By Cameron Teague Robinson, David Ubben, Scott Dochterman and Christopher Kamrani
No. 8 seed Ohio State scored touchdowns on its first three possessions, clamped down on defense in the second half and pulled away from No. 9 seed Tennessee for a 42-17 win that completed a clean sweep by the home teams in the first round of the first 12-team College Football Playoff.
The Buckeyes move on to take on No. 1 seed Oregon in the College Football Playoff quarterfinal matchup at the Rose Bowl on New Year’s Day, an all-Big Ten showdown with a trip to the Cotton Bowl semifinal on the line.
The Ohio State offense turned in a cathartic performance after a 13-10 home loss to archrival Michigan kept the Buckeyes out of the Big Ten Championship Game and led to a tense few weeks in Columbus. After a facemask penalty turned what would have been a third-down sack on the opening drive into a fresh set of downs, quarterback Will Howard connected with electric freshman receiver Jeremiah Smith for a 37-yard touchdown to open the scoring. The Buckeyes forced a three-and-out on Tennessee’s first drive and needed just five plays to make it 14-0 on a Quinshon Judkins touchdown run. And when TreVeyon Henderson broke free for a 29-yard scamper to the end zone with 3:27 to play in the first quarter, it appeared that a weekend marked by higher seeds in cruise control was heading for another rout.
The Volunteers first showed signs of life on the defensive end when safety Will Brooks reeled in an interception on a tipped ball in the back of the end zone to stop another threatening Ohio State drive. But after Tennessee won the second quarter 10-0, the Buckeyes’ defense clamped down, and Judkins, Smith and Henderson all found the end zone a second time.
The Athletic’s analysis:
Will Howard comes alive when Ohio State needed it most
Ohio State knew it couldn’t go a second straight game running right at a stout defensive line, so offensive coordinator Chip Kelly and head coach Ryan Day decided to put the ball in Howard’s hands and let him go win the game. And he did.
Howard completed 24 of 29 passes for 311 yards, with two touchdowns on perfect balls to Smith in the corner of the end zone and one interception.
When Ohio State signed Howard out of the portal, there was a perception that the Kansas State transfer wouldn’t lose Ohio State games but may not be able to win the Buckeyes a game either.
It might not be fair to say he’s the reason Ohio State won when the Buckeyes have Smith, Emeka Egbuka, Carnell Tate and a plethora of other future NFL players, but Howard put together his best overall game on Saturday.
Ohio State didn’t need Howard to play perfect, but it needed him to put his playmakers in positions to utilize their talents, and he did that and more.
He added 37 yards on the ground, as well, and wasn’t phased by the Tennessee pressure.
If Ohio State can get that type of performance again, it might be hard to slow down in the Rose Bowl and beyond. — Cameron Teague Robinson
Injuries force Tennessee to run its QB ragged
Quarterback Nico Iamaleava having more rush attempts than every Tennessee running back was not in Vols head coach Josh Heupel’s gameplan, but a parade of injuries forced him to carry the load.
Dylan Sampson, the Vols’ bellcow back who finished in the top 10 in the FBS in rushing this year, appeared to suffered a hamstring injury in the first quarter and returned for just a few snaps in the second half. His backup DeSean Bishop was also limited after an injury early in the second half.
Receivers Dont’e Thornton and Squirrel White suffered injuries of their own. Playing shorthanded against one of the best defenses the Vols have faced all season did not help the visitors’ upset chances.
Iamaleava hadn’t run the ball more than a dozen times this season but finished with a whopping 20 carries for 47 yards and two touchdowns, carrying the load with his receivers struggling to get open against a secondary that ranked fifth nationally in yards per attempt this year. The Vols’ offensive line struggled to create running lanes and could not contain Ohio State’s edge rusher tandem of JT Tuimoloau and Jack Sawyer, leaving Iamaleava to try harder to make plays with his legs than he’s had to at any other point in his college career. — David Ubben
The Big Ten’s bounceback statement
ESPN play-by-play announcer Sean McDonough fired a salvo toward the Big Ten on Friday night when he called out the conference’s strength of schedule in the waning moments of Indiana’s 27-17 loss at Notre Dame.
“I don’t understand why there’s this presumption from many that the Big Ten is so much better than the ACC or the Big 12,” McDonough opined during the game he was calling for ABC/ESPN. “I’m not sure what that’s based on. There’s a lot of talk about strength of schedule. You’re playing each other.”
While not directly defending their conference brethren, Penn State (12-2) and Ohio State (12-1) fiercely responded to anyone questioning the Big Ten’s strength this season. The Nittany Lions blew out ACC runner-up SMU 38-10, and the Buckeyes rolled SEC at-large entrant Tennessee 42-17.
The Big Ten now has four teams with 11 wins, twice as many as any other conference, and three have qualified for the CFP quarterfinals. While Indiana (11-2) bowed out in unimpressive fashion at Notre Dame (12-1), it did beat a team (Nebraska) 56-7 that rolled the Big 12’s regular-season co-champion (Colorado) by 18 points. That’s not even mentioning top-ranked Oregon (13-0), which will play Ohio State on Jan. 1 in the Rose Bowl.
The problem for McDonough, or any of ESPN’s talking heads who took aim at the Big Ten’s accomplishments, is the appearance of bias. This is the second year ABC/ESPN does not have broadcast rights to Big Ten football and the first year that it is the exclusive provider of SEC football. It needs to present a more balanced and nuanced position as rightsholder of the College Football Playoff, especially with the Big Ten looking like the nation’s best conference as eight teams remain standing. — Scott Dochterman
Jim Knowles’ defense continues its elite run
Since getting exposed in its 32-31 loss to Oregon, Ohio State’s defense has been one of the best in the country, and Saturday was one of its better performances of the season.
The Buckeyes gave up just 17 points to a Tennessee offense that came into the game averaging 37.3, holding the Vols run game to 3.9 yards per carry.
Defensive coordinator Jim Knowles revamped his defense after the loss to Oregon and now has them in a position for a full-circle redemption moment in the Rose Bowl. Saturday marked the sixth straight game in which Ohio State has held an offense to two touchdowns or less. — Teague Robinson
Tennessee’s defense taken down to size
Tennessee allowed just one opposing quarterback to pass for more than 300 yards this season: Georgia’s Carson Beck. Howard became the second on Saturday, playing one of his best games of the season and leaning on the receivers who were starved for targets against Michigan. The Vols’ defensive backs struggled to stay latched to the Buckeyes receiver duo of Emeka Egbuka and Jeremiah Smith, and even when they were well-positioned in coverage, the duo often still managed to make contested catches.
It was a nightmare for the Vols’ secondary, especially corners Jermod McCoy and Rickey Gibson III, who each gave up a Smith touchdown catch. — Ubben
A Rose Bowl rematch
Two programs very familiar with the time-honored tradition of Pasadena will reconvene at the Rose Bowl. And their first meeting this fall indicates Round 2 should be a doozy.
Oregon and Ohio State played one of the most entertaining games of the 2024 regular season on Oct. 12, when the Ducks rallied late in the fourth quarter to top the Buckeyes 32-31 at Autzen Stadium. The teams amassed 963 total yards of offense (Oregon had 496, Ohio State 467), and the Buckeyes’ final drive was stopped agonizingly short after Howard lost track of the clock and slid on a scramble with no time remaining.
Since that thriller, the Ducks have steamrolled their way to an undefeated regular season, a Big Ten title in their first year in the conference and the No. 1 overall seed.
Ohio State, conversely, had to rally from a late-season reality check in the form of a fourth straight loss to its archrival that put Day in the crosshairs for the weeks leading up to the first-round game against Tennessee.
That meeting in October did have a tinge of controversy. The Ducks appeared to intentionally leave 12 men on defense late on Ohio State’s final drive of the game, intentionally committing the five-yard penalty in return for four crucial seconds bled off the clock.Four days later, the NCAA issued a new rules interpretation for officials on how to handle a 12 men on the field penalty in the last two minutes of either the first or second half, letting the offense decide to have the clock reset to the time that the ball was snapped in addition to the 5-yard penalty if it wants.
This will be the third time Oregon and Ohio State face off at the Rose Bowl. The Buckeyes won the teams’ first two meetings in Pasadena: 10-7 on New Year’s Day 1958 and 26-17 on New Year’s Day 2010, during current Buckeyes offensive coordinator Chip Kelly’s time as Ducks head coach. — Christopher Kamrani
(Photo: Jason Miller / Getty Images)
