Buckeyes carrying big chip into national title showdown
The Ohio State Buckeyes are hoping to join elite company in the NCAA's College Football Playoff era.
They're chasing title No. 2. But they'll have to beat another team with two CFP championships, the Alabama Crimson Tide, to do it just days after topping the only other two-time winner, the Clemson Tigers.
And all that amid a campaign marred by COVID, which hit the Ohio State squad hard at times, and controversy.
“Our team has been on a journey just like so many other teams this year,” Ohio State head coach Ryan Day told reporters Sunday. “To watch some of the different programs go through so much adversity, I'm sure like our team, so many of these teams have learned a lot about themselves. They've learned a lot about what it means to overcome adversity. It wasn't always as clean as a typical year.
“Kind of a special year that way. Not always exactly the way we drew it up, but here we are — and excited to play (Monday).”
That's when the 7-0 Buckeyes tangle with No. 1 Alabama in the CFP National Championship game at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens. (8 p.m. ET., TSN).
That's big, bad `Bama to most — winners of 17 national titles, including five in the last 11 years.
That's the juggernaut Tide — owners of the only other unbeaten record on the 2020 FBS season. Their daunting 12-0 mark is ever-more impressive given all the COVID hurdles of the strange schedule.
“Any time you play somebody like Alabama for a national championship, it's going to be a challenge,” Day told reporters. “Our guys have the eyes on the prize, and it's a slow build towards the game. But I think we're going to come out with our hair on fire and play as hard as we possibly can and go from there.”
Ohio State has beaten vaunted Alabama before when it counted.
That was back in the first year of the CFP — in 2014, winning 42-35 in a hair-on-fire semifinal affair. The Buckeyes then went on to score their eighth national crown by handling the Oregon Ducks in the finale.
But that was a different time with different teams.
The one constant is Nick Saban, Alabama's legendary coach.
“Coach Saban and his staff do an unbelievable job,” Day told reporters. “It goes without saying, one of the best football coaches in the history of college football ... so much respect for Coach Saban and his staff.” But not too much.
Day, after all, has a chance to gain even more respect than he has in just a short period of time as head coach of the high-profile program by putting Ohio State on even footing with Saban and Alabama in the CFP era.
A win in the title tilt gives them another coveted crown for two total — just like the Tide — in the seven years of the final-four play
off. Albeit it'll come with asterisk for many.
Remember, many believe the Buckeyes are not supposed to be here because of a free pass handed to them by the Big Ten into its conference championship despite not playing enough games to meet qualification requirements. They played just five amid COVID issues, but the Big Ten changed its rules midstream to virtually guarantee its strongest representative in the final four.
And the backlash only served to galvanize the Buckeyes.
“We have a pretty big chip on our shoulder,” Ohio State running back Trey Sermon told reporters. “We feel like we're one of the best teams in the country.
“We just try to go prove that every time we step on the field. We all believe in each other. Yes, we have that chip, and we play with it.”