As Doran Grant sat at home Sunday afternoon staring aimlessly at the television awaiting the fate of his team, he saw Ohio State's name appear as the final school in the College Football Playoff. His reaction was subtle, yet spoke volumes.
"I just put my hand up in the air with excitement," Grant said while raising his right arm with a clenched fist.
A couple of his roommates — wide receiver Devin Smith and offensive lineman Chase Farris — had a bit of a different reaction, though.
"Devin came running down the stairs," Grant joked. "Chase came stumbling down the stairs. It was a lot of ruckus."
It was cause for celebration as the Buckeyes learned they were headed to New Orleans.
As the No. 4 seed in the first-ever College Football Playoff, Ohio State is set for a matchup in the Sugar Bowl against No. 1 Alabama. It's two powerhouse college football programs with two powerhouse college football coaches: Urban Meyer and Nick Saban.
"A great day for Ohio State," Meyer said.
But the road to New Orleans certainly didn't come easy.
The Buckeyes were ranked fifth in last week's version of the rankings so it was clear there was work to be done. They were two spots behind third-ranked TCU and only slightly ahead of No. 6 Baylor — two teams from the Big 12 which each had a legitimate argument to be worthy of a place in the Top 4.
And even after a 59-0 pasting of Wisconsin in the Big Ten championship game, Ohio State's fate was still to be determined. Had the Buckeyes done enough to catapult themselves into a playoff spot?
In the first year of the College Football Playoff, you just didn't know what was going to happen. Well, unless you're Curtis Grant.
"I just didn't know if we were gonna be three or four," he said. "It didn't really matter to me."
Quite crazy how things can change throughout the course of a college football season. After all, most people wrote Ohio State off after its 35-21 loss to Virginia Tech in Week 2.
But the Buckeyes are in the tournament now and, to them, that's all that matters.
"I just knew we were going to get better each and every game but I didn't know how far us as a team was going to take ourselves," Curtis Grant said. "We bought in to what Coach Meyer was selling us and we stuck together. We believed in him and he believed in us and each and every week we came out and got better."
