Ohio State can now hang its ninth national championship banner, but none as unique as the one the Buckeyes eaerned Monday night with a tough, 34-23 win over Notre Dame at Merdedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta.
The 1954, 1968, and 2002 teams all rolled through perfect seasons. The 1961 club got nicked by a tie in the season opener and won its final eight games before getting benched for the Rose Bowl by its own Faculty Council, costing it a consensus national championship.
The 1942, 1957, 1970, and 2014 squads all absorbed a loss, but collected at least a piece of the national championship from one wire service or recognized organization.
The 2024 team authored the most interesting, improbable tale of all — and finished it in epic fashion.
Photos are courtesy of The Ohio State University.
“It’s a great story about a bunch of guys who have just overcome some really tough situations, and with the point where there’s a lot of people that counted us out (they) just kept swinging and kept fighting,” coach Ryan Day said.
The Buckeyes started the season ranked No. 2 in the preseason polls, with former coaches Urban Meyer and Jim Tressel branding this bunch one of the top teams of the decade in college football.
Still, there was little faith coach Day could navigate a multi-game postseason run, especially after a horrendous home loss to 23-point underdog Michigan in the season finale. That 13-10 debacle put Day’s butt squarely on the hot seat after the Buckeyes finished the regular season fourth in the Big Ten.
No Ohio State team had ever won a national championship with two losses, without beating Michigan, nor without winning the Big Ten. Yet these Buckeyes were writing their own script.
Fortunately, the expanded college football playoffs gave Day and his veteran team, with a $20 million payroll, a lifeline.
Inexplicably, for the first time all year against quality opposition, the Buckeyes found their stride. All four playoff games were decided by double digits.
Ohio State hammered Tennessee 42-17 in a fun blowout with the Ohio Stadium crowd taunting the Volunteers with “SEC, SEC, SEC” chants in the second quarter.
OSU never looked better than a 41-21 pounding of undefeated and No. 1-ranked Oregon in the Rose Bowl. That was sweet revenge after a 32-31 loss at Eugene on Oct. 12.
A testy 28-14 win in what was practically a road game against No. 5 Texas in the Cotton Bowl was secured only when senior Jack Sawyer strip-sacked Longhorns QB Quinn Ewers. Sawyer scooped up the ball and scooted 83 yards for the clinching touchdown with 2:14 remaining in the game — the defining play of the season.
That set up the national championship game with No. 7 Notre Dame. The Fighting Irish roared to an 18-play, 75-yard drive to start the game and took a 7-0 lead on quarterback Riley Leonard’s 1-yard touchdown blast.
It was the first time Ohio State trailed at any point in the four-game college football playoffs. It was also the last.
The Buckeyes scored touchdowns on all three first-half possessions, and on their first possession of the second half to open a 28-7 lead. It reached 31-7 before Notre Dame rallied with a couple of touchdowns and a pair of two-point conversions sliced the gap to 31-23.
But facing a third-and-11 deep in Ohio State territory, quarterback Will Howard heaved a clutch, 56-yard bomb to freshman sensation Jeremiah Smith to get the Buckeyes in field-goal range.
“It was do or die, it was that type of down,” said Notre Dame coach Marcus Freeman, a former Ohio State linebacker. “(Smith is) a heck of a player. He’s difficult to cover.”
Jayden Fielding’s 33-yard field goal with 26 seconds left finished it.
“We felt at the end we wanted to give Jeremiah that shot,” Day said. “We really hadn’t thrown it all night, but I thought, ‘Know what, let’s be aggressive, let’s do this and lay it on the line.’”
It was the capstone play to an improbable comeback from the lowest of pits, to the highest of mountains — all in two months and five games.
In the end this will be long remembered as the wildest season in Ohio State football history.
“God made it hard for a reason,” Day said. “You just never know what’s in your path along the way.
“This game can give you the highest of highs and lowest of lows. It can take you to your knees as a player or a coach. … I’ve been there. … It’s gonna be hard. … If you surround yourself with great people and you’re resilient. … You give yourself another chance.”