How Ohio State completed its turnaround from disappointment to national championship game

A little over a month ago, the Ohio State Buckeyes were in contention for one of the biggest disappointments in college football.

The Buckeyes reported $20 million roster had lost to Oregon and a bad Michigan team that struggled to complete a forward pass, raising questions about head coach Ryan Day’s tenure in Columbus.

Fast forward to Jan. 10 and those same ‘disappointing’ Buckeyes will enter the national championship game on Jan. 20 as the overwhelming favorite against Notre Dame after a dramatic 28-14 win over Texas in the Cotton Bowl Friday night at AT&T Stadium.

“It came down to the fourth quarter,” Day said after the win. “I believe that the resilience we had to show throughout the entire season and some of these guys’ careers led us to this opportunity to win this game and go to the national championship.”

It wasn’t always pretty or efficient, but even against the star-studded roster of the Longhorns it was clear that the Buckeyes were the better and more talented team. The game wasn’t decided until the fourth quarter when two crucial fourth down plays broke the game open for the Buckeyes.

The first came with the two teams tied at 14 and Ohio State facing a 4th-and-2 at the Texas 34-yard line. It was too far to attempt a field goal and punting was out of the question. So what did offensive coordinator Chip Kelly draw up? A perfectly timed quarterback power play with Will Howard that resulted in a 18-yard gain.

It should’ve been a touchdown, but Howard was tripped up by the turf monster. It didn’t matter as Quinshon Judkins scored the go-ahead touchdown four plays later to put the Buckeyes ahead 21-14 with 7:02 remaining.

“I fell on purpose,” Howard joked after the game. “It was a great play and a statement drive. We needed that, we had been beating ourselves all game with penalties and just getting behind the sticks and that was just a statement drive.”

The final haymaker came on Texas’ next possession when Quinn Ewers led the Longhorns all the way down to the Ohio State 1-yard line. After a questionable play call to run a toss set the offense back, the game came down to a 4th-and-goal from the 8-yard line.

Ewers was sacked and stripped by former five-star recruit and his Ohio State former roommate. Jack Sawyer, who returned it 83 yards for a touchdown to secure Ohio State’s spot in the title game.

“What happened on the fourth down by Jack, symbolizes not only his career, but our team in general,” Day said. “The toughness, the clutch play right there was something that I’m sure the whole city of Columbus exploded during that play.”

It was a exciting finish to a game that looked like it was starting to slip away from the Buckeyes. Elite freshman Jeremiah Smith had just one catch for three yards and Howard threw a bad interception at the start of the second half trying to force the ball to Smith.

The Buckeyes only rushed for 81 yards on the ground despite having the best duo in America with Judkins and Treveyon Henderson. Ohio State committed nine penalties for 75 yards including a stretch in the first half where they had three straight drives with at least a 10-yard penalty.

If you told Texas these numbers before the game, the Longhorns would’ve believed that they won the game going away, but the Buckeyes have constructed the best roster that money could buy and it showed.

The defense led by an array of five-stars like Sawyer plus Alabama transfer Caleb Downs bottled up Texas coach’s Steve Sarkisian’s high-powered offense long enough for the offense to awaken in the fourth quarter. The fact that the Buckeyes were able to show how elite they are against Texas, Oregon and Tennessee is a direct result of the new 12-team college football playoff format.

Just last year, Ohio State’s second loss to Michigan would’ve been enough to keep this roster from competing for a title, but now college football is inching even closer to the NFL. An early season loss doesn’t define you, it’s about making it to the field and then letting those results write the story of your seasons.

“The resiliency of this team from a month ago is incredible,” Sawyer said. “We sat up here last year with a sore taste in our mouth and heard a lot of things. We heard the same things a month ago and we kept swinging.”

With each swing Ohio State got closer to realizing its preseason potential. There were first half avalanches that buried Tennessee and Oregon while it took two late knockouts to pull away from Texas.

In a span of three games, Ohio State has gone from a potential flop to clearly the best team in America. It’s a benefit they received from the expanded playoff, but it’s also a testament to the program that Day has continued to build. The Buckeyes are no longer just the flashy team with a bunch of star-studded receivers.

They’re gritty, they’re tough and we can finally say that they’re also clutch. Ohio State had to endure and now they’re one step away from college football immortality.

“The story of this team is yet to be told,” Day said. “No great accomplishments are ever achieved without growing through adversity. We’ve gone through our fair share of adversity, but that’s life. We’re not focused on what happened in the past, we’re focused on right now and being right where we are. In the end we want to be able to tell the story of this team. That’s what this team is focused on.”