Top 10 Plays of Ohio State's 2024 National Championship Season

By Andy Anders on February 4, 2025 at 1:15 pm
Jack Sawyer
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There are no shortage of plays to chose from when narrowing down the top 10 from Ohio State's 2024 season.

That's what happens when a team wins a national championship. The Buckeyes had the best players in college football and they made some of the best plays in college football, from the spectacular to the title-clinching.

Half of this top 10 comes from Ohio State's four-game College Football Playoff run and three plays involve Jeremiah Smith, to little surprise after the freshman sensation's breakout season. He made a title-clinching catch in the CFP national championship game, but even that was not enough to take the top spot – Buckeye fans out there might have a good guess as to where that honor went.

But take a ride and relive some of the best moments from across the campaign with us here at Eleven Warriors.

Honorable Mention: TreVeyon Henderson roasts Ducks' defense for 66-yard score

Ohio State has played in many Rose Bowls, 17 to be exact. This is the longest run by a Buckeye in any of them. Henderson makes one surgical cut, evades a would-be tackler and burns Oregon's secondary with some of the best acceleration in college football.

Honorable Mention: Jack Sawyer's interception vs. Michigan

Perhaps there's an alternate reality where Ohio State's offense capitalizes on the momentum of this play and engineers a game-winning drive to snap the team's three-game losing streak against Michigan. In that universe, this would easily be a top-five play of the Buckeyes' season.

Do they still win a national championship on that timeline? Hard to say. It is easier to appreciate the one they won in our reality, and – removed from the context of what happened next to Ohio State in The Game – appreciate an exceptional individual effort by Sawyer. It would not be his last.

Honorable Mention: All of the goal-line stands

Getting in a goal-to-go situation against the 2024 Silver Bullets guaranteed you no gains on the scoreboard. There were 10 drives by Ohio State opponents that got inside the Buckeyes' 10-yard line and failed to produce any points this season. Several of them proved critical in close wins. Here are a few of the most notable, excluding three that appear elsewhere in this story.

  • Nebraska reached 1st-and-goal at the Buckeyes' 7-yard line and 4th-and-goal at the 2-yard line only to see running back Dante Dowdell get stuffed attempting to leap over a heap of bodies. Credit goes to defensive tackle Kayden McDonald for blowing up the right guard to create that traffic jam and cornerback Davison Igbinosun, who met Dowdell up top to prevent his extension of the football. Linebacker Cody Simon made first contact and helped drag Dowdell down from behind. The prevented points proved critical in a 21-17 win for Ohio State.
  • When No. 3 Penn State got to 1st-and-goal at Ohio State's 3-yard line down 20-13 with less than eight minutes to play, it seemed it might be on the Buckeyes' offense to win the game. But the Nittany Lions ran running back Kaytron Allen into a brick wall three plays in a row to gain just 2 yards, with defensive tackle Ty Hamilton getting in on a pair of tackles. Then on 4th-and-goal at the 1-yard line, safety Lathan Ransom sniffed out a play for tight end Tyler Warren in the flat, forcing quarterback Drew Allar to throw into heavy coverage and incomplete. OSU sealed the game on offense with a long drive of running plays to kill the clock.
  • In the national championship, though Notre Dame did eventually cut Ohio State's fourth-quarter lead to 31-23, it took two tries. That's because the Buckeyes' defense made its final big goal-line stand of the season after the Fighting Irish reached 1st-and-goal at Ohio State's 8-yard line. Defensive end Kenyatta Jackson Jr. swarmed quarterback Riley Leonard for a TFL and the Buckeyes' secondary held up for two incompletions, forcing a demoralizing field goal attempt that doinked off the left upright no good.

10. Quinshon Judkins goes 86 Yards to the house vs. Marshall

It says something that the third-longest run (officially) in Ohio State football history lands at just the 10th spot on this list. There were a lot of great plays in the Buckeyes' season but at a time when their offensive line was fully healthy and rolling, this exemplifies how great their running game was early in the season. Not that there weren't great rushing moments down the stretch, but for five and a half games before Josh Simmons' injury, OSU had one of the best ground attacks in the sport.

Center Seth McLaughlin escorted Marshall's nose guard aside and a ferocious combo block by right tackle Josh Fryar and right guard Austin Siereveld cleared a lane for Judkins to make one cut and race by the entirety of the Thundering Herd's defense 86 yards to paydirt.

"I think the mindset of me and my teammates as a whole is to play with bad intentions," Judkins said after the game. "And I think that's my mindset when I get the ball is to, you know, I'm going to try to – that's my job. I'm going to do my job in any way. I'm going to try to get the first down. I'm going to try to score. So every time I get the ball," I'm gonna try to make the most of it."

BONUS PLAY: Later in the same game, Judkins threw one of the nastiest stiff arms ever seen by Buckeye faithful.

9. Will Howard connects with Jeremiah Smith on a diving grab to open slaughter of Tennessee

All was dark in Columbus for three weeks. Ohio State fell for the fourth consecutive time to Michigan and many were calling for Ryan Day's job. Tennessee fans were scooping up tickets to the first-ever CFP game in the Horseshoe planning an invasion of what they called "Neyland North."

How very quickly those Volunteer faithful were smacked emphatically to their own pit of despair. Most of them evacuated the stadium by the end of the third quarter in a 42-17 beatdown by the Buckeyes. This was the contest's first salvo, a dime of a pass by Will Howard only bested by an immaculate catch hauled in by Smith for a 37-yard touchdown.

It's another example of why it's a horrendous idea to press Smith. Tennessee cornerback Rickey Gibson III tried to interfere and prevent the score by holding Smith's arm back but the freshman simply overpowered him and cradled the football neatly against his chest. It was the fist of 21 consecutive points Ohio State scored to start the contest.

Smith finished his first career playoff game with six receptions for 103 yards and two touchdowns.

8. Carnell Tate makes a diving touchdown grab in his hometown

Tate played with the fervor of Harry Caray singing Take Me Out to the Ballgame when Ohio State took Wrigley Field in Chicago this past November in what stands as the only multi-touchdown performance of his career thus far. There was definitely a reason for his heightened performance.

The Buckeye wideout is from Chicago, growing up there before concluding his high school football career at IMG Academy in Bradenton, Florida. Ohio State's game against Northwestern was Tate's first time playing in his hometown since the tragic death of his mother, Ashley Griggs, in July 2023. This catch stands as the top highlight.

Tate runs a go route and lays out to snag a slightly-overthrown ball from Howard's arm. Big Ten Network announcers Jeff Levering and Jake Butt express appropriate disbelief that he is only the No. 3 wide receiver in the Buckeyes' loaded room.

“So proud of that kid, man. I couldn't be happier for him, you know, coming home to his home city, given all he's been through, man,” Howard said. “I don't say it a lot to him, but he's one of my favorite guys on the team, and just seeing him every single day, like, he just lifts my mood. And for him to have the game that he had here in his home city in this stadium, I couldn't be happier.”

7. Jeremiah Smith breaks the internet at Michigan State

Either catch in the above clip could fit in at this spot on the list, honestly. Smith wasted no time announcing his arrival to the world of college football as a freshman, the first half of his first season littered with one-handed catches like these as he opened his campaign with touchdown catches in seven consecutive games.

Howard had all the time in the world after Michigan State rushed just two defenders on 1st-and-10 for some reason but still decided to chuck it toward Smith despite the two defenders trying to curtail him. The results make it impossible to question that decision. Smith towered over both defensive backs and pawed the ball with one hand, then corralled it despite the hand pulling down his facemask.

Two plays later backup quarterback Devin Brown was in the game after Howard took a big hit to the midsection, and he knew which way to look with the football. Smith got up the sideline with a fade ball and made his second one-handed snag in four plays, this one for a touchdown, look easier than a Sunday game of catch.

Amazed reactions poured in from all over X as former Buckeyes and LeBron James reacted to the phenom.

6. Will Howard drops a dime to Emeka Egbuka and the Rose Bowl rout is on

This probably starts the conversation for Howard's best throw of the year, and he made plenty of great ones en route to setting Ohio State's completion percentage record and guiding the Buckeyes to a national championship.

Egbuka runs a post route up the middle of Oregon's defense and finds, at most, half a step of space behind its secondary. Howard drops it in a bucket overtop those defenders, but the veteran receiver still had to make an excellent play on the ball as it was tipped by nickel Brandon Johnson. Egbuka pinned it to his shoulder with one hand and celebrated a 42-yard touchdown.

Ohio State had gained fast separation on the No. 1 team in the country, and it catapulted the Buckeyes to a 34-0 lead to start the game in a 41-21 CFP semifinal win. 

5. Davison Igbinosun makes unbelievable goal-line interception at Penn State

This effort by Igbinosun was so exceptional that few in the stadium realized he had made it at first. Ohio State's cornerback had just surrendered a 21-yard pass to Penn State wide receiver Harrison Wallace III, giving the Nittany Lions 1st-and-goal at the Buckeyes' 3-yard line trailing just 14-10 with 14 seconds left in the first half.

Penn State quarterback Drew Allar decided to go back to the Wallace well once more and it proved one time too many. Igbinosun tipped the fade ball as it hit Wallace's hands, then somehow snatched it from the receiver's grasp in time to plant his right foot in the end zone with possession for an interception to preserve Ohio State's lead and precious momentum on the road.

Igbinosun's pick persevered as the top highlight from one of the signature performances of the Buckeyes' elite 2024 defense. Penn State didn't score a single touchdown, its lone end-zone trip coming on a pick-six during Ohio State's first drive. The Nittany Lions drove inside OSU's 30-yard line four times and came away with six total points on two field goals thanks to the fourth-quarter goal-line stand mentioned above and this masterpiece of a takeaway.

"It speaks highly of our defense," Igbinosun said afterward. "That's the kind of defense that we have. If you give us an inch, we'll take it. We'll get the stop."

4. Caleb Downs records Ohio State's first punt return touchdown in a decade

The final four years of Urban Meyer's tenure and all of Ryan Day's as Ohio State's head coach had gone without a kick or punt return touchdown.

One day after the 10-year anniversary of the last scoring runback, a Jalin Marshall punt return touchdown against Indiana on Nov. 22, 2014, Downs ignited the Shoe with a 79-yard punt return touchdown vs. those very same Hoosiers.

The unanimous All-American safety flexed the athleticism that makes him one of the best defenders in college football with a filthy spin move to slip a tackle find space up the sideline, dashed by the coverage team attempting to coral him, then cut back to the middle of the field to coast into the end zone.

Much like Downs' end-of-play cruise, Ohio State cruised to its second top-five win of the season against No. 5 Indiana that day, coming out on top 38-15 in a win that secured the Buckeyes' CFP berth.

3. TreVeyon Henderson goes 75 yards on a screen pass in the final seconds of the first half vs. Texas

All momentum had evaporated for Ohio State since its opening-drive touchdown against Texas in the Cotton Bowl. The Buckeyes' offense had stalled out several times since, thanks to a combination of self-inflicted wounds and lapses in either execution or scheme, as the Longhorns tied the contest at seven in the final minute of the second quarter.

One such self-inflicted wound was a 15-yard unsportsmanlike conduct penalty against Henderson that killed Ohio State's second drive after it landed inside the Longhorns' 40-yard line. The Buckeyes' senior running back more than made up for that mistake.

Texas blitzed a defensive back and got burnt by a slip screen, Carson Hinzman and Luke Montgomery clearing the way up the right side for an easy 10 yards. From there, it was all Henderson. He set up his blockers, made one cut and outraced the entirety of the Longhorns' defense for a 75-yard score that made it 14-7 Ohio State at halftime.

"It was a battle, man, especially after making this mistake on the field with the penalty," Henderson said. "Just spending some time with the Lord on the sideline, asking for his forgiveness, and helping me to repent, to turn away, because that's not the person I want to be."

2. 3rd-and-Jeremiah

For all the spectacular catches Smith made going down the field for Ohio State this season, this will live on through the offseason as the ultimate F it, 4 down there somewhere play because it secured the Buckeyes' national championship.

Two conservative calls as Ohio State led by eight points with less than three minutes to go left doubt Chip Kelly and Day would dial up something capable of converting on 3rd-and-11. What they settled on would have converted 3rd-and-40.

Smith's route on this go-ball was clinical. He starts running at an angle toward the hash, then once he pulls even with Notre Dame cornerback Christian Gray, he darts back outside up the sideline to gain separation. Howard laced it right into his breadbasket for a 56-yard gain. Day took a Gatorade bath minutes later as the Buckeyes celebrated their ninth national championship.

Egbuka actually saw that such a play could be open while reviewing film on the sideline earlier in the second half. 

"It was just, 'Beat the man in front of me,'" Smith said. "There was a man, so I just know, man-on-man, I've got to win my one-on-one."

1. Scoop-and-Sawyer

This isn't just the top play of Ohio State's 2024 season, it's one of the top plays in the history of Ohio State's program. Part of the reason why is the man who made it.

There was no more fitting character to send the Buckeyes through to a national championship than Sawyer. Sawyer grew up a lifelong Ohio State fan in central Ohio. Sawyer spearheaded the return of his fellow seniors to gift-wrap a championship-ready roster to Day and his staff, a movement that started in the very same Cotton Bowl at the end of 2023.

“It’s almost poetic, man,” left guard-turned-left tackle Donovan Jackson, one of those seniors, said after the game. “He played a key role getting a lot of guys back. Shit, he called me every day, like three times a day to get me to come back. Seeing him do that, it’s just a testament to his hard work and (him as) a leader.”

Sawyer committed to Day one month after the coach was hired and two years before his class' National Signing Day and has gone to bat for him multiple times. No athlete on Ohio State's roster took four straight Michigan losses harder than Sawyer.

As the final dot connecting a full-circle moment you wouldn't deem plausible if you saw it in a movie, Sawyer made his career's signature strip-sack against Quinn Ewers, who was his roommate in Columbus when the pair were freshmen before Ewers transferred to Texas after that freshman year.

The play itself was set up by a goal-line stand that will live in legend for the Silver Bullets, Texas getting 1st-and-goal from the 2-yard line then from the 1-yard line after a penalty. The Longhorns were stuffed for no gain trying to run up the Buckeyes' impregnable defensive interior on first down. They lost seven yards as Downs and Lathan Ransom blew up a toss sweep on second down. Sawyer pressured Ewers to affect his throw and force an incompletion on third down.

Finally, fourth down came. Sawyer shot his hands up to bait right tackle Cameron Williams – projected as a first-round pick in the 2025 NFL draft – into leaning forward, a move Sawyer punished with a speedy rip move to come free. He knocked the ball from Ewers' grasp, picked it up in stride and raced 83 yards into Ohio State lore.

“I hit about the 30 (yard-line), I looked back, I’m like, ‘I hope I get some blockers, I’m running out of steam here,’” Sawyer said with a laugh after the game. “They were running with me side-by-side. That speaks volumes to who this team is too, you know. We always have each other’s back. It was a special moment.”

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