Chip's all in title game

CHIP KELLY'S fingerprints are all over this game. He obviously coached and recruited Oregon's upper-classmen, before coming to the Eagles after the 2012 season.

But Kelly also is good friends with Ohio State coach Urban Meyer. They have exchanged concepts, philosophies and probably recipes at least since Meyer was at Utah (2003-04) and Kelly was an assistant at New Hampshire.

"For Chip Kelly, to create a culture - and [Bill] Belichick talks about it all the time - where everyone's aligned. Everyone," Meyer said last week. "You walk in the facility, it's about win today . . . from Amy, my assistant, to everybody associated with the facility, everyone. This is the way we do it, really not a whole lot of conversation about it, and we have a culture here, too."

Sort of helps explain why DeSean Jackson is a Washington Redskin these days, doesn't it?

Ohio State is 8-0 all-time vs. Oregon, including a 26-17 win over the Ducks in the Rose Bowl following the 2009 season. The other seven meetings occurred between 1958-87, before Oregon became a perennial power.

Oregon has covered its last nine games. Five of those were against teams ranked in the Top 25 when the Ducks won by an average of 26.4 points.

Oregon quarterback Marcus Mariota is starting his 15th game of the season and the 41st of his career (36-4 record). His counterpart, Ohio State sophomore Cardale Jones, is making just his third career start. He beat Wisconsin, 59-0, in the Big Ten title game and Alabama (42-35) in the Sugar Bowl.

Mariota has been the MVP of all four postseason games he's played. Mariota accounted for 12 total TDs in winning the Fiesta Bowl, following the 2012 season, the 2013 Alamo Bowl, the 2014 Pac-12 title game and the 2015 Rose Bowl. Impressive.

Ohio State offensive coordinator Tom Herman was named the head coach at the University of Houston, but is staying with the Buckeyes through this game. Herman, who picked up the award for assistant coach of the year, is the 12th Meyer assistant to become a head coach.

Not only are the Buckeyes playing their third-string quarterback, after injuries to Braxton Miller and J.T. Barrett, but they had to replace four starters along the offensive line from last season and top running back Carlos Hyde was a second-round NFL pick.

Oregon center Hroniss Grasu, a top NFL prospect, explaining why he did not enter the NFL draft after last season.

"I didn't come back for unfinished business, to win a Pac-12, Rose Bowl or national championship," he said. "I came back to be around this group of guys."