Three days after an incomprehensible loss, Ohio State’s players and coach Ryan Day met to clear the air
ATLANTA — Out of its lowest moment of the season came clarity for the Ohio State Buckeyes.
Raw emotions. Honesty. Hard conversations that were long overdue.
It all came spilling out in a players-only meeting on the Tuesday after Ohio State’s devastating loss to Michigan in the final weekend of the regular season. The Buckeyes, a 21-point home favorite over the Wolverines, imploded in a loss that gave critics even more ammunition to aim at embattled head coach Ryan Day.
A loss to eventual national champion Michigan last season was crushing yet understandable. A loss to a then-6-5 mediocre Wolverines team was inexcusable on every level.
But the pain of that moment — and the indelible image of senior leader Jack Sawyer fighting to wrest away a Michigan flag from being planted at midfield — was exactly what Ohio State needed, especially if it gets the job done in Monday night’s College Football Playoff National Championship against Notre Dame.
Winning can cover up a lot of flaws just barely hiding beneath the surface. A loss like the Michigan one prompts real soul-searching at the deepest cores of everyone involved within the program.
“There were a lot of emotions during that meeting,” Ohio State right tackle Josh Fryar told CBS Sports. “It was good for us because I think everybody got everything out they wanted to say. I think it was good to see raw emotion on players’ faces because it was satisfying to show that everybody cares.”
Said Jack Sawyer: “It got heated in moments, and then it all came together pretty good at the end. We ended with a team prayer and knew we had to get to work.”
Fryar said the team had been afraid to let that raw emotion out before the Michigan loss. The pain of the defeat vocalized in that meeting, knowing beating Michigan was a big reason why so many players came back for another season, was desolating and yet ultimately enlightening. Day, the only coach in the meeting, shared his own pain for coming up short four consecutive times against the Buckeyes’ biggest rival.
The raw and emotional meeting reminded everyone that the loss wasn’t for lack of desire and pushed the group to have the conversations necessary to regroup and find a path forward.
“The facts were laid out there,” said Ohio State quarterback Will Howard. “People were challenged. Everyone, including myself, had to kind of look in the mirror a little bit and say ‘What can I do better? How can we fix this thing?’ The thing that we clung to was that we still have this opportunity out in front of us to really right all these wrongs and go play for a national championship.”
According to Day, the team had a choice to make: Could they use it as a stepping stone or allow it to be their tombstone?
Three weeks later, what felt like a whole new team emerged. With tens of thousands of Tennessee fans intent on invading Ohio Stadium, Ohio State entered a pressurized spot. The outside criticism was as loud as it had ever gotten in the Day era in Columbus. A home playoff loss in front of a sea of orange felt potentially catastrophic.
And yet from the moment the game kicked off, Ohio State left zero doubt it was the better team. The talent that everyone in the country knew resided in Columbus came alive in a way it hadn’t for much of the season. The offense was dynamic, led by a Howard to Jeremiah Smith connection that led to six catches, 103 yards and two touchdowns. The defense was nasty, harassing Vols QB Nico Iamaleava (he didn’t have a single passing yard in the first quarter) and giving up only 256 total yards.
Against Tennessee, Fryar saw a team playing aggressive and finally having fun out there. The shackles of pressure to live up to expectations, to not blow it against Michigan again, were gone. The team knew it still had a grand opportunity in front of it if it could enjoy what could go right, rather than stress about what could go wrong.
Howard, who finished 24 of 29 for 311 yards, two touchdowns and an interception, turned the corner and played one of his best games of the season. Howard was brought in from Kansas State to help get Ohio State over the hump, but struggled at times against Michigan and had come up just short in a loss at Oregon. But teammates swear they never saw it bother Howard, who kept working on improving and flourished in the more aggressive offensive gameplan deployed against the Volunteers.
“He doesn’t get shaken,” Ohio State center Seth McLaughlin told CBS Sports. “He’s tough as hell and I’ve got a lot of respect for the way he carries himself. You can’t shake that guy, you can’t rattle that guy.”
After the Tennessee win, Sawyer defended his coach and erased any doubt about how much buy-in Day had with his program. “He takes so much heat and it’s such bullshit,” Sawyer said. “I’m so happy for him to get a win like that and now we’ve got momentum going into this game, and it’s awesome.”
Sawyer wasn’t wrong about the momentum.
Ohio State jumped all over No. 1 Oregon, racing out to a 34-0 first-half lead in what proved to be a dominant 41-21 win over the Ducks. This was the super team we all expected from Ohio State this season. And they delivered again in a hard-fought win over another super team, Texas, in the Cotton Bowl to send OSU to the title game.
It’s been a rollercoaster ride for the Buckeyes, from the pain of losing to Michigan to now being one win away from the national championship they so badly desire. It hasn’t been the easiest path but the obstacles thrown Ohio State’s direction have paved the way.
“I think our guys will have learned a lot about life over the last month,” Day said. “We’ve seen the good, the bad and the ugly. And it’s a special group of guys that care a lot about each other and that are going to go on to be very, very successful moving forward because they’re strong, they’re loyal and they’re very mature.”
