Ohio State’s pursuit of a national championship and the need to beat Michigan was the number one college football pre-season story. And throughout the season, it remained as one of the top stories probably only challenged by Indiana’s surprising all-time best season run to make the playoffs and the up and down season that first year Alabama coach Kalen DeBoer experienced as the replacement for legend Nick Saban.
Then the Michigan upset loss happened and Ohio State became the definitive number one story again with a focus on would Ryan Day even survive the season if he didn’t find a way to take his team to win the Championship – which he ultimately did.
From the low of the Michigan game to the high of holding the title trophy in Atlanta, how should this season be summarized? What follows is Big Jeff’s Ten Truths about 2024 Ohio State Football. This is not meant to be an exhaustive list. I tried to keep this to a Top 10 in essence, so here we go but not in order of importance:
1. Ohio State AD Ross Bjork’s $20M roster comment before the season was a major, rookie-like mistake that shaped the negative narrative on Ohio State all season and wasn’t good for Ryan Day or the team.
It was shocking to me. Why would you ever reveal this type of information? In July 2024 before the season started, new Athletic Director Ross Bjork in an interview confirmed OSU football players received around $20 million in name, image and likeness compensation over the past year. This included money from all third parties in the new world of NIL.
The comment set the tone for the season in a very negative way allowing the many Ohio State haters to say OSU basically is just buying a championship. Whoever pays the most money to players will win it all. The “$20M roster” comment was negatively used by the media throughout the season and even after they had won the championship.
This was the narrative despite the fact most of Ohio State’s key players were originally recruited and developed by them. The bulk of the money was used to help retain many of them instead of leaving for the NFL.
Of course, it is never as simple as whoever spends the most wins. Otherwise, Texas A&M would have won a title for their recruiting class a couple years back and the Los Angeles Dodgers would have won most of the World Series rings the past 5 years. Plus, there are several other schools that may have been paying about just as much like deep-pocketed Oregon and Texas. We really don’t know how much other schools are paying but you can be sure some are paying a lot.
This narrative also under rated the perception of the great job that Ryan Day and his coaching staff did with this team. Because anybody could win it all when you have the most talented team right?
2. “National Championship or bust” statements before a season is never a smart thing and the expectations for this team, especially early in the year, were almost impossible to fulfill.
“Natty or Bust”. Buckeyes cornerback Denzel Burke I believe was one of the first to say it. Everyone was certainly thinking about it. But being that blunt about it is likely to put more undue pressure on a team than needed. Ohio State is such a consistent program that almost every year the potential and sometimes the expectations are to win a title. Alabama was the same under Nick Saban, but you would never see him want his players to promote it that way. I just thought that positioning it that way was a bad idea.
OSU likely did have the most talented roster supported by a great coaching staff. Therefore, people expected OSU from game one to completely dominate everyone on both sides of the ball, all game long. It seemed people were frustrated if they weren’t ahead by at least 2 touchdowns every game at the end of the first quarter. It was frankly ridiculous expectations. Even the very best teams often take later in the game to assert their superiority.
Also, people completely underrate chemistry and the need to play games to figure out how to get the most out of the talent you have. You don’t just get a bunch of talented players and “BAM”, they are instantly this great, cohesive productive unit. Sports doesn’t work that way.
On offense specifically, Ohio State had a new quarterback and a new Offensive Coordinator in Chip Kelly, and it took a while to build that chemistry and figure out how to get all that talent to fit together well. The OSU staff did not figure everything out until the lessons learned from the Michigan game. Not surprising since you learn the most about your team from losing vs winning.
3. The play of transfer Quarterback Will Howard was going to be the biggest question and key to Ohio State winning a National Championship and he delivered beyond expectations.
Before the season started, most Ohio State experts and followers had two big concerns. One was the depth of the offensive line and the second was would Kansas State transfer quarterback Will Howard be an upgrade over prior year starter Kyle McCord who transferred to Syracuse, and was he good enough to lead Ohio State to a championship.
In 2023, McCord was good but was up and down in games which is frankly typical for a first year starting quarterback. My biggest concern with him was his lack of mobility to extend the play or just take off and run to pick up critical first downs. This really hampered the OSU offense in the red zone as well. Will Howard clearly had the better running ability needed but the big question was could he throw consistently and make the big-time throws needed to win the biggest games.
Despite some early critical mistakes in the Oregon loss (clock awareness) and even the Penn State win (pick six INT and fumbling through the end zone), for most of the season Howard threw the ball much better than expected. If anything, he did not run as much as people thought.
Howard played very poor in the Michigan game with 2 critical interceptions but once he got to the playoffs he put on a clinic and played his best football of the year in leading the Buckeyes to four playoff wins. It culminated in the title game vs Notre Dame where Howard’s crisp play led to 4 straight touchdown drives after the Irish had taken an opening 7-0 lead.
Howard’s evolution as a championship caliber quarterback and leader was culminated by being name offensive MVP of the national championship. He started the game with 13 consecutive completions and went 17-21 for 231 yards and 2 touchdowns and rushed for another 57 yards on 17 carries.
And of course, his clutch 3rd and 11 pass with under 3 minutes left in the game for 56 yards to Jeremiah Smith leading to a field goal clinched the game. Howard didn’t just play well, he was a true team leader trusted by his teammates and coaches. He was exactly what Ohio State needed and that is a credit to Ryan Day to get him.
4. Ohio State’s offensive line injuries almost derailed their season and was the main reason they did not look like a dominant team until their playoff run.
In the first half against Oregon in Game 6, Ohio State lost their star left tackle Josh Simmons for the season. He was their best lineman and is currently projected as a mid-first round pick in the upcoming NFL Draft. It forced OSU to slide over left guard Donovan Jackson to left tackle and then seek out his replacement at guard.
From that moment until the playoffs, the OSU line was a major question mark that had many variations in starting lineups that sub-optimized the offense during the regular season and I believe heavily impacted Chip Kelly’s play calling, making it more conservative. OSU barely beat Nebraska 21-17 in the very next game after Oregon.
Then before Game 11 vs Indiana, starting center Seth McLaughlin hurt his Achilles in practice and was also lost for the year. He had been playing at a potential All-American level and the center is the leader of the line, so this was a huge blow. Ohio State beat Indiana 38-15 but this was driven more by a great defensive effort as OSU had just 316 yards of total offense.
The next week against Michigan, OSU went into that game with what had to be low confidence in their line and their ability to block the likely best defensive line in the country.
One of the most underrated stories of the season is the Michigan loss meant Ohio State did not have to play the next week in the conference championship vs. Oregon. My belief is this allowed them sufficient time to work on the cohesion of that offensive line and enabling them to go into the Tennessee first round playoff game with a new sense of confidence reflected in the aggressive game plan that lead to a 42-17 dominating victory.
Huge credit to Buckeye offensive line coach Justin Frye and Offensive Coordinator Chip Kelly for getting that banged up offensive line ready.
5. The surprise upset loss to Michigan is much more explainable than people make it seem.
The Michigan upset loss is much more explainable than people make out. As highlighted above, the offensive line situation was still very uncertain and they were going against the BEST defensive line in the nation – Ohio State’s d-line was second in my view – and loaded with high draft picks including game wrecking defensive tackle Mason Graham.
I think this made OC Chip Kelly feel he needed to be very conservative in play calling because his line could not handle the Michigan front. And with the nations #1 ranked defense they would limit the Michigan offense so OSU would not need many points to win.
I also maintain the entire Michigan team was much better than people thought going into that game. The reality is that team VASTLY underachieved during the year up until the second half of the Indiana game.
In fact, before the season started I wrote a very detailed article on why the Wolverines would have a really good year.
Why Michigan Football in 2024 Won’t Fall off a Cliff – Big Jeff’s Football
Some mock drafts have them with as many as five first round picks, which is the reason they opened the year in the Top 10, which people forget. It took a while but by the game in Columbus, Sherrone Moore had the Wolverines in a much better place and that showed in their bowl game upset over Alabama as well.
Adding to the offensive line issues, Will Howard was clearly “off” in this game and threw two awful interceptions and appeared not sharp in reading Michigan’s defense well. I maintain this clearly influenced the conservative play calling. And this is something the coaches couldn’t say publically. “Yes, our quarterback was clearly off, and we couldn’t trust him in this one”. Of course you couldn’t actually say that since it would impact your quarterback’s confidence, but I believe it was true.
Finally, OSU’s game plan may have been influenced by the well-known stat that the team who wins the rushing battle in this game had won 22 straight times. That stat can be deceiving though since if one team stakes out a big lead by definition they run more while the other team needs to pass to try to catch up.
But this may be where the OSU coaching staff failed the most in not recognizing the strength is the OSU passing game which opens the running game. Despite Will Howard being off they still needed to try shots down the field and especially to star receiver Jeremiah Smith. OSU also was running zone run schemes which their banged up offensive line clearly was not suited for. After that game, they ran more counter runs vs. zone which is easier for lines with less experience to execute.
Finally, despite all this, if the field goal kicker had done his job instead of missing two very makeable field goals (of 38 and 34 yards), they still would likely have eked out the win.
6. Ohio State’s playoff path was almost as difficult as it could have been, and they still found a way to win it all.
With the new 12-team playoff format, by definition whoever was going to win the title would have to win either 3 or 4 straight playoff games in about a month making it the most difficult path ever.
Because Ohio State did not win or even make the Big Ten title game, they became the 8th seed in the bracket, even behind Penn State who they had beat on the road 20-13. Focusing on final regular season AP rankings, in the playoffs they had to beat:
- #7 ranked (10-2) Tennessee 42-17 at home
- #1 ranked and unbeaten (13-0) Oregon 41-21 in the Rose Bowl
- #4 ranked (11-2) Texas 28-14 in the Cotton Bowl in Dallas – a virtual away game in Texas’ backyard
- #3 ranked (11-1) Notre Dame 34-23 in the Championship game
The only thing that would have made their playoff path tougher is if they had to play #2 regular season AP ranked Georgia in the final, which would have been more like a Georgia home game and in the same venue where they lost a heartbreaker in the 2022 playoff semi-finals 42-41 to Georgia.
In addition, during the regular season they beat #5 AP ranked Penn State and #9 Indiana just to make the field.
Adding it up, in the final AP rankings Ohio State beat six of the top eight ranked teams with the only exception being #6 final ranked Georgia (and of course OSU was #1). Nobody can deny Ohio State earned this championship and left no doubt who was the best team.
7. Ohio State did not meet all their goals, but they met the most important one, and that by far matters the most.
The Buckeyes have the same team goals every year. Beat the Team up North, win the Big Ten Championship, and win the National Championship. When Michigan upset Ohio State 13-10 in Columbus, it eliminated the possibility of both those first goals. And for some Ohio State fans the goal of beating Michigan is the most important thing. When that went out the door many fans revolted, making it a toxic environment for Ryan Day and his team.
But it turned out the loss to Michigan was the impetus to the team coming together and bonding and redefining their season around what they needed to do to still accomplish the ultimate goal of any season, which is to win a National Title.
As painful as the Michigan loss was, they ultimately achieved their most important goal which while not erasing the Michigan loss completely, redefines this team’s season. Living in Atlanta, I can say nobody really cares about Michigan vs Ohio State other than how that game impacts who makes it into the playoffs, and this will be true probably everywhere outside Michigan and Ohio.
Would the season feel way better for Ohio State fans, coaches and players if they also had beat Michigan? Of course. No question about it. But the National Championship is forever and cements your team in college football lore and a win over Michigan can never come close to that.
8. Ryan Day’s job status this year was not in serious jeopardy, despite extensive speculation it was.
On September 18 of last year when OSU was just 2-0, I wrote a detailed article on the silliness of the National Title or Bust mantra and why Ryan Day should not be on the hot seat and moving on from him would be a major mistake (see Link Below).
After the Michigan loss but before the playoffs started Ohio State AD Ross Bjork made a statement supporting Ryan Day saying he was “absolutely” confident Day would be back as coach in 2025.
When he said that, I would like to think Bjork was thinking in sync with my article’s rationale for retaining Day. And unless the Buckeyes totally flamed out in the playoffs, that was a true statement at the time. Here is my article and summary of the reason’s Ohio State should keep Day.
It’s National Title or Bust for Ohio State and Ryan Day! Or is it? – Big Jeff’s Football
Big Jeff’s Sept 18 Article of Reasons to Keep Ryan Day:
- Based on his record, Ryan Day is a very good, if not great, college football coach – at the time he had the best win percentage of all active coaches
- Michigan has had their best 2-year stretch in over half a century – which explained two of the 3 straight losses at the time.
- Ryan Day and Ohio State was one play away from a National Title in 2022 – the semi-final missed game-winning kick versus Georgia who went on to crush TCU
- Elite Recruiting is key to winning National Titles and is the lifeblood of a program and Ryan Day is an excellent recruiter.
- Getting rid of Ryan Day assumes he cannot learn and get better as a coach to win a National Championship – that is exactly what happened!
- History is full of excellent coaches who took a while to break through. Letting go of a good coach can haunt a program for many years.
Adding to this, if you asked any real college football expert who didn’t have to worry about getting clicks from an article about Ryan Day, they would say he is a really good coach and it would be crazy to get rid of him. Ross Bjork knew this all along and felt the same, so Day’s job never was really in serious jeopardy this year.
9. Ryan Day cemented himself as an Ohio State legend by winning the Championship and shattered the perception he is not a coach who can win big games (and a National Title). But the pressure of the job is still there – it is just different now.
Because Woody Hayes captured so many, the list of coaches who won National Titles with Ohio State is not a long one. Five to be exact over 113 seasons of football They are Paul Brown, Woody Hayes, Jim Tressel, Urban Meyer and now Ryan Day. Winning titles is extremely hard and when you do win one, it cements your status as an elite coach and transforms you into a legend.
Coming into the year, much was made about Day’s poor 2-5 record vs Top 5 teams and failures vs. Michigan. His overall record coming into this season was 56-8. When the Buckeyes lost at Oregon 32-31, the Top 5 record became 2-6 and Day got heavily criticized for his inability to win “Big Games”, though his record vs Top 10 coming into the year was 8-7.
The four game playoff run was all against Top 10 teams and for the year he went 6-1 against Top 10 teams and 4-1 against Top 5 teams. By the end of the season, it left his career record in Top 5 games at 6-6 and Top 10 games at 14-8. And of course, he picked up two big wins vs SEC teams in Tennessee and Texas.
Not all the pressure is off Ryan Day because he is still 1-4 vs Michigan and has lost four in a row. The Michigan game will remain a big burden on Day and his staff, but the fact you don’t have to beat Michigan to win a title lessens it’s importance for both schools. And potentially it may allow Day to coach more freely and better to Ohio State’s strengths to break the streak.
10. In the future, how great this team will be viewed will depend on how well this roster plays in the NFL.
When people talk about how great past National Champions are I feel there are two areas that matter the most. One is how dominant the team was during the season which includes who they beat and how they beat them. Who and how they lost any games matters as well. For OSU, this one is a mixed bag mostly because of the upset loss to Michigan and how they have two losses, but the fact OSU beat five Top 5 teams (Penn State, Indiana, Oregon, Texas and Notre Dame – most all time) bodes extremely well.
The second major factor is how these players end up playing in the NFL. You most often hear people talk about the greatness of prior teams in terms of who was on that team based on how they did in the NFL. A perfect example is the early 2000 Miami teams, where people cite the 2001 Hurricanes as one of the all-time best that had great NFL players like Safety Ed Reed, RB Clinton Portis, WR Andre Johnson, TE Jeremy Shockey, LB Jonathan Vilma and OT Bryant McKinnie. The list goes on.
Other examples are the 2019 LSU team (QB Joe Borrow, WR Jamar Chase, WR Justin Jefferson) and many of Saban’s Alabama teams and the Georgia 2021 star studded team.
While Ryan Day is correct in saying that Ohio State needed to complete the mission and win the title so that “The story gets to be told now” on this team how much they overcame. The future NFL success of these players will continue to shape and inform that story and perception of this team as well.
Ohio State defeats Notre Dame 34-23 to win national championship
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