Tanner McCalister thought it was over. He wasn’t the only one.
“Maybe a New Year’s Six bowl,” the Buckeye safety thought, but surely not a College Football Playoff berth. Not after a 22-point loss to Michigan in the final game of the regular season, and in Columbus no less.
Ronnie Hickman “definitely didn't think we were gonna be able to come back” from that catastrophic loss, which cost Ohio State a chance at a berth in the Big Ten Championship Game, where a win would’ve ensured the Buckeyes’ spot in the CFP beyond a shadow of a doubt.
But as Hickman put it, “God works in mysterious ways,” and Ohio State received its second chance just eight days later. Make no mistake, though, it was a long eight days for the Buckeyes. That week was filled with despair, uncertainty and – eventually – a glimmer of hope.
Just not right away.
“Obviously it was a lot of pain. That was our first loss of the season, so it's been a while since any of us have really felt the feeling of losing,” McCalister said. “So it was definitely tough. It was a little bit of everything; feeling sorry for yourself, wondering what you could've did better. It was a whole lot of that going on.”
What could the Buckeyes do to begin putting the loss behind them? Well, getting back on the practice field, for one. Even with no knowledge of what was to come next, Ryan Day had Ohio State hit the gridiron for two practice sessions in the week that followed the Michigan game.
But the Buckeyes couldn’t just snap out of their funk. Not at first, anyway.
“I think we only had like a couple practices, just to keep that edge. But I mean, it's tough,” McCalister said. “It's tough coming back on the field knowing the last time you were on the field you lost the big game, so it was definitely tough.”
That’s when one player took it upon himself to inspire a change in attitude. And it wasn’t a captain or even an upperclassman. Sophomore defensive end JT Tuimoloau delivered a speech that stuck with McCalister and several other Buckeyes who cited the impact of Tuimoloau’s words during Wednesday’s media availability at the WHAC.
“J.T., he stood in the middle of us before one of our first practices and basically told us, ‘Hey, there is still the possibility. Let's not feel sorry for ourselves. Let's try to get better today,’” McCalister said. “Those practices ended up being pretty good practices, to be honest, after J.T. stood up, the young guy stood up and expressed how he was feeling about our possibility to play in the College Football Playoff still. So we ended up having pretty good practices even though coming in, you could kind of feel the downness from all the players in the locker room before we put the pads on and came out here.”
Tuimoloau describes himself as “kind of shy,” but said he saw an opportunity to bring the team back together. The second-year Buckeye took that chance and ran with it.
“All the guys in this program are pretty much my motivation. It was something I felt like we just needed to get back on track, and these boys push me to go my hardest and bring out the best me every day,” Tuimoloau said. “I feel like it's being a young buck and being around them, I know what we are as a team and I know what we can bring. So I just want to come in and just reiterate that the job's not finished.”
After that, Ohio State turned in multiple productive practice sessions. In fact, Taron Vincent said both the pain of the loss and the lack of pressure to immediately prepare for the next opponent aided the Buckeyes’ performance in those practices.
“It finally felt like dudes were just playing angry. We had a fire lit under us, it's time to go,” Vincent said. “No more games or anything. Everybody holding everybody accountable. Players holding players accountable. Coaches holding players accountable and players holding coaches accountable. So I feel like that's all we needed.”
Beyond Tuimoloau, Vincent said Day provided plenty of motivation for the Buckeyes in his own right. While it wasn’t certain at the time, Vincent said the practices only took place because Day felt “we're gonna make the playoffs.” He didn’t want the team to be caught off guard in the event that it snuck into the field of four. And lo and behold, the Buckeyes earned a playoff spot after all.
“I think there's a different level of focus, a different level of seriousness in practice. Because we know with this second chance, I mean, why take it for granted? Why not do everything you can to try to win this game?”– Tanner McCalister
In order for that to happen, a major domino needed to fall, which came when then-No. 4 USC lost to Utah in the Pac-12 Championship Game. Steele Chambers said he watched the contest with 10 people, including some Buckeye teammates, and that it was “probably the most fun we’ve had watching a game.”
But that wasn’t the case early on, as USC took a 17-3 lead on the Utes early in the second quarter. Utah rallied to score 24 unanswered points in an eventual conference title-winning performance, but not before causing a whole lot of stress for Chambers and the Buckeyes watching at home.
“Oh, dude my heart was racing. It felt like we were there,” Chambers said. “All the football I've played, I'd say I was more stressed watching that game than like 95% of games.”
Steele Chambers says former Buckeye safety Bryson Shaw was pissing us off with his stellar play for USC early against Utah in the Pac-12 Championship Game.
— Griffin Strom (@GriffinStrom3) December 14, 2022
We were mother-fing him. pic.twitter.com/aJPgcEvT1E
A little after noon less than two days later, Ohio State’s ticket was officially punched, and a flip officially switched.
“We were all watching it upstairs and as soon as we saw our picture come up on the four spot, we knew we got a chance,” McCalister said. “Once you see that, it's kind of like, ‘It’s on.’ Soon as we saw it, it was like, ‘Alright, it’s on. We got our chances, let's do it.’ … Once we got the information that we got another chance, all of that went out the window. Can't feel sorry for yourself anymore. Now it's what did we do wrong? What can we do to fix that? And how can we show on the 31st that we're the team that we were the majority of the year this season?”
If you’re wondering whether that shift has yielded tangible results in practice over the 12 days since the CFP field was set, Hickman’s assessment left little room for misinterpretation.
“We've been having some of the best practice we've had all season. Just the energy and the motivation for the guys in that room, offense and defense,” Hickman said. “Like I said, earlier, being able to have that second chance is huge. So we're just doing everything we can to not let us limp to our finish.”
Having already suffered one proverbial death this season, Ohio State isn’t taking its second life lightly. People may scoff at any words coming out of the Buckeye program after what happened in their last game, but Ohio State intends to make the most of its postseason resuscitation come Dec. 31 – even if the odds are stacked against it.
“All of us are obviously excited. I think there's a different level of focus, a different level of seriousness in practice,” McCalister said. “Because we know with this second chance, I mean, why take it for granted? Why not do everything you can to try to win this game? So I think that's where everybody's head's at as players and obviously as coaches. So like Coach Day said, that second lease on life, I mean we've been taking that serious.”
