COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Already a College Football Playoff semifinalist. Already tested on the road against an eventual conference champion. Already capable of overcoming adversity and rallying from a double-digit deficit even in a rivalry game with the season on the line.

Flipping through the list of accomplishments on Ohio State’s resume this season, it can be easy to overlook a simple fact: It’s still staggeringly young.

All that inexperience certainly didn’t do much to slow down the juggernaut Urban Meyer has built during the regular season. And that’s exactly what makes the No. 3 Buckeyes so dangerous heading into the playoff as they report to their second training camp of the season with a chance to get even better ahead of the PlayStation Fiesta Bowl against No. 2 Clemson.

“We're so young,” Meyer said. “There's so much improvement. Everybody in this room knows that it, too. We have to get much better, and the challenge has already been laid across the table last week with the players and coaches. For us to compete at this level, we have to be nine [position units] strong. At times we're not nine strong. That has to happen.

“So we have [four weeks] to get to be nine strong.”

Meyer has proven plenty capable of maximizing any amount of extra time to prepare, whether it’s simply a bye week or with nearly a month to gear up for a bowl or national championship game. Even though all of those first-year contributors who stepped up to replace the 16 starters lost last year on offense and defense have already proven themselves as well by getting the Buckeyes back into the four-team field this month, they aren’t yet a finished product.

The passing game has gone through ups and downs thanks to some inexperience at wide receiver, occasional lapses in pass protection and even bouts of inaccuracy from veteran quarterback J.T. Barrett. Despite becoming just the third Ohio State freshman to rush for 1,000 yards in a season, Mike Weber can continue to take steps forward as an every-down, do-it-all tailback. Even the No. 4 total defense in the country will find a couple of techniques or schemes it wants to tweak given the opportunity to take a step back from game-planning for a few practices and focus once again on the basics.

Just because the Buckeyes are already a national-title contender doesn’t mean their bowl practices are any less valuable than they would be for a team that scrapped for six wins or is simply looking for a springboard into next season.

“Win or lose, you always find things to get better at,” Barrett said. “There are numerous things we can get better at. I think one of the main things that we talk about is being nine units strong, make sure if you're playing at a championship level in your unit, then that's all you can do. That's all we need to do in order to win a game.

“That's what's going to be needed in order to beat Clemson. With this time we have, we're going to be at a good place as far as being nine units strong.”

The few Buckeyes who were around during the run to the national title two years ago have already seen up close both how the month will be structured and what kind of results that work can produce.

Like this season's team, the 2014 roster was also stocked with youth and generally considered to have arrived one year ahead of schedule before storming through the College Football Playoff on the way to the crown. One key difference, though, is that despite all of his years of experience preparing for big games, even Meyer was flying blind trying to gear up for a playoff scenario for the first time.

That’s not going to be a problem for the man setting the tone this time around.

“Exactly the way we did in '14,” Meyer said. “That was the uncharted waters. When I first heard about the playoff, I thought we'd split up our staff, have guys work on the other games in case. When you get into it, you don't have time. So it's going to be all hands on deck.

“It's going to be hard, hard fundamentals this week, which we have a lot of work to do in certain areas. Then preliminary game plan around Christmas time, then game plan and then you’re in game week. ... All focus, obviously is on this one.”

By the time the Buckeyes get to it, they figure to be even better than when they left off.