Last time the Buckeyes were in town they twice squandered two-touchdown leads against Georgia in the 2023 Peach Bowl. It coulda, woulda been Ohio State routing TCU in the national title game that year instead of the Bulldogs. Now the Buckeyes were threatening to blow another big game at Mercedes-Benz Stadium.
What looked like a runaway against Notre Dame in the College Football Playoff national championship had become a tight game. Ohio State’s 24-point lead was down to eight. There was enough time left for the Buckeyes to blow another big game in the Benz Dome. Then quarterback Will Howard suddenly unleashed a deep shot to star wide receiver Jeremiah Smith.
The 56-yard completion set up the field goal that finally put the Fighting Irish away. This time, the Buckeyes left Atlanta with national championship rings instead of regrets.
“If you surround yourselves with great people, you’re resilient, and you believe the guys around you and you just keep fighting one foot in front of the other, you give yourselves another chance,” Ohio State coach Ryan Day said. “You think back (to when) we’re in this stadium last time, and I couldn’t quite come to grips for a while with why we just didn’t quite finish that game against Georgia. But I understand now. It all makes sense.
“And here we are, and I couldn’t feel better.”
Credit: Jason Getz / Jason.Getz@ajc.com
Credit: Jason Getz / Jason.Getz@ajc.com
The 34-23 victory changes everything for Day. His results would be celebrated at most places: three top-five finishes in his first five full seasons at Ohio State. But in Columbus they expected Day to add to their collection of eight national championships. Instead, he was stumbling in the playoff while regularly losing to archrival Michigan.
Day lost to Michigan for the fourth time in a row this season. That loss in the last game of the regular season doesn’t matter so much less after the Buckeyes won their first national championship in a decade.
“It wasn’t like at the end of the year we were broken,” Day said. “We had an awful day. I don’t know how else to describe it. We just said we would never do it again. I think it’s the job of the head coach to take responsibility when something goes bad like that.
“But on days like this, make sure everyone understand it’s the warriors and the guys on the field who deserve all the credit, not the coach.”
Howard was named the game’s most outstanding offensive player. He finished with 231 yards passing on 21 attempts with two touchdowns and no interceptions. Howard also rushed for 70 yards on 14 carries (sacks excluded).
Howard shined the brightest when the game got tight in the fourth quarter. The Buckeyes killed valuable time off the clock when Howard ran 11 yards to convert a third down before punting. Then he delivered the pass to Smith for the 56-yard gain.
“It can be a lot,” Howard said of the big moments. “The lights are bright. It’s a spectacle. The TV timeouts are like four minutes long and it feels like everything is kind of a show, a little bit. But you have to block all that out.”
The Buckeyes met the challenge to win their ninth national title and first since the 2014 season with coach Urban Meyer. That’s back when the polls and computers decided which teams played in the BCS title game. Day’s Buckeyes came out on top in the first 12-team playoff.
The Buckeyes won it all without the benefit of a first-round bye. They routed Tennessee in the opener, blew out No. 1 Oregon in the quarterfinal and beat Texas by two touchdowns in the semifinal. After Notre Dame scored first, the Buckeyes reeled off 31 consecutive points before turning back the comeback attempt.
Day’s Buckeyes made the CFP three times before this season. They lost to lower-seeded Clemson in the 2020 semifinal. Alabama blew out Ohio State in the next year’s title game. Georgia ended Ohio State’s season in the 2023 semifinal at the Peach Bowl. Another loss to Michigan cost Ohio State a CFP bid last season. Losing to Michigan this season didn’t keep the Buckeyes out of the expanded field.
They made it this far with the best defense in college football. It didn’t look that way on the game’s first possession. Notre Dame marched 75 yards on 18 plays over 9:45. Ohio State couldn’t get a handle on dual-threat quarterback Riley Leonard. He ran nine times during the drive while converting two third downs and two fourth downs. Leonard scored easily on a one-yard run.
Things got harder for the Irish after that. They went three-and-out on their next two possessions. They ran three plays on their first possession after halftime before a failed fake punt gave the ball back to the Buckeyes with a short field. Ohio State turned that into a field goal for a 31-7 lead.
The Irish got their deficit down to two scores with a 10-play, 75-yard TD drive followed by a two-point conversion. Ohio State was on the way to another score when the Irish forced a fumble and recovered it at their 21-yard line. The Buckeyes immediately forced a third-and-long.
But Notre Dame gained a first down on Leonard’s 30-yard pass to Jaden Greathouse near midfield. The Irish converted a fourth down with another Leonard to Greathouse connection. An Ohio State penalty set up a first-and-goal with 10:21 to play. It was starting to feel like the 2023 Peach Bowl all over again for the Buckeyes.
But their defense held on third-and-nine. Notre Dame coach Marcus Freeman decided to try a field goal. The attempt hit the left upright.
The Irish forced a punt to get the ball back with 6:25 left and 80 yards needed for a touchdown. They made it to the end zone in a little more than two minutes to play.
The Buckeyes were 4:10 away from securing the national title. They took it with Howard’s long pass to Smith. This time, the Buckeyes didn’t blow a big game at Mercedes-Benz Stadium.
“Find a way to win the game,” Day said. “That’s what we did here in the playoffs. And now the stories of these guys will be told because they’ve cemented themselves in Ohio State history.”
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