CHICAGO -- When the car taking new Ohio State coach Urban Meyer to Big Ten media days pulled up to the front of a downtown Chicago hotel Thursday, Meyer turned to his driver with a frantic look.

"You can't stop here!" Meyer said. "What are you doing?"

"Coach, it's going to be OK," the driver assured him.

Meyer, who spent six seasons coaching at Florida until retiring after the 2010 season, expected to face the same throng of fans he encountered at SEC media days in the past.

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Reid Compton/US PresswireUrban Meyer is focusing on the future at Ohio State, since he can't do anything about the past.

Instead, few people even noticed Meyer when he got out of his car.

"At the other place, you couldn't take two steps," Meyer said.

Here's another big adjustment for Meyer at Ohio State: The Buckeyes can't play in a bowl game this season because of NCAA sanctions levied against them for violations committed by former coach Jim Tressel.

Meyer, 48, a former ESPN analyst who was hired to replace Tressel in November, wasn't aware a postseason ban would be a part of Ohio State's sanctions. He said the NCAA punishment, which also included the loss of three scholarships for three years, hit him like a "2-by-4" in December.

"I'm not going to worry about what I can't control, so we're going to worry about tomorrow, not yesterday," Meyer said. "There were mistakes made. You handle it and move on and go forward because players need to follow the leadership of the coach."

Meyer said motivation hasn't been a problem for the Buckeyes so far. He said his team responded well during spring practice and has done well during its offseason conditioning program. Ohio State opens preseason camp next week and plays its opener against Miami (Ohio) on Sept. 1.

Meyer, who had a 65-15 record at Florida and guided the Gators to BCS national championships in 2006 and '08, expects to accomplish nothing less at Ohio State. He wants to win big this season, too, even though the Buckeyes are ineligible for the postseason.

"Not in my lifetime, but there used to be a time when you could go build a program," Meyer said. "It's not that way anymore. You don't have four years to build a program. You have to win."

Along with finding out how much quarterback Braxton Miller's passing mechanics have improved and trying to identify more offensive playmakers, Meyer wants to learn how much his new team will fight during preseason camp.

"It's probably my biggest concern without us having a so-called called target at the end of the season," Meyer said. "If we hit a speed bump, how are we going to react? I'm still trying to measure this team. Everything we've done from Day 1 has involved competition to see what kind of competitors they are. If they'll compete, I'm not worried about it."

Buckeyes defensive end John Simon said he doesn't think motivation will be a problem for OSU.

"You can't be sure until the games start, but we have a really motivated team," Simon said. "When you come to a big-time program, you come here to compete. We're going to compete every Saturday."

Fullback Zach Boren said the Buckeyes haven't let the postseason ban consume them as they've worked to get ready for the season.

"I didn't even realize we weren't going to a bowl game until I got here and started getting asked questions about it again," Boren said. "We haven't even talked about it again after it came down in December. We all have a goal this season and know what we want to do."

The Buckeyes, of course, would like nothing more than to go into their Nov. 24 finale against rival Michigan unbeaten.

"I think it will really hit us after the Michigan game," Boren said. "It won't be disappointing that we won't get to play in a bowl game. It will be disappointing that we won't get to play in a game together again because we'll have grown so close by then."

Meyer isn't even sure how he'll handle the postseason ban.

"I'm struggling with that," Meyer said. "I have some incredible leaders on the team. We've started a leadership committee, and I meet with them very often. At the appropriate time, I'm going to start having those conversations with them. But right now I just don't think that's appropriate. It's going too well, the offseason is going too well, the energy is too high. That's the first bridge to cross [and another] one is the actual motivation of a team when there's so-called nothing at the end of the season."

CHICAGO -- It's time for a reality check of sorts.

Team X has won 22 games the past two seasons. It comes off of a division championship and a bowl win against a team from the nation's best conference. It returns eight starters from the nation's No. 6 defense -- including two potential first-round picks in the 2013 NFL draft -- not to mention one of college football's top defensive coordinators.

Team X has averaged 9.25 wins during the past four seasons and boasts a conference record of 24-8 during that span. The program has a head coach locked up with a possible lifetime contract, tremendous continuity on the staff, the most stable administrative support in decades and facilities upgrades.

Is Team X for real? The overwhelming evidence suggests it is.

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AP Photo/M. Spencer GreenMark Dantonio has turned Michigan State into an emerging power.

Now, for the big reveal: Team X is Michigan State.

No longer convinced? Join the club.

Despite sustained success under coach Mark Dantonio and the promise of more on the way, Michigan State's bandwagon is surprisingly sparse. Critics seem to be steering clear of the Spartans, pointing to Michigan's resurgence under Brady Hoke, Urban Meyer's arrival at Ohio State and some of Michigan State's personnel losses, namely quarterback Kirk Cousins.

But the biggest reason might be as simple as this: It's hard to buy into Michigan State as an emerging power.

"I don't really understand it," senior linebacker Chris Norman said. "We've accomplished a lot. Especially coming from a season like 2009 -- a disappointing season, we had a lot of [off-field] incidents. We rebounded from that, having a great year in 2010, another great year in 2011, beating Georgia in the Outback Bowl.

"But we still have doubters."

The problem is many look beyond the recent past to a period where Michigan State frequently fell short of expectations, disappointing its fans and earning the unwanted tag: Same Old Spartans. Dantonio has done a lot to peel it off during the past five seasons, but it's still hanging by a few threads.

"It's the Same Old Spartans mantra," junior quarterback Andrew Maxwell said. "People around the country, as a result of the last 20 years or so, have gotten this perception that Michigan State can win one big game, but then the next one, they're not going to show up. They can have one good year, and then the next year, they're not going to show up, for whatever reason.

"We've put together back-to-back 11-win seasons, but we feel like the mentality out there is people are waiting for us to fall back into that."

It's not just outsiders.

"Spartan fans have been frustrated before," Dantonio said.

Norman admits "people-pleasing is hard to do," but he knows what Michigan State must do to change its perception once and for all. Here's a hint: it hasn't happened since 1966.

"It's going to take a national championship," he said. "Just because I've seen what this program has done, I've seen where it's come from, yet we have people who don't think we have what it takes. The only way to debunk that is to get the biggest reward out there.

"Could the Rose Bowl do it? I'm not sure. But I know for a fact that a national championship would."

Dantonio likes having players set lofty goals. Michigan State has been extremely aggressive in nonconference scheduling, adding showcase opponents like Alabama, Oregon and Boise State, which opens the 2012 season in East Lansing, to the slate.

The coach also doesn't want his troops "falling over themselves" with title talk.

"I hope that comment gets reversed because of the stigma attached to that comment, 'Same Old Spartans,'" Dantonio said. "I hope at this point in time next year & I'm going to be sitting here, 'Same Old Spartans,' with another 11-win season."

CHICAGO -- After a spring and summer of speculation over where and how much junior Devin Gardner will play for Michigan this season, second-year Wolverines coach Brady Hoke finally provided some answers Friday.

Gardner, Michigan's backup quarterback, will also see time at wide receiver during preseason camp and potentially during games this fall. This is being done as a way to get the 6-foot-4, 206-pound Inkster, Mich., native on the field.

He has long been one of the best athletes on Michigan's roster, but played a position where only one man can play. Gardner was not going to unseat senior incumbent quarterback Denard Robinson.

"Devin reminds me of me," Robinson said. "Whatever it takes to get on the field, whatever it takes to win. That's what he is going to do, and I think I'm doing the same thing. Last year, when you see me playing a little running back or going out to wideout when he was at quarterback, those are things that if Devin had to do, he'll do it."

Michigan experimented with a two-quarterback package during portions of last season, calling the package where Gardner lined up at quarterback and Robinson lined up at another position the "deuce" package.

However, as the season progressed, Michigan went to the package less frequently and became somewhat predictable in Gardner lining up at quarterback and Robinson being somewhere else.

This option could give Michigan much more versatility in play calling for offensive coordinator Al Borges. "He's a very intelligent kid," Hoke said. "I think that's a big part of it. There's a maturity that he's gone through that they all do. Him looking at how he can help his team and be a teammate is important.

"That gives you a little more you can do, and I think one of the positive things is Russell Bellomy, we think, is capable of doing some things. It allows you to work Devin a little bit more at some different things, different positions where he can help the football team."

Hoke doesn't know how much Gardner will play wide receiver since he hasn't seen him perform in months, but said the junior has worked out at the position during summer workouts led by the team.

He said he hasn't inquired with others about how to balance the situation, as many other coaches at one point or another have had similar situations with a player as the backup quarterback and a receiver, including Northwestern last season with Dan Persa and Kain Colter.

But Hoke thought Gardner handled the dual role well in the spring.

"We've got a chance to get Devin on the field as a wide receiver some because of his athleticism and because he's a big guy," Hoke said. "We've got all kinds of different things that we look toward with Devin."