It appeared as though Ohio State might stick with the status quo on the offensive line when Saturday night’s game against Tennessee began.
After teasing the possibility of inserting Luke Montgomery into the starting lineup during the week, Ohio State used the same starting lineup along the offensive line that it had against Indiana and Michigan with Austin Siereveld at left guard and Tegra Tshabola at right guard.
Initially, there didn’t look to be much reason to change things up as the Buckeyes scored on all of their first three possessions of the game to race out to a 21-0 lead. But the Buckeyes did end up using the guard rotation they had planned on entering the game as Montgomery saw action at left guard while Siereveld also played some snaps in place of Tshabola at right guard.
Siereveld ended up playing the most total snaps of the three (46) while Tshabola played 39 and Montgomery played 31, per Pro Football Focus. And while that plan to rotate garnered plenty of skepticism in the week leading up to the game, it ended up working out just fine for the Buckeyes as their offensive line led the way to a 42-point, 473-yard offensive effort in a 25-point win over the Volunteers to advance in the College Football Playoff.
“When you don't notice the guards, they're doing pretty well,” Ryan Day said after the game. “I noticed Luke’s energy and toughness and edge. I gotta watch the film and see how he did, but we blocked much better in this game. They have a good front. I thought we got some of the gap schemes going, some good double teams. It wasn't all perfect, by any means. We'll have to continue to diversify going into the next game. But I thought we at least focused on the things that these guys can do well, and now we gotta build on that.”
Ohio State didn’t allow any sacks against a Tennessee defensive front that had 29 sacks during the regular season. The Buckeyes also found more headway into the running game than they had in their first two games after center Seth McLaughlin went down for the season, rushing for 156 yards and four touchdowns against a Tennessee defense that had allowed fewer than 100 rushing yards per game coming in.
Left tackle Donovan Jackson said the offensive line was motivated to make a statement after being roundly criticized over the last three weeks for its performance against Michigan.
“To say it lightly, we took it personal about what happened last game,” Jackson said. “For three weeks, everyone in the world was telling you you suck. Half the fan base was telling us we suck. Almost every analyst, expert and anyone with a podcast was telling us we sucked. And so we took it personal. We were like, ‘No, that's not how we're going to go out.’ Like, we know we're better than this. Sure, we're down a couple of guys, but all these guys in this room can go. So we knew what the game plan was. We knew how we were going to execute it. And so we just went out there and just played with our hair on fire.”
Ohio State quarterback Will Howard heaped praise upon the offensive line during his postgame press conference.
“I'm so proud of those guys, man,” Howard said. “I had to listen to them get, you know, just harassed for the last three weeks. And I had to sit here and just act like it didn't affect me because those are my brothers, man, and I go to war with those guys every single day. And for them to show out and have the performance that they had tonight was huge. That's a really good front. I mean, they're probably the second-best front we've seen all year. And, I mean, for them to come out and do what they did against those guys was huge. And I'm just so proud of those guys for not listening to the outside noise and sticking their noses down and really getting gritty and working for everything.”
Simon shows out
Cody Simon was the consummate middle linebacker in Jim Knowles’ defensive scheme on Saturday.
The senior green-dot wearer flew sideline to sideline and swept up Tennessee in the run and pass games, collecting 12 tackles, a game-high. He seemed to be the only player on Ohio State’s defense who could consistently tackle Volunteer quarterback Nico Iamaleava in space when he scrambled.
Simon said afterward there was a point to prove for the Buckeyes, criticized relentlessly by fans and detractors alike after a 13-10 loss to Michigan three weeks ago.
“We’re a real team,” Simon said. “We can respond to adversity, and I'm super proud of our guys because it's not easy to go through a loss like that. To get the last one in the Shoe for the seniors, and the first one in December ever, so I think that's awesome and a great moment for the Buckeyes.”
Simon made several plays on third down to get Tennessee’s offense off the field and build to the blowout that ensued between the Buckeyes and Volunteers. He met with Jack Sawyer to stop Iamaleava on a 3rd-and-4 scramble on Tennessee’s first possession, forcing a punt after a three-and-out.
After Ohio State took a 28-10 lead in the third quarter, Simon got the Volunteers off the field again by batting down a pass intended for Tennessee wide receiver Mike Matthews on 3rd-and-5. He and fellow linebacker Sonny Styles have come a long way in pass coverage since being criticized for the passes they allowed over the middle early in the season, and they and the Buckeyes’ secondary held Iamaleava to 14-of-31 passing for 104 yards and no touchdowns.
Simon, who earned first-team All-Big Ten honors for his play during the regular season, was central to Ohio State’s effort of allowing just 256 yards of offense on 3.7 yards per play to Tennessee.
Fans fend off Tennessee takeover
An orange invasion only heightened an electric playoff atmosphere in Ohio Stadium on Saturday.
There were somewhere in the ballpark of 30,000 Tennessee fans in the Shoe at kickoff, but the 70,000 or so Ohio State fans in attendance made sure to drown them out all evening – not that there was much for the Volunteers to cheer about.
“They thought they were going to take over this place, and we showed them pretty quick that we weren't going to let that happen,” Will Howard said after the game. “I think, obviously, us jumping out to a pretty quick start helped with that. But I've got to give credit to Buckeye Nation for showing up and being loud, and the drone show in the third quarter was pretty cool.”
The drone show, which featured lights in tight formations like the Ohio State logo above Ohio Stadium’s main scoreboard, was one of several ways fans were kept engaged during timeouts at the CFP matchup. Music was the main one, as a raucous student section all packed together in the south stands sang “Mo Bamba“ on countless occasions as it came through the speakers during third downs on defense.
As the final minutes drained from the clock, those same speakers trolled Tennessee with a mashup of their traditional “Rocky Top” which bled into “Nah Nah Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye” as the stadium serenaded the Volunteers with a farewell.
Rocky Top into Nah nah, hey hey goodbye at the Shoe pic.twitter.com/nZ3da0f3Ui
— Andy Anders (@AndyAnders55) December 22, 2024
“When we saw that we got another home game against a team like that coming in here, I knew it was gonna be awesome,” Jack Sawyer said. “The crowd was electric tonight. I mean, that's the best I think I've heard it since I've been here. So just to end it that way with this group of seniors and with Coach Day, it was just awesome.”
