97.1 FM in Columbus. On Friday, an estimated 97.1% of the "Bishop & Laurinaitis" conversation will be on what took place with the Buckeyes' opener at Minnesota.

And if the outcome turns out to be upside down? Batten down the hatches.

Yes, the Blue Jackets are Columbus' lone team in the four major pro leagues, and Laurinaitis — with his background as a Wayzata hockey player of note — is very conversant on the subject, so they can be an occasional topic.

"When they win a playoff series, there's quite a bit of talk," Laurinaitis said. "But really, when it's football season, nothing's changed since I came here in the fall of 2005. It's the same as Tuscaloosa, I'd guess.

"Victories are celebrated, but a loss, any loss, and there's a gloom for several days. And if you lose a game you're expected to win, the world is ending."

The Buckeyes were 43-8 in Laurinaitis' four seasons. Two of the losses came in national championship games — 41-14 to Florida in January 2007 and 38-24 to LSU in January 2008.

"We were upset by Illinois late in the 2007 season," Laurinaitis said. "And then we lost to Penn State in 2008, which meant we weren't going to the Rose Bowl.

"I didn't even want to go out in public after those games. It's just that feeling … that you let people down."

James lives outside Columbus in Dublin, Ohio, the golf mecca created by Jack Nicklaus. Does he find time to partake in the grand game?

There was a laugh at this thought and Laurinaitis said: "Shelly and I have three daughters — London [6] and Hayden [4], and now Remi, the baby, 7 months. I take every minute I can find with the girls.''