All the investments, be they of NIL dollars, time or emotion, have led to this moment for Ohio State.
This year's final stock report predates the 2025 College Football Playoff national championship game between the No. 8 Buckeyes and No. 7 Notre Dame. Ohio State's win over No. 5 Texas in the CFP semifinals at the Cotton Bowl may not have been as thorough a domination as its demolition of No. 1 Oregon in the quarterfinals, but all that matters at this stage against this caliber of teams is that the Buckeyes did, in fact, win.
And they won first and foremost by their defense. The Longhorns did all they could to take Jeremiah Smith away – he finished with one catch for three yards – and curtailed Ohio State's offense for long stretches of the Cotton Bowl. But the Silver Bullets held Texas to just five yards per play and made a goal-line stand that will be legendary if the Buckeyes bring home a national title.
While all momentum is with Ohio State entering its final game of the 2024 college football season, Ryan Day and his staff are eager to clean up the mistakes they made against Texas to give the Buckeyes their best shot at beating Notre Dame.
"To me, the story of this past game for us on offense was the self-inflicted wounds that set us back and allowed us to be in the game in the fourth quarter when I think we could have done a better job of executing and certainly made it a little bit of a bigger spread down the stretch," Day said on Sunday. "That's going to be the focus this week."
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Goal-line stands
Time and time and time again, Ohio State's defense has shown it can defend an inch of grass if that's what's required to win a game. The Buckeyes thwarted Nebraska on four straight downs to preserve a 21-17 victory in October. Davison Igbinosun came up with an interception in a goal-to-go situation at Penn State near halftime of a 20-13 win in November, and Ohio State stopped the Nittany Lions a second time on four straight downs near the goal line later in the game.
But Ohio State's goal-line stand in the waning moments of its win over Texas was its greatest yet. The Longhorns gained no yardage trying to pound the rock up the middle from 1st-and-goal at the 1-yard line, went backward attempting to outflank the Buckeyes with a toss sweep on 2nd-and-goal, tossed an incompletion on 3rd-and-goal and bore witness to a scoop-and-score from Jack Sawyer that will live on in Buckeye lore for decades on 4th-and-goal.
Stopping the run
Oregon and Texas combined to rush for 35 yards on 57 carries against Ohio State's defensive front. While the Longhorns' running backs found some success catching the ball out of the backfield, combining for 11 receptions, 101 yards and two touchdowns, bell-cow Quintrevion Wisner was held to 46 rushing yards on 17 carries.
Jack Sawyer
This is an obligatory inclusion as Sawyer cemented himself as a Buckeye legend with his 83-yard rumble off a fumble he forced from Texas quarterback Quinn Ewers. I already waxed poetic about the incredible story that led up to that play, as did Garrick Hodge. Sawyer added three tackles and two pass breakups to the scoop-and-score, giving him seven PBUs to go with 4.5 sacks in the CFP.
Here’s the scoop-and-score one more time, set to Titanic music because that version is my personal favorite.
One of the greatest plays in Ohio State Buckeyes football history!
— Chatterbox Sports (@CBoxSports) January 11, 2025
Jack Sawyer + Titanic #GoBucks pic.twitter.com/Fxf8pSBQTO
Sonny Styles
It's hard to split hairs between Styles, Caleb Downs and JT Tuimoloau for Ohio State's second most valuable defensive player against Texas, but Styles will get the nod here for novelty. The most improved player on the Buckeyes' defense throughout the season, Styles finished with a game-high nine tackles, three tackles for loss, a sack and a PBU.
Luke Montgomery
While the offensive line had an up-and-down day overall, Montgomery assumed full control of Ohio State's left guard job by playing every single snap at the position vs. the Longhorns in his first career start. The in-state sophomore had previously rotated at LG with Austin Siereveld in the first two rounds of the CFP as Siereveld also rolled with right guard Tegra Tshabola. Against the Longhorns, however, it was Montgomery exclusively on the left side while Tshabola and Siereveld continued rotating opposite him.
Carnell Tate
Tate proved a reliable force moving the ball through the air with two and sometimes three defenders committed to Smith consistently. He collected seven receptions, a career-high, for 87 yards. He responded fantastically after dropping a touchdown on the Buckeyes' opening drive – Ohio State got into the end zone anyway – as he picked up first downs on five of his seven catches.
The biggest came on the Buckeyes' 13-play, 88-yard go-ahead touchdown drive in the fourth quarter. On 3rd-and-8 from Ohio State's own 29-yard line, Tate ran a crisp corner route and Will Howard connected with him on a precise throw to pick up 18 yards, mobilizing the chain gang.
"(I saw) what I see from him every day," senior wide receiver Emeka Egbuka said of Tate. "Just a humble worker, a grinder. Someone who's going to get the job done regardless of his role. And he practices hard. And that was just what was on the field."
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Penalties
Ohio State committed a season-high nine penalties for 75 yards in the Cotton Bowl, the offense drawing six of those fouls for 60 yards. Running back TreVeyon Henderson had an uncharacteristic unsportsmanlike conduct penalty in the first half and there were five penalties on the Buckeyes' offensive line.
Both the offensive line and Henderson made up for those infractions later. The offensive line was key in engineering the aforementioned go-ahead scoring drive, and Henderson had easily the game's second-biggest play on a 75-yard screen pass for a touchdown with 13 seconds left in the first half.
TREVEYON HENDERSON 75 YARDS TO THE HOUSE, WOW
— ESPN (@espn) January 11, 2025
Ohio State immediately answers after Texas' TD. pic.twitter.com/a0OdS0eORK
But Ohio State will need to cut down on penalties against Notre Dame to avoid self-inflicted wounds don’t come back to bite them in the national championship game.
The inevitability of No. 4
Before the Texas game, it felt as though no team could slow Smith. Oregon tried its best and the freshman still amassed seven receptions for 187 yards and two touchdowns. But the Longhorns found the formula to keep him to one catch for three yards.
Whether it's replicable is up for debate. Texas has a dynamic zone scheme and arguably the best secondary in college football. Notre Dame runs a lot more man coverage, though its passing defense has been excellent this season also, ranked No. 3 nationally in opposing yards per pass attempt at a meager 5.8. That said, this will easily be the best passing attack the Fighting Irish have faced all season. Consensus All-American safety Xavier Watts will lead their charge.
Offensive dominance
It was a rough flow to the game for Ohio State's offense. On eight possessions between its opening-drive touchdown and the go-ahead score midway through the fourth quarter, Ohio State punted the ball six times and Howard tossed an interception, with Henderson’s dash providing the only Buckeye points in the middle two quarters.
"We're disappointed in the fact that we really let four drives get away – five with the turnover – in the game with penalties," Day said. "Self-inflicted, so we feel like we need to play our best game in this game, and we know that. There's nobody that came back on offense and was pleased with the fact that we had those penalties. Went back on the film and identified them. The issues are always there. I've said it all along that win, lose, it doesn't matter; the issues are there."
Frames Janklin
Penn State and head coach James Franklin fell to Notre Dame 27-24 in the CFP semifinals after holding 10-0, 17-10 and 24-17 leads over the Fighting Irish. Quarterback Drew Allar threw an interception at his own 42-yard line with 33 seconds to play and the Golden Domers kicked a game-winning 41-yard field goal. Franklin is now 1-15 vs. AP top-five opponents in his tenure with the Nittany Lions.
