Ohio State, Ryan Day silence critics with resounding win over Tennessee-ZoomTech News

COLUMBUS, Ohio — How completely different this postgame scene should have felt for Ryan Day, the embattled head coach of Ohio State, who stood in nearly the very same place three weeks in the past, on Nov. 30, as every little thing about his group and his tenure appeared to crumble following a fourth consecutive loss to Michigan. Screaming gamers, their eyes reddened from pepper spray discharged by native law enforcement officials, careened previous Day in the hunt for medical consideration. Belligerent followers, their endurance eroded by Day’s confounding recreation plan, hurled profane insults in his course. Wounded seniors, their careers ceaselessly blemished by an lack of ability to beat The Group Up North, brawled on the midfield brand when the Wolverines tried to plant their flag. Chaos reigned as Day grew roots on the 24-yard line, his disbelief and disenchantment melding into momentary paralysis.

A lot had modified when Day returned to that location late on Saturday night, within the aftermath of a School Soccer Playoff recreation in opposition to Tennessee, whose followers had stormed into Ohio Stadium with fervor and left lengthy earlier than the fourth quarter expired. Emboldened, maybe, by the nauseating chance of a $20 million roster disbanding with nothing however money to indicate for it, Day and his teaching workers authored and architected their most interesting efficiency of the season: a 42-17 dismantling of the Volunteers that concurrently prolonged Ohio State’s season whereas vaulting this system again into the nationwide championship dialog. So complete was Saturday night time’s victory over a revered SEC opponent that the Buckeyes opened as betting favorites in opposition to No. 1 Oregon within the quarterfinals, a Rose Bowl redux of the moment basic these groups put forth at Autzen Stadium in mid-October. On that night time, the Geese prevailed by a single level.

To earn that rematch and the prospect to advance to the nationwide semifinals, there was a lot Ohio State wanted to repair forward of the postseason, so many points each schematic and psychiatric for the coaches to discover. They wanted to shore up the inside of the offensive line, the place accidents had compelled the Buckeyes to start shuffling personnel. They wanted to rediscover their aggressiveness within the passing recreation, the place targets for huge receivers Jeremiah Smith and Emeka Egbuka had waned together with the quantity of downfield photographs. They wanted to invigorate the move rush, the place veteran edge rushers Jack Sawyer and JT Tuimoloau had underachieved relative to their sky-high recruiting pedigrees. And Day himself wanted to reignite Ohio Stadium, the place scores of followers reveled in the potential for his dismissal after yet one more loss to Michigan.

“It had been an extended lead-up for us,” Day mentioned in his postgame information convention. “To say it does not weigh on you — it does. We’ve a variety of pleasure in who we’re. These guys have a variety of pleasure.

“I feel it says rather a lot about who our guys are that we had been capable of reply like that in an enormous means.”

Lengthy earlier than anybody knew which model of Ohio State would present up on Saturday night time — or simply what number of Ohio State followers would fill the stadium — Day positioned himself close to the objective line throughout early warmups. He was a point-blank bystander for the lofted passes heaved by quarterback Will Howard towards every member of the Buckeyes’ impossibly gifted receiving corps. Rep after rep, parabola after parabola, Day watched intently as Howard dropped passes into the metaphorical bucket. To shut followers of this system, particularly these desperate to see Day faraway from his extremely paid put up, the irony of the scenario was wealthy: There stood Day, purveyor of a confounding, aerially averse recreation plan that hamstrung his group in opposition to Michigan late final month, staring on the very fashion of offense followers have yearned for him and offensive coordinator Chip Kelly to embrace all season.

Maybe the rationale Day was so fixated on Howard’s lengthy passes was that he knew in regards to the extremely aggressive recreation plan to come back. In regards to the 37-yard landing move to Smith on the group’s opening possession and the 40-yard connection to Egbuka on the second. In regards to the wheel path to tailback TreVeyon Henderson for 21 yards and Howard’s second landing move to Smith for 22 yards, this time punishing the hubris of Tennessee defensive coordinator Tim Banks for refusing to provide star nook Jermod McCoy any type of security assist. By the point Howard was performed dicing the Volunteers for 311 yards on 24-of-29 passing, his success enabled by a much more resolute offensive line, the Buckeyes’ lead had swelled to 32 factors early within the fourth quarter.

“To win all of it, you have to win the primary one,” Kelly mentioned. “That is actually the entire group’s focus. I assumed Ryan did an ideal job conserving everyone centered. There actually wasn’t [any] speak about what are we going to do on Jan. 20 [when the national championship game will be played] as a result of Jan. 20 did not imply something if we did not maintain Dec. 21. I feel our guys had been laser centered on enjoying this recreation.”

However so was Tennessee’s fan base. With Knoxville solely separated from Ohio Stadium by 360 miles, legions of Volunteer followers pounced on the chance for what a lot of them described as a bucket checklist journey, caravanning north alongside I-75 till they’d handed by means of Kentucky to invade The Buckeye State. Those that did not really feel like driving opted to fly, stuffing the foyer of a lodge adjoining to John Glenn Columbus Worldwide Airport with males sporting checkered overalls and ladies debating what number of layers they’d have to hold heat on a frigid Midwest night time. “All of them,” one of many girls quipped round 3:15 p.m. “You are going to be outdoors for, like, the following eight hours.”

Hundreds extra Tennessee followers had already been braving the weather for fairly a while, infiltrating the facet streets and watering holes adjoining to Ohio State’s campus lengthy earlier than kickoff on a 25-degree night time. Pregame interviews with southern twang-toting Volunteer followers on ESPN radio revealed that almost all of them had paid between $200 and $300 for tickets, a variety they in comparison with away costs for convention video games in opposition to Vanderbilt. A leaked presale had allowed untold numbers of visiting followers to buy tickets within the days after this yr’s playoff bracket was revealed. Of the 102,819 followers in attendance on Saturday night time, someplace between 25% and 35% of them wore orange.

“I feel they thought [that] they had been going to take over this place,” Howard mentioned.

That Tennessee had sufficient followers to theoretically accomplish that underscores simply how precarious the early moments of Saturday’s recreation actually had been, how a lot potential there was for the temper inside Ohio Stadium to bitter and seethe towards outright castigation had the Buckeyes fallen behind early. As an alternative, the Scarlet and Grey devoted who surfaced had been handled to a convincing victory through which Ohio State led by 21 on the finish of the primary quarter and outgained the Volunteers by 217 whole yards — all whereas harassing quarterback Nico Iamaleava to the tune of 4 sacks, 9 move breakups and a forty five.2% completion fee, by far his lowest of the season.

Drips and drabs of Tennessee followers seeped by means of the exits with greater than 13 minutes remaining within the fourth quarter, their flickering hopes for a comeback dashed by an Iamaleava incompletion on fourth down. So safe was Ohio State’s victory that an assistant coach who watches these video games from the sales space snuck away for a loo break as snaps had been nonetheless unfolding, becoming a member of a number of reporters within the restroom whereas chatter nonetheless popped by means of his headset.

“I advised them within the locker room that in life you are going to be outlined by the way in which you deal with adversity in life,” Day mentioned, “as an individual, as a person, as a dad. So to see the way in which that they responded on this recreation [after losing to Michigan], you might inform from the leap that that they had a glance of their eye that they had been going to go win this recreation. I assumed they performed that means.”

The look in Day’s eyes was equally telling because the band performed “Carmen Ohio” to have a good time a monumental victory and the extension of Ohio State’s season. He hugged his spouse and he hugged his youngsters just some yards from the place the insanity had unfolded throughout him on Nov. 30. And on this night time, he’d earned the proper to smile.

Michael Cohen covers faculty soccer and basketball for FOX Sports activities with an emphasis on the Massive Ten. Comply with him at @Michael_Cohen13.

[Want great stories delivered right to your inbox? Create or log in to your FOX Sports account, follow leagues, teams and players to receive a personalized newsletter daily.]

---

---