Ohio State’s Ryan Day silenced critics with dramatic win over Tennessee

COLUMBUS, Ohio – How different this postgame scene must have felt for Ryan Day, Ohio State’s embattled coach, who stood in almost exactly the same spot three weeks ago, on Nov. 30, as everything about his team and his time. of management. The collapse follows a fourth straight loss at Michigan. Screaming players, their eyes red from the pepper spray released by the local police, were tired last day and sought medical help. Die-hard fans, their patience exhausted by Day’s confusing schedule, hurled insults at him. Injured seniors, their careers always marred by their inability to beat The Team Up North, scuffle over the midfield logo as the Wolverines attempt to plant their flag. Confusion reigned as Day advanced to the 24-yard line, his disbelief and disappointment turning into temporary paralysis.

Much had changed when Day returned to the area late Saturday evening, after the College Football Playoff game against Tennessee, whose fans who had rushed into Ohio Stadium with enthusiasm left before the end of the fourth quarter. Buoyed, perhaps, by the potential nausea of ​​a $20 million roster being dismantled with nothing but money to show for it, Day and his coaches approved and engineered their best performance of the season: a 42-17 demolition of the Volunteers that outscored Ohio at the same time. State’s season while lifting the program back into the national championship conversation. So complete was Saturday night’s win over a respected SEC foe that the Buckeyes opened as betting favorites against No. 1 Oregon in the quarterfinals, a Rose Bowl redux of the fast-paced classic game those teams played at Autzen Stadium in mid-October. That night, the Ducks won by one point.

In order to get that cross country and a chance to advance to the national semifinals, there was a lot Ohio State needed to fix before the postseason, so many programmatic and mental issues for the coaches to examine. They needed to beef up the interior of the offensive line, where injuries have forced the Buckeyes to begin shuffling personnel. They needed to regain their aggressiveness in the passing game, where their targeting of wide receivers Jeremiah Smith and Emeka Egbuka was dwindling along with the number of shots down the field. They needed to bolster the pass rush, where veteran running backs Jack Sawyer and JT Tuimoloau have underperformed with their sky-high pedigree. And Day himself needed to dominate Ohio Stadium, where many fans were excited about the possibility of him being fired after another loss at Michigan.

“It’s been a long time coming for us,” Day said in his post-match press conference. “To say it’s not a stretch – it’s a stretch. We’re very proud of who we are. These guys have a lot of pride.

“I think it says a lot about who our guys are that we were able to respond like that in a big way.”

Long before anyone knew what version of Ohio State would emerge Saturday night — or how many Ohio State fans would fill the stadium — Day placed himself near the goal line during early warmups. He was passive on the high passes thrown by quarterback Will Howard to every member of the Buckeyes receiving team’s unmatched talent. Rep after rep, parabola after parabola, Day watched intently as Howard fell through the metaphorical bucket. To shut down fans of the program, especially those who were eager to see Day removed from his high-paid position, the irony of the situation was rich: There was Day, the guardian of a confusing, disgusting game plan that hurt his team against Michigan late last month. , looking at exactly the style of offense fans have longed for him and offensive coordinator Chip Kelly to embrace all season.

Perhaps the reason Day focused so much on Howard’s long passes was that he knew about the aggressive plan ahead. About a 37-yard touchdown to Smith on the team’s opening possession and a 40-yard connection to Egbuka on the second. About the tire route to TreVeyon Henderson after 21 yards and Howard’s second touchdown to Smith for 22 yards, this time punishing Tennessee defensive coordinator Tim Banks for refusing to give star tight end Jermod McCoy any kind of safety help . By the time Howard finished dialing the Volunteers for 311 yards on 24-of-29 passing, his success powered by a stronger offensive line, the Buckeyes’ lead had grown to 32 points early in the fourth quarter.

“To win it all, you have to win the first one,” Kelly said. “That’s what the whole team is focused on. I thought Ryan did a great job keeping everyone focused. [any] talk about what we will do on jan 20 [when the national championship game will be played] because Jan. 20 wouldn’t mean anything if we don’t take care of Dis. 21. I think our guys were focused on playing this game.”

But so were Tennessee fans. With Knoxville only separated from Ohio Stadium by 360 miles, the Volunteers took advantage of what many of them described as a bucket list trip, traveling north along I-75 through Kentucky to attack the Buckeye State. Those who didn’t want to drive chose to fly, stuffing the lobby of a hotel near John Glenn Columbus International Airport with men in checkered overalls and women arguing over how many layers they would need to keep warm on a cold Midwest night. “Everybody,” one of the ladies laughed around 3:15 pm “You’re going to be out for, like, the next eight hours.”

Thousands of Tennessee fans had already braved the elements for a long time, lining the side streets and watering holes near Ohio State’s campus long before kickoff on a 25-degree night. Pregame interviews with fans of the twang-toting Southern Volunteers on ESPN radio revealed that most paid between $200 and $300 for tickets, a range they compared to out-of-conference prices for Vanderbilt games. A pre-sale leak allowed dozens of visiting fans to buy tickets days after this year’s playoff bracket was revealed. Of the 102,819 fans in attendance on Saturday night, somewhere between 25% and 35% of them were wearing orange.

“I think they think [that] they will take this place,” said Howard.

That Tennessee had enough fans to do so underscores just how dangerous the early moments of Saturday’s game were, how much it could have turned sour inside Ohio Stadium because the Buckeyes fell behind. Instead, the Scarlet and Gray faithful came out and found a big breakthrough when Ohio State led by 21 at the end of the first quarter and outgained the Volunteers 217 yards – all while harassing quarterback Nico Iamaleava to the tune of four sacks. , 9 pass breakups and a 45.2% completion rate, his lowest of the season.

The back-and-forth of Tennessee fans went into the exit with more than 13 minutes left in the fourth quarter, their fading hopes of a comeback dashed by Iamaleava’s incompletion on fourth down. So secure was Ohio State’s victory that an assistant coach watching the game from home ducked out for a bathroom break as the footage unfolded, joining several reporters in the bathroom while the talk was still coming out of his headset.

“I told them in the rooms that in life you will be defined by the way you handle the difficulties in life,” said Day, “as a person, as a man, as a father. So to see how they responded to this game [after losing to Michigan]you could see by jumping that they looked into each other’s eyes and that they were going to win this game. I thought they played like that.”

The look in Day’s eyes was equally telling as the band played “Carmen Ohio” to celebrate Ohio State’s big win and season opener. He hugged his wife and hugged his children just yards from where the craziness surrounded him on Nov. 30. And this night, he had earned the right to smile.

Michael Cohen covers college football and basketball for FOX Sports with an emphasis on the Big Ten. Follow him on @Michael_Cohen13.

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