Dear Buckeye Nation,

You want to fire Ryan Day now?

Three weeks on the nose after being embarrassed at home by That Team Up North, the 8th-seeded Ohio State Buckeyes looked once again like the dominant program everyone thought they were – hand-delivering cases of whoop-butt to the 9th-seeded Tennessee Volunteers in the first round of the College Football Playoff.

Ohio State fully and truly looked the 20 million bucks its roster reportedly cost in NIL while stomping a mudhole in the Volunteers and walking it dry all over Columbus. The final score – 42-17 – only told part of the story, as these high-priced Buckeyes absolutely dominated to cap a 4-0 run by first-round Playoff home teams.

If Buckeye Nation wanted to send Day to the bread line after the 13-10 loss to Michigan, that same illogic would tell you that Day earned a long-term contract Saturday night – as Ohio State cruised to a Rose Bowl rematch on New Year’s Day against top-seeded Oregon. Both are over-dramatizations, of course, as actual logic and a fully thawed cerebral cortex correctly discerned that the Buckeyes were simply a far better team in every facet of the game.

It didn’t even take Ohio State (12-2) a full quarter to make Tennessee heel in the frigid Columbus night, overwhelming the Volunteers with a brand of offense that was foreign when the Buckeyes sputtered for 60 minutes against the Wolverines. Day and offensive coordinator Chip Kelly let Will Howard loose, and he connected with freshman Jeremiah Smith on a 37-yard scoring dot practically before the thousands of Vols fans that invaded The Horseshoe found their seats.

The deluge continued later on in the quarter, with Quinshon Judkins and TreVeyon Henderson adding rushing scores and the Buckeyes’ defense literally cracking Tennessee helmets. Vols redshirt freshman quarterback Nico Iamaleava needed to resort to backup headgear when Cody Simon and Jack Sawyer drilled him on UT’s opening possession – a literal omen for what was happening all over the field.

Tennessee (10-3) managed to make itself heard in the second quarter via a Max Gilbert field goal and a 2-yard Iamaleava plunge, but all that did was give the Vols false hope. Because Ohio State often looked like it had 13 players on the field on both sides of the ball with the way the Buckeyes confused and confounded their SEC opponent.

And even if Day wasn’t actually coaching for his job, the Buckeyes sure looked like they were playing for their coach’s livelihood – an attitude that ramped back up in the second half. After blanking the Vols offense to open the quarter, Howard struck again to complete a 65-yard march with a 22-yard dime to Smith to make it 28-10.

Sawyer and the defense clearly ate their Wheaties in preparation for Saturday night, chasing Iamaleava all over the ballpark en route to a 14-of-31 effort. He didn’t cross the 100-yard mark until Tennessee’s final drive of the game. And, no, it didn’t help that star running back Dylan Sampson left after 2 carries and didn’t return.

On the other side of the coin, Howard operated like a Scarlet-painted Maserati – going 24-for-29 for 311 yards and 2 TDs. The senior’s mastery of the game plan was on full display in the waning moments of the third quarter, as directed a 9-play, 81-yard scoring drive capped by Judkins’ second 1-yard touchdown dive of the night.

From there, it was all over but the inevitable second-guessing if Tennessee was worthy of a Playoff spot – the same time-filling blather that Indiana, SMU and Clemson were subjects of during the late stages of the weekend’s other first-round games.

Saturday’s dismissal of Tennessee now queues Ohio State back up against Oregon – the identical spot both teams were in back on Oct. 13. That night in Eugene, Howard’s last-play scramble was 1 second too long to keep the Buckeyes from calling a timeout to force a game-winning field goal attempt. Oregon might have escaped that night 32-31, but the confidence and momentum the Ducks got from the victory propelled them to a perfect season and the No. 1 overall Playoff seed.

There will be plenty of time to over-analyze Round 2 in Pasadena, but perhaps the most tantalizing tidbit is the mere fact that the San Gabriel Mountains serve as a neutral site instead of sneaky-raucous Autzen Stadium. The Buckeyes have also enjoyed plenty of success in Arroyo Seco, too, winning 9 of 16 games as guests of “The Grandaddy of Them All.” Oregon, on the other hand, is a respectable 4-4 in their Rose Bowl appearances.

But that’s for the opening hours of 2025. For now, order has been restored among the Greater Columbus Realtors – as Day clearly isn’t going anywhere other than to begin game-planning for Oregon. Oh sure, the village idiots will continue to gripe about losing 4 straight to Michigan, but that rabble will continue to fade into the background celebration triggered by Saturday night’s demolition of Tennessee.

Because Ohio State once again looked, well, like Ohio State in a prime-time, second-chance moment to salvage a 2024 season that was just 3 weeks ago teetering on the edge of collapse.