Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
Dan Hope and Andy Anders of Eleven Warriors bring you inside the Ohio State beat every Wednesday with a podcast covering everything you need to know about the Buckeyes.
Note: This transcript was AI-generated and has not been edited for errors.
[Dan Hope]
Welcome into real pod Wednesdays, Dan Hope joined by Andy Anders. Hope everybody out there is having a merry Christmas or happy Hanukkah or whatever holiday you like to celebrate out there. And I would say Christmas certainly came early for the Ohio state football team on Saturday night as the Buckeyes had a dominant first round game in the college football playoff blowing out Tennessee 42 to 17, I think played about as well as anyone could have asked for certainly exceeded our expectations.
We were both on here last week predicting a tight one score game with Ohio state scoring in the twenties. And instead, I mean, Ohio state, I think, I think they scored more points than you had predicted by the time the first quarter was over as they went, they were up 21, nothing in the first quarter and never looked back from there. Just a tour de force performance for the Buckeyes that I think certainly gives us a lot more confidence about what this team is capable of as we'll see if he continues.
[Andy Anders]
That was a bar Dan tour de force performance, got three rhymes in there, but yes, I think this offense really came out with a game plan that matched what we had heard since the Michigan game. When you talk about opening things up through the air a little bit to then run the ball and ultimately still win the rushing battle. Really the offensive line too, we can't, can't knock the improvements made, the changes made.
I think there were some things to like about what they ended up doing at guard. I had my doubts going in. We had our doubts about how much of a rotation would there actually be.
It ended up being, you know, all three guards in that lineup played at least 30 snaps, Luke Montgomery, Austin Ceravel, Integra Shibola. And I really liked what I saw out of Luke. He wasn't perfect.
He had some lapses and, you know, looked like a first time starter in some spots, but also, I mean, Travion's first 29 yard touchdown run was cleared by a block that has been circulating on Twitter from Luke where he pancakes in to see his defensive tackle and cleared the hole there. So this was an offensive line that needed to step up in a big way and it did, but it was also the scheme around that offensive line, being willing to involve the receivers early. They came out aggressive and then once you spread Tennessee, they spread them vertically with the deep stuff.
They spread them sideline to sideline with some screens, with some outside runs. And then once you get that spacing, then you can run the ball inside. Maybe that the defense has to adjust and account for those other things.
And so it was execution too. I don't want to knock the improvements that the offensive line made from the Michigan game to the Tennessee game because they were very real, I think. But the game plan, first and foremost, is what stands out about what opened up this offense and made this a much more lopsided game than either of us were expecting.
[Dan Hope]
Yeah, I mean, you got to give a ton of credit to that offensive line. I mean, with all the, you know, criticism that was lobbied at them for the previous three weeks to go up there and play as well as they did. I mean, this Tennessee team that came in as one of the top pass rushing teams in the country in Ohio State allowed zero sacks.
Ohio State won the rushing battle. We did not expect that. It was close.
It was 156 to 152, but Ohio State won the rushing battle in that game. And, you know, it was not a dominant day running the ball by any means, but they certainly found some things that were not there in the Michigan game or I think even the Indiana game. Like you said, I think a lot of that comes back to being creative schematically and, you know, not, you know, running the ball into the teeth of the defense, finding different ways to get the ball in playmakers' hands.
I mean, I think, you know, getting Travion Henderson going, I think that was a huge thing in this game. You know, I think you have a guy that talented, even if you're having some struggles on the offensive line, you can't allow a guy like that to get bottled up. I think Ohio State did a much better job of putting him in positions where he could really put his explosiveness and his cutting ability, even his hurtling ability on display.
And we saw a lot of that from him. Great performance from him against Tennessee. You know, Quenshawn Judkins doing what he needed to do as well with, you know, two touchdown runs.
And then, you know, of course, you know, a lot of it always comes back to quarterback play. And I think Will Howard went from having his worst game as a Buckeye against Michigan to his best game as a Buckeye against Tennessee. I mean, he was sharp all night long, 24 of 29 for 311 yards and two touchdowns.
Did have the one interception. I think we'd probably both agree there should have been defensive pass interference on that play. Still not a great decision to throw the ball into double coverage in the end zone in that situation when you're up 21-0.
It gave Tennessee some momentum, really kind of led to Tennessee's only run in the game there in the second quarter before Ohio State pulled away in the third quarter. But you know, other than that, a fantastic game for Will. We saw him use his legs as a weapon as well with 37 rushing yards.
And I mean, he dropped some dimes in this game. I mean, there's been lots of discourse all year about, you know, he's not quite CJ Stroud or Justin Fields or Dwayne Haskins when it comes to that downfield accuracy. But man, I mean, those two touchdown passes to Jeremiah and then he had a 40-yard pass to Emeka Buka.
We were both like, it was like almost a little bit late, but it was just such a perfect throw that he still threaded it right over the defender. I mean, those free throws in particular, when Will Howard's going through the NFL draft process here this upcoming spring, like those are free throws that are going to be on his highlight reel because those were NFL caliber elite throws.
[Andy Anders]
Absolutely. And to your point, you know, we were sitting there in the press box and you saw Emeka break open over the middle on that play and you're like, oh, throw it there. And then it does, like, because it's, I think, a hair late, the safety has time to come over.
But it literally like there's a photo of it dropping right between the safety's arms into the breadbasket of Emeka Buka. I think that's one of the best throws we've seen this season from Will Howard, and he had several in this game to your point. Really made you feel the threat of the downfield strike.
And if he is, if that's another element that they're going to have the rest of these playoffs in this offense, look out, because it's something that's going to continue to space defenses. And then you open things up on the ground. I think it all, of course, then begs the question in some people's minds.
And you want to you want to let this win sit with what it was. Right. Because this was an electric atmosphere in the shoe.
You beat an SEC team, you demolish an SEC team, 42-17 in front of a home crowd. Right the wrongs of what had happened a few weeks ago in some ways. But also the question then pops into your head later of, well, where was that against Michigan?
You know, and you, Dan, it's this debate of, like, how how did Chip Kelly and Ryan Day not have this, like, a similar game plan going into that game, knowing the weaknesses that were going to be there against Michigan's interior defensive line? And again, I don't want to diminish anything that was done or overly criticized when Ohio State just had this massive win at home against an SEC team in the playoffs. But at the same time, like, was it having extra time to prepare?
Was it learning from Michigan and then applying it to this game? Was it they just this narrative again of, like, wanting to prove toughness? Like, what do you think was or was it some combination of the things that led to the vast diversity in game plans we saw between those two games?
[Dan Hope]
I think it was probably some combination of things. I mean, there's a big difference between having one week to prepare for a game and having three weeks to prepare for a game. And I think that was certainly evident in, you know, the game plan for this game.
They did a lot of different things offensively. You know, something Ryan Day has talked about, you know, since that game on Saturday was they implemented a lot more gap schemes on the offensive line in that game. We have to remember that, you know, Seth McLaughlin suffered his season-ending injury 11 days before of a Michigan game.
And so there was not a lot of time there. I mean, he goes down before a game against the top five opponent against Indiana. And then you've got Michigan a week later.
There's not a lot of time there to re-engineer the way you do things as an offensive line schematically. So they kind of just had to assemble the puzzle pieces the best way they thought they could and hope that it worked. And clearly it took them some time to figure things out.
But I think having those extra free weeks, especially in terms of the offensive line and what they were doing schematically at the offensive line, I think that was a huge boon for them to be able to work through some things there, gain some momentum with that group and figure out how to better play to their strengths. And you know, obviously you do learn from, you know, what went wrong against Michigan. There's also a part of me that wonders, like, did they just not take Michigan seriously?
Like did they go into that game against a team that was six and five and think we are clearly more talented. We don't have to show all our cards in this game. We can just kind of play a vanilla game schematically and it's not going to matter.
Like, did they go in thinking that way and did it bite them in the butt? I don't know. I don't know.
Like I think the more popular narrative has just been the idea of they get scared against Michigan. But there's a part of me, especially after rewatching that Tennessee game, that thinks like I just don't know if they took Michigan that seriously. I think, you know, you're so much more creative stuff in that Tennessee game that made me feel like maybe they felt like they didn't need to show their cards against Michigan.
Maybe they felt like we're just going to beat Michigan and then we've got a Big Ten championship game and we've got three or four CFP games and maybe we don't need to unleash the kitchen sink in this game. You know, that's not what anyone would want to hear because it's the game. It's supposed to be the most important game of the year.
But I don't know. I just after watching that Tennessee game, there's definitely a part of me that feels like maybe they just didn't take Michigan seriously enough because, you know, I think there's kind of two games that stick out as games where the offensive line and the offensive game plan really struggled and it was Nebraska and Michigan, you know, not two elite teams, two teams that you kind of felt like they should just be able to roll in there and beat. And so I feel like there was a lesson learned from that against Michigan of like, we cannot do that again. We've got to take every opponent seriously.
But I do wonder if there was a part of it was kind of like Michigan six and five and, you know, we're just going to go in there and beat them. And I said it before this Tennessee game. This Ohio State team, we've seen it this year.
We've seen it in recent years. They just they play better when they feel like they're doubted, like, no, you shouldn't need extra motivation to go beat Michigan after three years in a row. But it's just it's there's enough evidence now that this team plays its best when it feels like people are doubting them and when it's got that chip on its shoulder.
And I think for that reason, a lot of Ohio State fans don't love the fact that Ohio State's now a favorite against Oregon. Like I think you'd almost want Ohio State to be that underdog against Oregon so that you go in there with that underdog mentality. And I still don't think it's hard to manufacture that for this Oregon game coming up.
And, you know, we'll talk about that Oregon spread a little later in the show. But, you know, I think, you know, this team, I mean, you heard Donovan Jackson say it was like the first thing he said in his interview session after the game of this was personal for us. We heard people telling us for three weeks that we sucked.
And so, again, it's like, you know, there's a lot of talk about blocking out the outside noise. But I do think that there's something real to the fact that when this team feels like it's doubted, it plays with a different energy. And now you've got to make sure you harness that energy because now everybody's back on your side, Ben.
Everybody's talking about how great you played against Tennessee. You got to keep that same energy as you go into playing Oregon now.
[Andy Anders]
Absolutely. And it's confidence, it's momentum to things that Ryan Day has addressed in terms of you win that first playoff game, and this is how it works in any sport in a playoff. You win that first game, you get momentum building, you get rolling, you get some confidence about you.
And so, yeah, that motivation of getting doubted might not be as prevalent moving forward. And we're going to talk about that Oregon spread later. I definitely have thoughts there.
But when you especially talk about this offensive line, I think it's good to see that without Seth McLaughlin, without Josh Simmons, obviously, you're still capable of good play. You're still capable of opening some holes in the running game and outrushing a Tennessee team that everyone coming in thought Tennessee was going to win the rushing battle because of... I mean, Dylan Sampson was out for large stretches of this game with an injury, but the way Ohio State's defense was clamping down, I'm not sure it would have made too much of a difference.
Either way, I think 4.7 yards per carry and 156 rushing yards total are great numbers against a really, really good Tennessee run defense. And to get that kind of production and not get Will Howard sacked either, that's a big trend. I don't think either of us have noted yet with this offensive line is that they've still passed protected well, had some lapses against Michigan, but Michigan didn't get home either on Will Howard in that game.
And so they've stayed a good pass protecting line. I think it's that movement in the ground game and then consistency with it too in the pass protection game. They were still better.
I feel like Howard was pressured less in that game. Circling back to the discussion about did they not take Michigan seriously, I think that for me, the way I kind of view that is they did because it is Michigan and this is a team that's got all these scars and you referenced that too. But I think where you're right in that maybe where you have something in that assessment is I think they thought that they should be able to line up and do whatever they wanted against Michigan because it was a six and five team and you should have all the talent on paper to instill whatever game plan you want.
So then for a team that's been criticized for its toughness in days, tenure, even going back to the third base comments, everyone who's followed Ohio State, Michigan, this rivalry, they know some of the back story that's there with day and the specific questions about his program lofted after some of these Michigan losses about the toughness. I just think they got in their head about it a little bit and thought we can win this game however we want because this isn't a very good Michigan team. Let's run the ball and prove a point and it backfired.
And then also some lapses in execution still, right? Will Howard, we said it, went from his worst game of the year to his best game of the year from the Michigan to Tennessee games. And so obviously not all of it comes on to coaching either.
Some of it was execution from the players. The offensive line undeniably played better even if Michigan probably has one of the best defensive tackle tandems of the country. Tennessee's is still really good and they're deep there.
But it was a holistic thing. I do think though you're on to something and my thinking is that maybe Ohio State felt it could win the game however it wanted to and then that backfired in kind of that discussion. But sticking with Tennessee in this game, wanting to flip over to the defensive side of the ball, a side of the ball that's been dominant since the last time Ohio State played Oregon and they reengineered the defense after that game.
Another fantastic showing in this one and it starts with Jack Sawyer and JT Tuimo the Wow combined for 13 tackles, three and a half sacks, three pass breakups, a forced fumble in this game. I wrote about it over the weekend. Just fantastic.
I think cumulatively, we talked about it after, the best effort we've seen from them. Jack has had dominant performances. See the Cotton Bowl last year.
JT has had dominant performances. Obviously the 2022 Penn State game, but I don't think before we've ever seen them both take over a game at the same time the way they did this one. Jack Sawyer doing his thing too, his final game in the shoe, hyping up the home crowd like he always does.
I thought his energy was just as important as his actual production on the field in this one and you just love to see him celebrating those big moments with JT because they clearly have a close bond.
[Dan Hope]
Yeah, they were elite and I mean that the whole defense was just elite in this game. I mean, it just was certainly a defense that came into this game ranked as the number one defense in the country and they lived up to it in their first college football playoff game. I mean, but you know, certainly I think it started with Jack and JT, but the pressure that they brought up front.
I mean, the secondary was dominant the entire game. I mean, I want to give Denzel Burke a shout out because I feel like, you know, every when we talk about his season, it all, it all just keeps coming back to that Oregon game and that's certainly going to be another storyline here in the last week, but he was targeted once in this game, did not give up a single, single reception. I mean, he was dominant.
Davis and Ignosin had a great game too. No pass interference penalties. I think he gave a few catches, but PFF had him at something like under 20 receiving yards on like four or five catches or something.
So he, he, he was dominant in this game. Jermaine Matthews came in, gave them some, some really good reps, certainly a linebacker level as well. Cody Simon had a fantastic game, 12 tackles.
You had made the point that he was really the guy who did the best job of containing Nico Iamaliava, which if you were going to have one critique of this defense, it would probably be that they did struggle at times of keeping Nico contained of him a pocket, allowing him to run. And that's going to be a big point of emphasis here coming up next week against Dylan Gabriel and Oregon. But I think Cody did a great job of cleaning those plays up.
I think Sonny Stiles had a much better game than he did against Michigan. Really just in a, in a cross the board effort, I think elite play at all levels of the defense.
[Andy Anders]
I agree with that and sticking with Cody for a moment. I really, not only was he that sweeper against Nico in the run game, it was just like him setting and being that commanding voice on the field was so important with the tempo that Tennessee runs being the green dot where the helmet communicator being involved in just getting, making sure everyone is aligned, got the feet in the ground, ready to go on a play to play basis was valuable in this game and getting involved.
I mean, we criticized he and Sonny's defense against quick passes over the middle early in the season. And man, I, that criticism hasn't come up in a long, long time. He had a pass breakup over the middle in this game, swatted it down.
One of several that Ohio State had at the line of scrimmage and Nico finished under 50% completions and barely crossed a hundred yards in this game, which is again, a testament to how well the secondary play, but the linebackers too in coverage and the pressure that Ohio State was getting. It's a, it's a collective effort to defend the pass and Ohio State did it really well in this game. Also shut down Tennessee's run game in many ways.
It was just Tennessee. They scored those 10 first half points and they really only had a couple of sustained drives in this game. Their last touchdown came against Ohio State's backups late after the game was well in hand there in the fourth quarter as Ohio State led 42 to 10.
So just, you really couldn't ask for more from this defense, but now you look to this Oregon game and you have the ultimate test coming up of the re-engineering you did since you lost Oregon the first time and the defense had lapses.
[Dan Hope]
It did one more shout out. I want to give a four of his Tennessee game. We're going to give out shout out to Buckeye nation.
I mean, Ohio State fans, I thought really brought the noise and you know, there was a lot of talk in the first couple of months of a year about, oh man, the Ohio State crowd. It's, it's low energy. It's, it's way too quiet for what it should be for a 100,000 seat stadium.
And I think the last few games of the year, I think Ohio State fans really stepped up. I think, I think Ohio State seems to have figured some things out. I think, you know, Ross Bjork has talked multiple times about how Ohio State needs to do a better job of kind of modernizing its in-game environment and keeping the fans engaged.
And I think we're seeing them do a better job at that. I think some of it in this case was in some ways forced by the college ball playoff because they weren't allowed to do, you know, the sponsor activations they normally do. There were some certain things that were different because of it being a CFP game rather than a regular game.
But I think it all worked out really well. And it, you know, it certainly helps that it wasn't a night game. And, you know, we finally got to see that marquee night game environment in the shoe this year.
And, you know, if I'm Ohio State coming out of that game, I would really like it. If that Texas game to start next year is a night game, I think I'd probably appreciate it if it's not a noon game, you know, get an environment like that again to kick off the 2025 season at the shoe. But, you know, I think that, you know, for the criticism that was out there of the Ohio Stadium crowds early in the year, I think that that's something that should not go unnoticed is the way, you know, the fans really stepped up and brought the energy in the last few games of the year.
And, you know, props to Tennessee fans, too. I mean, I mean, they came out in droves. I mean, without a doubt, it in my games covering Ohio State, Ed is by far the largest visiting crowd I've ever seen in the shoe.
And everybody's got different estimates. Was it 20,000, 30,000, 40,000? I don't know.
I think, you know, some, you know, somebody on our staff did make the point that I think that the orange is a color of it really pops. So maybe at times it looked a little more prevalent than it actually was. But I mean, I'll say this when I was down on the field in warmups, like the Tennessee fans were making a lot of noise.
I mean, you know, Ohio State players were getting booed when they were coming out on the field for warmups. But I think, you know, more Ohio State fans showed up closer to kick off. And then I think the way the game goes, obviously, both the team and the fans, I think, really fed off of each other and made it a really high energy environment in the shoe.
And so, you know, props to Ohio State and to the fans for giving Ohio State that kind of environment. And I think it's something the Buckeyes really fed off of on Saturday night.
[Andy Anders]
Yeah. To your point, Lee, I just really, really felt like the Ohio State fans upped their noise level whenever Tennessee's fans got engaged. And as far as like establishing better stadium atmosphere, it was really just as simple as playing music during timeouts instead of whatever dumb sponsored ad or whatever else they were doing during the season.
Like, just play Mo Bamba and let the kids have fun. Like, that's all it takes. It's really that easy.
So I digress. The atmosphere was electric. I loved being in it.
It was amazing getting a stand on the sideline in the final couple minutes of this game when the stadium started playing Rocky Top and then immediately bled it into a na-na, hey, hey, kiss him goodbye. And everyone's waving there in the student section. And I got a fun video of that.
And just like that, the SEC chance afterward, it was all the energy and electricity you want from Ohio State, Tennessee, SEC versus Big Ten in the playoffs. And if you had the pleasure of being there, I hope it's a game you remember for a long time. I know my brother and I talked about it because he was in the stands as a student.
So I got to give props again to the Ohio State crowd like you did. And please, in the future, learn from that game, Ohio State. Play Mo Bamba.
Play Kendrick. Play whatever else the kids are listening to at these timeouts and keep them engaged. It's really that easy.
[Dan Hope]
And cool. I remember you telling me about your brother that he had gone his whole time as a student without getting to see Ohio State beat Michigan. So you talked about someone like Jack Sawyer.
But cool for those students as well, especially the seniors that had the opportunity to attend that game. Their final memory of attending a game as a student could have been losing to Michigan again. And instead, they get to go out in celebratory fashion.
And one more thing on that point, one of my recommendations to Ohio State would be put all the students on one side of a field. That's something that stood out to me when I was at Oregon in October was they have all the students. Penn State does similar.
A lot of stadiums do it where all the students are concentrated. You have a whole section that's just students. Nobody else.
It's all students. And that makes so much noise on that side of a field. I think doing that for this game, having all the students in the south stands instead of having them segmented, I think that made a big difference.
So I don't know if Ohio State will do that for normal games. But that would be my recommendation. I think that's something Ohio State should consider is concentrating all the students in one section of the stadium so that you really create a ton of noise in that part of the stadium.
[Andy Anders]
Yeah, I've said that, honestly, since the first game I saw at Beaver Stadium at Penn State and how loud that environment was. I believe the first time I went there was 2018, actually. It was whatever the Benjamin Victor game was.
I believe that was 2018. And I've always thought that the loudest atmospheres I've been to, I've been to a game at Auburn, some of the loudest stadiums I've been to, all the students are in one section like that. So that is a change that I, too, would back heavily.
Switching gears and looking at this Oregon game, you know, we both picked Oregon as our national champion when previewing the college football playoff here last week. Dan, where do you stand? Are you as confident in that pick as you were a week ago?
Or are you wavering at all? Like, how are you feeling seeing how this Ohio State team played against Tennessee?
[Dan Hope]
I'm definitely not as confident in it. But you know what? This is what I still feel.
Whoever wins this Rose Bowl is going to win the national championship. That's what I feel most confident in saying right now is whoever wins the Rose Bowl is going to win the national championship. Now, certainly, you know, it is not to say if Ohio State beats Oregon, give them the title, you still got to go and win two more tough games.
But I think these are, you know, talent wise, when these teams are playing at their best, I think these are the two best teams in the field. And I think the fact that this matchup is materialized, especially if it ends up being as good of a game as we think it's going to be. And especially if Ohio State wins, it is going to be reason to reconsider the CFP seating format for next year.
Because no disrespect toward Boise State, toward Ashton Jeanty, I think Boise State could beat Penn State. It is Big Ten. It is big game, James, after all.
But I think everyone objectively would agree that Penn State, because it lost the Big Ten championship game, gets rewarded with an easier matchup in the quarterfinals than Ohio State, than Oregon gets against Ohio State because it won the Big Ten championship. I think the same is true in the SEC, where Texas gets rewarded with an easier matchup against Arizona State than Georgia gets against Notre Dame. And Arizona State and Boise State could win, and Oregon and Georgia could win, and then I could look foolish.
But as I sit here right now, I think Texas is going to beat Arizona State, and I think Notre Dame is going to beat Georgia. If that happens, then it begs the question of, were these matchups fair based on what they should have been based on rewarding the conference champions? The same will be true if Ohio State beats Oregon and if Penn State beats Boise State.
So it's a good and a bad thing. The good thing is you could not ask for a more exciting quarterfinal matchup than this. Ohio State versus Oregon, arguably the two best or most talented teams in the country facing each other in the Rose Bowl, a traditional Big Ten versus Pac-12 game in the Rose Bowl on New Year's Day.
Like, what more could you ask for than that for an awesome quarterfinal game? But I still wish we had the prospect of seeing these teams play each other in the national championship game instead, because I think if Ohio State keeps playing the way that it played against Tennessee, that it has that potential to be a national championship caliber team. I've always thought that Oregon has that.
And so I wish there was an opportunity for these two teams to potentially play later in the CFP, rather than the fact that one of them is going to get eliminated in the quarterfinals. But it'll be a good thing for the other teams to make the semifinals, right?
[Andy Anders]
Yeah, I'll say it. You know, when Ohio State plays the way it did against Tennessee, I think Oregon's the only team in the country capable of handling that, of maybe taking that punch and trying to hang with the Buckeyes. Because that, I mean, it was a dominant performance.
And when this defense is clicking, it's the best in college football. When this offense is clicking, it's as explosive and as dangerous as any offense in college football with the weapons out wide. And yeah, you have those questions on the offensive line still, but the game planning and when you actually put the players in the best position to succeed, all this talent you have everywhere else on that offense kind of makes up for some of those deficiencies.
As the seeding goes, I think it has to change. You cannot end up with, like you said, you look at Penn State's path and you say, well, it's just much easier. Even Texas's path, I would argue, has been to the semifinal.
Arizona State and Clemson, much easier than what Oregon has. And so I understand wanting to reward conference champions, the top four conference champions, with a bye because you still want the conference championship games to mean something. So for me, I think there's actually like three different directions you could go with this.
I think, what I think the best option is, is you still have the same 12-team format, top four conference champions get byes. But what you do after the first round is you re-seed everybody. So if Arizona State would actually have been, you know, what, 10th, 11th, 10th in the college football playoff final rankings or whatever.
[Dan Hope]
People always pick the teams that are left.
[Andy Anders]
Right. They'd be the lowest of the teams that are left. And so then it would be Oregon playing Arizona State this weekend, even though, or this weekend, on January 1st, even though Arizona State got a bye.
So you can still reward the conference champions, but you re-seed after the first round based on the actual rankings. That's one way I see it. Another one is obviously you just, you still give autobids to champs, but you seed everyone.
You don't hand out the byes to only conference champions. You just seed them, rank them one through 12 in the top four dip byes. And then the other way is getting rid of conference championship games altogether, which I don't think is really going to be on the table.
So that's not something I would float out there really as much, but it is, I guess, option C. If you're talking about how do you fix this so that what we've seen as a seeding structure that clearly doesn't reward the top teams in the bracket is fixed. Because you should.
Like Oregon went undefeated and won the Big Ten title. They should be rewarded with the easiest path to the semis and the national championship, even, but they weren't. So how do you address it going forward?
Right?
[Dan Hope]
Yeah, that first re-seeding idea is interesting because I don't know that I've heard anybody present it that way before of like, you could actually re-seed a team with a bye so that two of them would play each other. I mean, I don't know if that's the most likely option, but it's like everything's worth considering here because, you know, I do think, and I do want to make clear too, like when I'm saying like, I don't like the fact that these teams have to play each other in the quarterfinals. Like, I mean that from Oregon's perspective.
Like, I think it's unfair to Oregon that it has to play the team that is probably still the most talented team in the field. Of course, I don't think it's unfair to Ohio State. Ohio State's in this position because it lost to Michigan.
Like it's like Ohio State, we said it from a jump, they had a tough draw, but they made their own bed with that tough draw because they lost to Michigan. So it's, you know, so nobody feels bad for Ohio State that it has a tough matchup. I do feel a little bad for Oregon that it has this tough matchup because I just think that, you know, it's not malicious in any way, like Ohio State deserved to be seated where it was, but it ends up working out in a way now where I think Oregon gets a tough draw.
But, you know, we talked to Dan Lanning on Monday and he's not complaining about it. He's not, he's not the kind of guy who would complain about it. You know, he's, he and his team are going to roll into this team or roll into this game still feeling very confident about their ability to win this game and win a national championship.
And they should because they're really, really good. They're the only unbeaten team in college football this year and they've already beaten Ohio State once. And so, you know, make no mistake about it.
While my confidence level in Ohio State being able to beat Oregon is a lot higher now than it was at this time a week ago, Ohio State is going to have to play its absolute best football in order to win this game because this Oregon team, it's the best offense. It's better. It's a better offensive team than any other team Ohio State has faced this year.
It did struggle defensively in the Big Ten championship game, but it's still a top 10 defense nationally for the season. So this is an Oregon team that is going to, I mean, you know, we thought the Tennessee game would be closer, but nevertheless, this is an Oregon team that's better than that Tennessee team. And so Ohio State is going to have to play its best game of the year if it's going to win this game.
[Andy Anders]
Yeah, and it's going to have to answer the questions that both linger from that Oregon game and from the second half of the season. So a couple things, I think the first one to address with this matchup is has the re-engineering of Jim Knowles' defense actually fixed the team that prompted it, right? Fixed the matchup against the team that prompted it in Oregon because Oregon beat Ohio State with a sharp downfield passing attack.
Dylan Gabriel didn't come under enough pressure. They didn't sack him. He was able to sit back there and complete bros downfield.
Denzel Burke obviously had the worst performance of his career. But Oregon burned Ohio State in the passing game through other areas. Dylan Gabriel was just very efficient in that game.
And so the re-engineering to mix more coverages, to mix more pressures, mix even the occasional front cure there and stunt on this Ohio State defensive line, getting after quarterbacks better, having better coverages in the secondary. All that's going to be tested because Ohio State hasn't played a passing attack nearly as good as Oregon since it played Oregon. It's played some decent ones, but I think Oregon is the only team with a better group of weapons to throw the ball to in the country right now.
I think then Oregon is Ohio State. When you talk about Tez Johnson being what he has been out of the slot for that team, Treshawn Holden and Evan Stewart. Evan Stewart had maybe the best performance of his career against Ohio State the last time they played.
And Treshawn Holden got ejected from that game for spitting on Davis and Egbernelson, as some might remember. That game really, again, it prompted the complete restructuring of this defense. And so now you see if it holds up.
And then the other question is, Oregon, in that Penn State game where they really faltered, was in run defense. And Katron Allen and Nicholas Singleton both went over 100 yards. And they have struggled to defend the run at other times this year.
This is their eighth in pass defense and only 35th in run defense and 55th in yards allowed per carry. It's a little worse when you look at the actual rate of rushing gains that teams have had on the season against Oregon. But can Ohio State's patchwork offensive line actually take advantage of that?
Number one. Number two, Oregon has Jordan Burch in this game. It didn't have Jordan Burch earlier in the season.
So that's one of their best defensive players. Eight and a half sacks in just nine games this year, what Jordan Burch has done. And so there's some questions about how, again, the offensive line coming into this game.
And you've got this confidence building, but can you maintain it against this Oregon front, which is also pretty good. There might be gains to be had on the ground. I mean, Ohio State, in that Oregon game, again, you go back, 122 rushing yards in the first half against the Ducks.
Josh Simmons gets his season-ending injury in the second quarter, and they only rushed for 19 yards in the second half on 12 carries. So there might be gains to be had on the ground, as much as we've been praising the Ryan Day and Chip Kelly game plan of the last couple of weeks, or the shift from Michigan to Tennessee of attacking through the air and spacing things out, which I think they should do again. You need to come out aggressive again, because I think with this offensive line, you're going to have to do that moving forward.
Setting it up with other things, spacing the defense laterally, spacing the defense vertically, and then running the ball. But I do think there are gains to be had in that area, running the ball, even between the tackles for Ohio State in this game, just based on the recent trends that Oregon's defense has had.
[Dan Hope]
Yeah, certainly when you look at this Oregon defense on paper compared to Tennessee's defense, it's not as strong of a run defense. So you would think there would be an opportunity here to continue to build some momentum on the ground. And yes, Oregon's pass defense has been very strong this year, but Ohio State did have over 300 passing yards.
Will Howard's most prolific game of the year in terms of passing yards so far came against Oregon. Jeremiah Smith had nine catches for 100 yards and a touchdown in this game. So I agree with you that I think even though there's some opportunities, I think potentially here to continue to build momentum on the ground game, you have to continue being aggressive through the year.
You've got to make plays vertically in this game the way you did against Tennessee if you're going to be able to win this game. Because, you know, the offensive line, I think while it played much better against Tennessee than it did against Michigan and Indiana, I mean, I think you could still see that running between the tackles is still a challenge for this team. I think they did a better job of scheming things up and finding ways to create opening for their running backs in this game.
And I think, I mean, Travion Henderson, I think probably watching him in that Tennessee game, maybe he had the best game I've seen from him just in terms of finding holes, in terms of keeping his feet moving, in terms of cutting into running lanes. I mean, he has gotten so much better in that area, as that was an area he was criticized on in previous seasons. And he's gotten so much better in that area.
And I think he did a really good job of even making up for some lapses along the offensive line in that game. So, you know, you certainly want to continue to build momentum there. But I still think that, you know, you gotta have another prolific day passing the ball if you're going to beat Oregon.
On the other side of things, I do think we should make sure we put into context just how dominant this past defense has been outside of that Oregon game. Ohio State has not allowed a passing touchdown since that Oregon game, across seven games. Outside of that Oregon game, Ohio State has not allowed more than 201 passing yards in any other game.
Oddly enough, it was Northwestern that has the second most passing yards against Ohio State this year. But this passing defense, it leads the country in yards allowed per game. It leads the country in touchdowns allowed.
And this is a team that's playing a lot of games where the opponent has to pass the ball because they're trailing and they're behind. So this Ohio State passing defense outside of that Oregon game has been phenomenal. This is a much bigger test than any other passing offense Ohio State has faced.
And so I don't think it's going to come easily. That said, I'd be really surprised if Denzel Burt gives up 160 yards and two touchdowns again. I mean, I mean, it's by that was by far the worst game of his career.
He's responded well to it. I expect a better game from the cornerbacks this time around. As we talked about with Tennessee, it all starts with that pressure up front too.
So that's going to be the big thing. No sacks in that first game. Dylan Gabriel had way too much time to throw in that first game.
I think continuing to be able to do what they're doing in terms of bringing pressure. And again, probably the best offensive tackles they faced all year in Ajani Cornelius and Josh Connerly at Oregon. So again, it's going to be a big test, but they built some momentum on that pass rush.
If they can keep that going, I will feel better about this defense's ability to contain Oregon this time around. Now, with that being said, like I expect this to be a higher scoring game. Like I think, I mean, you just look at the game Oregon played against Penn State, a team that's not known for playing shootouts, but that game became a shootout.
You know, we get to the spread in a sec. Like I look at the over under of 54 and a half, like I'm taking the over in this game because even though I think this Ohio State defense is really, really good and is playing really, really well, I just think this is the kind of game that lends itself to being a higher scoring affair.
[Andy Anders]
I agree. Just the confidence of both teams. And I think marquee college football playoff games, elite college football games in general tend to have more scoring than, you know, like both teams around 20 or something.
I think that this is going to be, it doesn't mean Ohio State's defense will play poorly, but there's going to be some points scored in this game. I'd be hitting that over if I were betting on this game. I think 54 and a half is pretty, I expect the winner of this game to score more than 30 points.
I'll put it that way. And I expect a one score game, I think. It's going to be a battle and I'm really excited for it.
You know, and kind of looking at the spread, you brought it up. I was shocked, honestly, to see Ohio State favored. I know that Tennessee, beating Tennessee in the fashion they did, Tennessee's a pretty good team.
And you look at it and say, okay, Oregon on the road, they only lost by a point. But the fact is, I just think Oregon's proven itself to be the best team in college football this year with a 13-0 resume, Big Ten champs, the win over Ohio State, the win over Penn State, all that they've done. Until proven otherwise, I think they should be favored over anybody on a neutral field.
It's no knock against Ohio State. I just think that maybe the, I'm surprised the betting lines, and they want even action on both sides. So I always think too, like when it comes to setting betting lines, sometimes they want, they're going to skew it a little more to have Ohio State favor because usually a lot of action comes in on Ohio State naturally.
And so they want to make it a better bet to bet on Oregon, maybe, or maybe I'm off base with that too. And there's a lot of Oregon action as well, whatever the case.
[Dan Hope]
Well, Oregon opened as a one and a half point favorite and the lines already moved to Ohio State two and a half. So that tells you some big money came in on Ohio State early.
[Andy Anders]
Yeah, well, there you go. So a lot of money has come in on Ohio State, which is interesting then, and how much of it is the Sharps? How much of it is just Ohio State fans?
You don't know, right? But it is surprising to me to see Ohio State favored just because Oregon's, again, the number one team in the country and has proven in many ways. That doesn't mean I still have gone back and forth on who I'm going to pick in this game, but the, the spread surprised me, Dan.
[Dan Hope]
I think, again, I think it's just people realizing that if Ohio State plays like that, like they did against Tennessee, that they're going to be a really hard team to beat. They can beat any team in the country. As I watched that game on Saturday night, I thought to myself, if Ohio State continues to play like this, they're going to win the national championship.
Now that's a lot easier said than done because, again, I mean, we came out of the Indiana game thinking, man, that looked great. And then they didn't play that way against Michigan. Now you've got less time to prepare for this next game.
Oregon's going to be more well rested for this game. And so, you know, as I said, I'm not ready to make a prediction either. I mean, as I assess my level of confidence for Ohio State winning this game, I'm right around 50% because Oregon's a really, really good team and they're going to be hard to beat.
But, you know, if, if, you know, gun to my head right now, if I had to make my pick right now, I'm probably picking Ohio State to win a close game because of the way they played against Tennessee. I think if they can carry that momentum forward into this game, that Ohio State can win this game. But I think one way or another, it's going to be one heck of a battle out there in Pasadena.
[Andy Anders]
Yeah, it just feels like this entire locker room has been reinvigorated by the second chance the playoff provided. That was said during, in the time after the Michigan game, I think after everyone had a few days to process and we talked to players the next time a little bit, in the run up to that Tennessee game, it just felt like, yeah, second chance, Will Howard said, there's no other way to go out but to win a national championship with this team. And so now you're on the next step of that journey.
And to me, I feel like there's a real confidence that is behind Ohio State entering this game. It's going to be really important how they start to see if they can maintain that momentum and that confidence from the Tennessee game. You at least need to stay in striking, trading blows with Oregon early.
If not, jumping out to an early lead, I think is critical in this game for Ohio State. But to your point, I'm also 50% confidence and would maybe lean Ohio State at this point just based on that Tennessee game. And if there are vulnerabilities, just despite the undefeated record, there are places where Oregon, where Ohio State has matchups that it can win against Oregon, particularly on offense at wide receiver, even with how good Oregon's secondary has been.
This is the best receiver core in the country. So I'm excited to travel out to Pasadena here soon. And the Rose Bowl is my favorite venue in college football that I've been to, and I've been to plenty of them so far.
Not as many as you probably, but I have been to a number of venues, and the Rose Bowl is my favorite. I can't wait to see the mountains change colors in a classic Big Ten, Pac-12 matchup that is now a Big Ten, Big Ten matchup.
[Dan Hope]
One week from today, Ohio State plays Oregon in the Rose Bowl, 5 p.m. Eastern time, 2 p.m. local time kickoff. ESPN will be televising that game. As Andy said, we'll be out there starting Sunday to bring you coverage from Pasadena from that game.
Lots more to come here on 11warriors.com, on 11warriors YouTube channel. So make sure you keep up with all of our coverage from the Rose Bowl. In the meantime, Merry Christmas to everybody out there.
Enjoy your holidays, and we'll catch you next time.