Will Howard and Ohio State were aware of the conversation around the team following their loss to Michigan, the Buckeyes’ fourth straight loss to the Wolverines.

All they’ve done since then is win three straight games to punch their ticket to Monday’s College Football National Championship Game, when they’ll take on Notre Dame.

“It was really a truth-telling time. The facts were laid out there. People were challenged,” Howard said. “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 Buckeyes opened their Playoff run with a 42-17 blowout of Tennessee at Ohio Stadium. Then came a 41-21 win over B1G foe and top-seeded Oregon in the Rose Bowl quarterfinal before stopping Texas 28-14 in the Cotton Bowl semifinal.

Now, they’re a win away from their first national championship since 2014.

“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. Here we are, man,” Howard said. “We’re right where we wanted to be. A lot of people wrote us off, but we really just believed in ourselves.”