It’s a real good thing the Ohio State football team is on the road this week. More time for the stench to lift off of the Ohio Stadium turf.

I’m not an Ohio native. I was born in California. But I’ve lived in central Ohio for a long time now. I grew up watching Ohio State football and I became a student who was even more interested in the Buckeyes in my young adult life. Virtually since graduation I have covered the team professionally. And I have come to the conclusion that New Mexico State may be the absolute worst team I have seen play the Buckeyes in the Horseshoe.

I grew up with awful Northwestern and some Purdue, Wisconsin, Illinois and Indiana teams that simply were not competitive in the Big Ten. I was in the stadium in 1986 when the Buckeyes dumped a really bad Utah team 64-6. In recent years there were visits by horribly overmatched Youngstown State and some low-level MAC teams. I can still recall the 70-7 pummeling of Rice and the 72-0 whitewash of Pittsburgh to start the 1996 season.

Still, even while suffering through all of those fairly pointless exhibitions of mismatchery, almost all of those teams had a future pro or two and I can remember finding some positive about the opposing team.

“Wow, they are bad but that quarterback is going to be a good player.”

“Geez, that was a poor team but I like their (insert running back or linebacker or maybe even kicker or punter).”

I couldn’t even say that about the Aggies, who somehow, by some miracle, have won three ballgames this year. A couple of their defenders gave good effort. Outside linebacker Jason Scott had 15 tackles, for example. But two first downs? Two! I’ve never heard of that. Sixty-two total yards? Yuck.

There wasn’t a player in visiting gear that stood out or looked like he could play for the Buckeyes. There was just no redeeming value.

Yeah, it’s great to see Boom Herron run 53 yards for a touchdown after being out for a month with a bum ankle, but watch the play again (if you actually hung onto a tape from this “game”). It looked like every Aggie defender in the box half-heartedly ran into a block and was stood up and there was no one in the middle of the field. No one.

I’ve participated in a few radio shows since this mess and the same question came up every time: What did the Buckeyes get out of this? I’m not sure I’ve ever been more stumped.

However, a case can be made that the psyches have been so fragile since the debacle at Purdue that the Buckeyes actually needed this breather – even at the end of October. If the Buckeyes actually look fresh and confident and take down Penn State on Saturday it could be argued that the New Mexico state “contest” did more for Ohio State than any open week could have.

Still, does anyone want to spend another Halloween watching a team that is so frightfully bad? Didn’t think so.