One loss, particularly to a two-time defending Power 5 conference champion, does not dash Ohio State’s postseason dreams, necessarily.
Two, on the other hand, all but guarantees the Buckeyes will be left out of the College Football Playoff for the first time in three years.
Considering Ohio State had a 23-game home win streak before the first regular-season loss of the Ryan Day era last week, most members of the 2021 Buckeye roster aren’t used to losing on this level. In the six days since, they’ve become acutely aware of the slim margin for error they’ll now carry through the rest of their schedule.
“Everybody should have a sense of urgency because we can’t lose again,” redshirt freshman running back Miyan Williams said Wednesday. “Plus we’re at Ohio State, we’re not supposed to lose. But you’re gonna lose some in life, so you just gotta move on from it and don’t lose again – or try not to lose again.”
In the seven-year history of the CFP, no two-loss team has ever earned a nod from the selection committee for one of the four qualifying slots. In four of the past seven years, a two-loss team has been the first team out of the CFP – including Ohio State itself in 2017 – but there’s little reward for the first runner-up when it comes to national title aspirations.
Ohio State hasn’t lost more than two games in a full season since the program’s 6-7 campaign in 2011, and in the CFP era, only the ‘17 Buckeyes lost more than one game entering selection Sunday.
On countless occasions since defensive struggles began rearing their head for Ohio State in the latter half of the 2020 season, Day has reiterated that the Buckeyes must determine whether their deficiencies are due to coaching, scheme or personnel. The first two parts of that equation have taken the brunt of the blame since last weekend’s Oregon loss, with Day hinting Thursday that defensive coordinator Kerry Coombs may no longer be handling play calling duties this week.
But the inexperience on the back end for the Buckeyes is undeniable. Ohio State opened the season with seven first-time defensive starters, and lost one of the most experienced members of the secondary when senior safety Josh Proctor fractured his leg against the Ducks.
Still, fans and pundits won’t be lining up in droves to give the Buckeyes an excuse if their struggles continue.
“Nobody cares whether we’re young or not. That’s just the way it goes here,” Day said Thursday. “So we can’t have patience, we have to have urgency, and there are gonna be growing pains along the way, but we have to manage that as coaches and figure that out and not expose them. Some of these guys are getting some really valuable experience, valuable experience that they didn’t get last year, and for a lot of these young guys it’s gonna pay off big down the road here. But along the way we can’t be losing games.”
The voices of senior leaders have been heard even louder since the loss. First-year starting quarterback C.J. Stroud said immediately after Saturday’s game that Haskell Garrett told him the season isn’t over, and the fifth-year defensive tackle also used the Buckeyes’ 2014 season as a rallying point.
Williams said that’s continued into practices this week, even if some seniors – Teradja Mitchell, for example – don’t have a wealth of starting experience to pull from.
“A lot of the seniors have, they speak before practice and then that’s how the day goes. Just to get the group energized,” Williams said. “(Jeremy Ruckert) spoke today and I think Teradja spoke yesterday. I don’t remember exactly what they said, but they were just like, ‘We just gotta keep going, bring the energy today, let’s go.’”
Williams said the team has been “flying around” and hyped up on the practice field, and Garrett Wilson said Ohio State hasn't had a better practice all year than the one it had Wednesday. The Buckeyes know they can’t afford another loss, but that means fewer errors must be made on the practice field as well.
“The energy and just the attention to detail the last two days, I feel like it hasn’t been like that since camp started,” Wilson said. “We knew we had some problems, but whenever you lose, it magnifies them all. There’s no room for messing up at practice anymore. If there was before, there’s none at all now.”
Following the Oregon loss, Ohio State is at perhaps the least threatening portion of its 2021 schedule, with 0-2 AAC opponent Tulsa on the docket this weekend and an Akron team that is 1-19 in its past 20 games up next after that.
Slip-ups are far from impossible in college football, though, and even an underwhelming performance in a win – especially on defense – could lead to further criticism in the wake of last week’s loss.
An impressive win over Tulsa won’t right all the wrongs or erase a loss from the record, but it would count as another step toward the ultimate goal of an unbeaten season from Week 3 onward as the Buckeyes look to put the Oregon game behind them.
“We gotta get it figured out and have that urgency,” Day said. “Get those guys on the field and keep learning from it.”
