This is football. Every game is physical.
But for Ohio State, none more so than Saturday’s College Football Playoff semifinal matchup at the Peach Bowl, where the Buckeyes will collide head-on with a team that embodies every syllable of that word. You’d be hard-pressed to find a finesse team that ranks No. 1 in the nation in rush defense, No. 2 in scoring defense and No. 8 in total defense.
Georgia certainly is not that, and the Bulldogs are dead-set on using that perceived edge to its full advantage against an Ohio State team that’s own toughness has been questioned following back-to-back losses to Michigan.
The Buckeyes have something to prove after their latest defeat, and they could silence plenty of doubters with a gritty performance in the trenches against the unbeaten defending national champs. In fact, Paris Johnson Jr. welcomes the opportunity with open arms.
“Physicality is the most important thing, it’s the biggest factor in this game by far,” Johnson said during a press conference at the Westin Peachtree Plaza in Atlanta Tuesday. “And I think as an offensive lineman, like that is the best thing to hear knowing that the only factor and the best way to compete, for Chip and for Marvin (the other two players alongside him at the press conference) to do their job is for me to just out-physical the guy across from me.
“During this bowl prep we've put in a lot of time trying to work our skill and our technique and our discipline. So when it's time for us to be out there, it's second nature. And then all we have to do is to rely on just being able to go out after the guy in front of you. Because that's what it's going to take to beat them.”
Ohio State’s talked all year about recommitting itself to the weight room during winter workouts in an effort to win the tough, ugly games it couldn’t in 2021. The Buckeyes didn’t beat Michigan this season, but that wasn’t exactly due to a lack of physicality. Ohio State limited the Wolverines to all of 10 rushing yards on 11 attempts in the first half on Nov. 26, held the Michigan defense to just one sack and rushed for 79 more yards on one less carry than it did in the 2021 matchup.
Marvin Harrison Jr. believes the Buckeyes aren’t lacking any physicality as they enter the biggest game of the season, and said they haven’t reinvented the wheel to gain an extra edge in that department during bowl practice.
“I think it's how the game of football is played, gotta play in a physical way. I don't think we've done anything different than we've been doing all year,” Harrison said. “Kind of emphasized physicality throughout the whole season, starting in the weight room, and just kind of the practices and did overtime kind of prepared us for this moment. So I am going to say we didn't do anything different. Obviously gotta go out there and play physical, but gotta have a lot of technique and skill to win games as well.”
“I feel like when you're a Buckeye, this is all you ask for. Our schedule or our practice plans haven't differed. The main thing in our program is toughness and fight.”– Chip Trayanum
Much like the Buckeyes, Georgia began harnessing its own identity in the preseason, with the added advantage of having seen just how far a physical brand of football can take a program during last year’s run to a national championship.
“(The preseason), that's the time when we're learning each other, we're learning the system, having fun. It's very physical around that time because we have two big scrimmages that everybody looks forward to,” Georgia defensive lineman Zion Logue said Tuesday. “So I'll say the preseason is a big time for the team. … (The scrimmages) are usually a week apart on Saturdays, so we can talk smack throughout the week and by the time Saturday gets here, everybody's blood flowing and juices are going, ready to go at it on Saturday.
“I think it literally just goes back to the way we prepare. Like we literally try to make practice a living hell, so by the time we get in the game, nothing can knock us off our path.”
That began paying off in the very first game of the season when Georgia decimated then-No. 11 Oregon, 49-3, in a statement win that announced the Bulldogs as the team to beat in college football once again. And Georgia’s depth on defense doesn’t exactly help opposing offenses that were already overmatched to begin with.
“We roll so deep and so heavy,” Logue said. “It might have been Oregon, we were trading in and out guys and they were like, 'Y'all just keep coming.' So it was pretty funny.”
Since then, Georgia held every opponent it’s played – save LSU – to 22 points or under. The Bulldogs’ success goes far beyond sheer physical force, but it may be the fundamental backbone behind all of it.
“Violent and physical, you have to be that to play this game of football,” Logue said. “Like you hear people say all the time, you have to be wired a little bit different to play the game of football. So I think that goes hand in hand with it.”
But what does Georgia think of Ohio State’s ability to match it in that department? Logue said he sees a physical team on tape when watching the Buckeyes, but didn’t place Ohio State ahead of Michigan, which Georgia manhandled en route to a 34-11 win in last year’s CFP semifinal.
“I feel like they're pretty aggressive. If I could say it, I might put them as one of the most physical teams in the Big Ten, maybe,” Logue said. “Up there with Michigan.”
Ohio State has the chance to prove otherwise against the Bulldogs, and with a win, it could meet Michigan again in the national championship game. Chip Trayanum said the Buckeyes wouldn’t want anything less.
“I feel like when you're a Buckeye, this is all you ask for. Our schedule or our practice plans haven't differed,” Trayanum said Tuesday. “The main thing in our program is toughness and fight. So I feel like when it comes down to the nitty-gritty and you telling us that's all we gotta do, that's what we are confident in because that's when we go back to the basics and the building blocks. That's all the mat drills. That's all the workouts and everything we put forward to get here at this very moment. So I feel like giving us that advantage, we're definitely comfortable with that.”
