Ryan Day reveals moment he knew Ohio State would beat Tennessee
12/22/2024 11:28 AM
There was a mountain of pressure piling up open Ryan Day and Ohio State football heading into Saturday night’s College Football Playoff matchup with No. 9-seed Tennessee. The Buckeyes were coming off of a very sour loss against Michigan and missed out on the Big Ten title game as a result. If Ohio State would have lost this game, there may have been major reprecusssions for Day and the rest of the program.
Fortunately for Ohio State, there isn’t any need to worry about that now. The Buckeyes played 60 minutes of very good football in front of their home fans, destroying Tennessee in a 42-17 rout and advancing to the CFP quarterfinals at the Rose Bowl on New Year’s Day.
After the game, Day said that he was very confident in his team and said he knew exactly when he saw that his team was going to go out and get the win, according to Jake Trotter of ESPN.
“Proud of the way they responded,” Day said postgame, per Trotter. “You could tell from the jump they had a look in their eye that they were going to win this game.”
This was Ohio State’s largest-ever win over an SEC opponent as the Buckeyes stomped all over Tennessee on both sides of the ball all night long, out-gaining the Volunteers by more than 200 yards.
Ohio State shows resilience, sets up Oregon rematch
There was a moment on Saturday night where Ohio State looked like it may have been on the precipice of a signature collapse. After the Buckeyes jumped out to a 21-0 lead, Tennessee scored 10 unanswered points before halftime and had all of the momentum and the ball coming out of the locker room.
A score there would have made this a very competitive ballgame, but Ohio State put its foot down immediately. The Buckeyes forced a three-and-out before marching down the field to score a touchdown, making the score 28-10 and re-establishing control of the contest.
Now, Ohio State heads into a rematch of one of the games of the year against Oregon in what will be a great, old-fashioned Pac-12 vs. Big Ten clash between two teams both now in the Big Ten. The two teams matched up earlier in the season in Eugene and Oregon walked away with a very narrow 32-31 win.
The two will face off again with a spot in the CFP semifinals on the line. Oregon is the only undefeated team still left in college football and should feel like this is a great chance to bring home its first national championship, but it still has three very difficult games in front of it.
Ohio State had its chances to win the first game, and looked like it was poised to win it on a last-second field goal before a late mistake by quarterback Will Howard allowed the clock to run out and gave Oregon the win. Ohio State will be seeking revenge in what will be a coin flip game on New Year’s Day.
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