National Championship Skull Session: Get Dumped Then, Notre Dame

It's National Championship SZN.

.@KingJames narrates Ohio State's national championship Game Trailer

"Our story has one last chapter to write: The Chapter of Champions."pic.twitter.com/9OugVSZp9h

— Eleven Warriors (@11W) January 18, 2025

Have a good Monday.

 A VIDEO IS WORTH 1,000 WORDS.

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TELL EM, COACH! pic.twitter.com/Se7zs18oHO

— Eleven Warriors (@11W) September 24, 2023

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 BRICKS, BRICKS, BRICKS. Before the 2024 college football season, Ryan Day established a new tradition at Ohio State. After each practice and game, he and the coaches would select a player to place a brick on a wall outside the Woody Hayes Athletic Center, symbolizing the foundation the Buckeyes wanted to build.

“When you start the season with so many expectations, it’s easy to focus on down the road,” Day said on Nov. 12. “In order to make sure the guys understand the work they were putting in during August and September as we’re building up the season, all those days mattered. … How do you know what your foundation is? You go through a storm and you find out what’s left when you wake up the next morning. We knew there would be storms and big games along the way. All those days and bricks we put in the foundation are going to be what matters the most.”

Before Day’s comment, Ohio State’s “storms” included a midseason loss at Oregon in which left tackle Josh Simmons, a future first-round pick, suffered a torn ACL. After Day’s comment, the "storms" included Seth McLaughlin tore his Achilles in practice, and the Buckeyes suffered an unimaginable loss to Michigan, their fourth consecutive defeat in The Game.

Those storms knocked down the walls and made the roof cave in, but the rain and wind never reached the cornerstones.

“The culture is as strong as it’s ever been,” Day said on Dec. 4. “We have good players and good coaches. It was a bad day. We have to go forward.”

And so Ohio State did.

Over the next five weeks, Ohio State dismantled the No. 9, No. 1 and No. 5-seeded teams in the College Football Playoff, defeating Tennessee, 42-17, in Columbus; Oregon, 41-21, in the Rose Bowl; and Texas, 28-14, in the Cotton Bowl. The Buckeyes’ win over the Longhorns featured one of the greatest moments in program history, an 83-yard strip-sack scoop-and-score from Jack Sawyer to seal the victory late in the fourth quarter.

In the week that followed, Sawyer said Ohio State’s postseason tear resulted from their foundation but also the admiration he and his teammates have for their head coach.

“The amount of s— that Coach has taken on our behalf is insane,” Sawyer wrote in The Players’ Tribune. “But I also think a reason that stuff has been able to happen is because of how high Coach’s character is. He refuses to hang his players out to dry. In the good times, he wants the spotlight on us. In the bad times, he wants the spotlight on himself. And it’s definitely unacceptable the amount of toxic bulls— he’s had to deal with over the years. But if you’re wondering why his players play so damn hard for him – well, there you go.”

Leaning on a love for their brothers and their coach, the Buckeyes will have one more chance to prove that their foundation was the strongest in college football.

“We have to finish it. We have to finish it,” Day said Wednesday. “It’s one thing to build the foundation. Now, you have to go finish the job.”

Ohio State will.

As LeBron James said in the team’s latest Game Trailer, “Our story is unfinished. Our story has one last chapter to write: The Chapter of Champions.” 

When Ohio State wins the title, the Buckeyes can put down their pens and bind this season’s book. They can place it on a shelf inside their home – one with an unblemished foundation, rebuilt walls and a restored roof that shines like gold in an eternity of college football greatness.

Ohio State 31 - Notre Dame 13

 THE MENU. Allow me to separate the two text-based sections with The Menu for College Football Playoff national championship game. Here's what ESPN has locked and loaded for its coverage of Ohio State vs. Notre Dame on Monday:

Not interested in the Worldwide Leader's television coverage? Good news, you can use the ESPN app to access Ohio State's hometown radio and listen to Paul Keels and Jim Lachey call the game. The app will also have Notre Dame's hometown radio, All-22 coverage and a a livestream of band performances at halftime.

 “A TRUTH-TELLING TIME.” Ohio State’s foundation never cracked this season, but it was close. After the Buckeyes lost to the Wolverines, the players had a meeting with Day and “really hashed some things out,” Will Howard said.

“It was really a truth-telling time,” Howard said on Saturday. “The facts were laid out there. People were challenged. Everyone, including me, had to look in the mirror a little bit and say, ‘What can I do better? How can we fix this thing?’ The thing that we clung to was we still have this opportunity out in front of us to right all these wrongs and go play for a national championship and here we are. We’re right where we wanted to be. A lot of people wrote us off, but we really just believed in ourselves.”

Added Jack Sawyer: “Guys got stuff off their chest. As competitors, guys were mad about a bunch of different things. We talked it out like grown men. We knew we had to come together and go chase this thing. And here we are, a month-and-a-half later, playing for a national championship.”

Chip Kelly said the meeting could have been Ohio State’s “tombstone.” Instead, the offensive coordinator said it was Ohio State’s “stepping stone.” On the precipice of the Buckeyes’ sixth national championship game appearance – which began at the inception of the Bowl Championship Series in 1998 – Day said he couldn’t be prouder of his players.

“Every year you learn and grow,” he said, “trying to be self-aware enough to surround yourself with people who will tell you the truth, hoping to get better, and that’s all you can really do. … When you go through great moments, you really grab on to the people who are around you, and it’s the same thing when you go through difficult moments. That’s why you build relationships.”

Ohio State is 6-2 in its all-time series with Notre Dame. As the Buckeyes prepare to claim their seventh straight win over the Irish, Jim Knowles shared a message that mirrors the #content of the Skull Session’s second section.

“In the end, brothers in arms, you’re happy (Coach Day) is being seen for the quality of person and coach that he is because he does a great job, he cares about the players and he is in tune with what’s going on with the staff. The only thing you can do to help is win, so I’m glad we have done that,” Knowles said.

Do it one more time, Buckeyes.

 SONG OF THE DAY. "HOPE" - NF.

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