
3 reasons Ohio State should be optimistic and concerned about the national title game
About a generation ago, Ohio State was on the complete opposite end of all this.
It was the 2002 season, and the Buckeyes were the gritty underdog that found its way to the national title game on guts, gumption and some really good fortune. Mighty Miami, the defending national champion with NFL talent everywhere, awaited Ohio State, and most figured it wasn’t going to end well for Jim Tressel’s team.
Then the Buckeyes dug deep 1 more time and found a way 1 more time, outlasting the Hurricanes in a double-overtime classic that will live forever in Ohio State football lore. The point is, you just never know when you get to the championship game, whether you’re the big, bad favorite or the cuddly underdog.
On Monday night in Atlanta, the Buckeyes will be the modern version of those 2002 Canes, with speed and talent seemingly everywhere and the bravado to match their status as a sizable favorite. And Notre Dame will play the part of that 2002 Ohio State team. These Buckeyes should learn from their own history to be careful and confident at the same time.
With that, we’ll give you 3 reasons for Ohio State to be optimistic and 3 reasons for the Buckeyes to be concerned with everything on the line:
3 reasons to be optimistic
1. They are simply the better team
As the history lesson above explained, being the better team doesn’t always turn out well for the better team. In fact, sometimes it can weigh the better team down. But the Buckeyes have made that Michigan loss on Nov. 30 feel like forever ago, and they’ve become a monster in these Playoff games, hanging 42 points on Tennessee, another 41 on previously unbeaten Oregon in a revenge game and stifling Texas in the semifinals to get to Atlanta.
Yes, Notre Dame is really, really good, maybe even better than a lot of observers give it credit for. But there’s a reason (or several) that Ohio State is a little more than a touchdown favorite over the Irish. Ryan Day’s team is faster, has more weapons and, maybe most importantly, is healthier than Notre Dame. If all of that comes to fruition on Monday night, then the Buckeyes should be the gleeful ones with the confetti all over them when it’s all over.
2. They can win in multiple ways
This might be Ohio State’s biggest ace in the hole — because a lethal team like the Buckeyes that also knows how to win a little ugly is a dangerous animal to deal with. And Ohio State is exactly that, because it has shown over the past month that it can score a boatload of points (just ask Tennessee and Oregon) and win that way. Or it can score just enough and prevail with a resilient defense (just ask Texas) that has big-play capability.
So even if Notre Dame defensive coordinator Al Golden has a solid night defending Will Howard and Co., the Buckeyes can roll up their sleeves and win a 20-17 game, let’s say. Ohio State’s normally relentless offense struggled for long stretches of that Texas game, but when a play was needed to be made in the 4th quarter, the Buckeyes made them, whether it was on offense or during that goal-line stand late that sealed the deal.
3. Jeremiah Smith can’t have 2 bad games in a row
One of the best freshman players to grace a college football field barely got his name on the scoresheet in the semifinal win over Texas. Smith managed 1 measly catch for 3 yards, which is mind-boggling, considering the monstrous numbers he put up this season and the highlight-reel montage he put together. Smith had 70 catches for 1,224 yards and 14 touchdowns coming into the semifinals, and he combined for 13 catches for 290 yards and 4 touchdowns in the Playoff wins over Tennessee and Oregon.
Yeah, Notre Dame has big-time talent in its secondary, including All-American safety Xavier Watts, and the Fighting Irish have the pass rush to disrupt Howard’s timing with his receivers. But after everything Smith has done this season, after all the broken freshman and Big Ten records, it’s just hard to fathom that he would be invisible in the semifinals and the title game. The sheer odds are that he’ll get his on Monday night. The Buckeyes still beat Texas with hardly anything from Smith. They might not have to replicate that formula.
3 reasons to be concerned
1. It’s not a best-of-7, it’s a best-of-1
This is where we harken back to that national title game 22 seasons ago, when Ohio State took down Miami after very few, if any, gave the Buckeyes a chance. Ohio State wasn’t the better team that season, and everybody knew that. But it only had to be the better team that night in the Fiesta Bowl at the old Sun Devil Stadium. And it was, and that’s all it took for the Buckeyes to swipe a national title away from the Hurricanes.
Same scenario for Monday night in Atlanta. Notre Dame doesn’t have to win 4 out of 7 games or even 3 out of 5. It’s a 1-game steel-cage match, and these Fighting Irish haven’t lost a game since Week 2, long before the leaves turned. Right now, winning is in Notre Dame’s muscle memory, and a resilient team like the Irish that has come this far will be hell-bent on finishing the job and ending that title drought after 36 years. Yes, Ohio State is better, but the Buckeyes know they’d better be better on Monday night or else.
2. Pressure, pressure, pressure
Just because Day has answered those harsh critics after the Michigan loss with a dazzling Playoff run doesn’t mean those critics have been quieted for good. Because Day still has 1 more game to win to do that, and if somehow the Buckeyes stumble as a big favorite and fail to finish the job on Monday night, well, you won’t be able to shut those critics up. All of this adds up to the fact that there’s going to be immense pressure on Ohio State, and Day in particular, to seal the deal and win the national title that not a lot of people thought was possible less than 2 months ago.
Maybe that presser cooker will serve Ohio State well, as it seemed to in its 3 Playoff wins leading up to the title game. Or just maybe, against a Notre Dame team playing with house money, the pressure of a championship-or-bust scenario will get the best of the Buckeyes. Because only winning 1 more game, the biggest game of all, will quiet the anti-Day mob for good. Or until next year.
3. Marcus Freeman is on the other sideline
While Day deals with a win-or-else situation from his vicious fan base, Freeman has already achieved hero status as the young, brash head coach who has a long-suffering fan base on the precipice of a title. Freeman has been in South Bend for only 3 seasons, and he just turned 39, so the guy who played linebacker at Ohio State is far ahead of schedule in cementing a championship-level culture at Notre Dame.
During his on-field interviews, Freeman always talks about how his team isn’t going to be afraid of the moment. He always says it will find a way to respond, because it almost always has this season. And Freeman always states that his team is going to be aggressive. The combination of a head coach like Freeman who has that firm grip on his program facing a team with all the pressure on it could be a dangerous mix for Ohio State. Freeman has no fear, and he can see the finish line.