OSU WR Gonzalez favors life inside altitude simulator

	Ohio State's Anthony Gonzalez has been a clutch performer this season, with 43 of 49 catches going for first downs. John Biever/SI

GLENDALE, Ariz. -- The Fairmont Scottsdale Princess, where the top-ranked Ohio State team has been shacking up since Jan. 2, is a luxury hotel. Five-hundred-fifty-nine bucks a night for a standard double room, according to its Web site. Buckeyes third-string quarterback Todd Boeckman has not been experiencing the full dose of luxury, however. His bed has been pushed over against a wall, and there is little room to walk around -- because he needed to make space for the 6-by-6-by-8-foot tent that covers his roommate's bed. "It's almost like he's camping," says Boeckman. "It's definitely a little weird."

Boeckman's roommate for the BCS Championship Game trip is junior wide receiver Anthony Gonzalez, who is second on the team in catches (49) and yards (723) and first (and only) in nights spent inside a hypoxic altitude simulation tent designed by Colorado Altitude Training. Gonzalez, or "Gonzo," or more quietly among teammates, "Bubble Boy," sleeps and studies for 10-12 hours a day inside the tent, which simulates low-oxygen, high-altitude conditions at up to 8,000 feet. Boeckman, who also rooms with Gonzalez in Columbus -- where the tent is usually a permanent fixture in his bedroom -- has yet to test out the contraption. That's because he's still wary of what happened the first time Gonzalez used it after purchasing it (for a $5,000-plus price tag) in 2005.

"You're supposed to ease yourself into the [altitude]," Boeckman said, "but he cranked it up so high [to 8,000 feet] on the first night -- because he wanted to feel it working right away -- that he woke up with a bloody nose."

Gonzalez took a more gradual approach to adjusting the altitude meter, his bloody noses ceased, and he's spent the past year and a half using the tent to up his red-blood-cell count to aid his stamina and recovery time. While he attests that "after the game is when you notice the biggest effect, because you don't get as sore," he said the first time that he became aware of the tent's impact was in a 31-6 win over Iowa on Sept. 24, 2005. "I had a long catch and run in the fourth quarter," said Gonzalez, who scored two TDs in that game, "and I remember saying to myself, 'Wow, I don't think I would have made that play last year. I probably would have been too tired.'"

Nearly two months later, trailing Michigan in the fourth quarter at the Big House, Gonzalez made the catch of OSU's season, an acrobatic, 26-yard grab at the 4-yard-line that set up the game-winning touchdown. Said Buckeyes director of football performance Eric Lichter, who first planted the hypoxic-simulation idea in Gonzalez's head, "That was his first season in the tent, and whether he attributed that to his huge play against Michigan or not ... what I know is, he was able to jump up in the air and get that ball."

If that was Gonzalez's breakout season, in which he finished third on the team in catches (28), yards (373) and TDs (3) behind Santonio Holmes and Ted Ginn Jr., 2006 was when he emerged as one of the nation's most clutch receivers. Gonzalez racked up 142 yards and a score against second-ranked Texas in September, and became Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback Troy Smith's best friend on third downs during a 12-0 run to the title game. An amazing 87.8 percent of Gonzalez's catches went for first downs.

Title-game opponent Florida knows how integral Gonzalez is to Smith's success, which is why they're using top cover corner Ryan Smith to defend on the majority of snaps Monday night. Said Smith, "We felt Gonzalez" -- and not Ginn -- "was their overall most polished receiver." While both Smith and All-America safety Reggie Nelson are fleeter afoot than Gonzalez (who says the Gators are the fastest team OSU has faced all year), will the speed factor be neutralized by superior endurance in the fourth quarter? It's not difficult to envision a fully charged Gonzalez running a crisp, well-timed route that leads to a game-clinching grab in the final minutes.