Jan 21, 2025
Andrew Grimm
Redemption. That will be the story of the 2024-25 Ohio State Buckeyes.
It’s a story chocked full of it.
Some 51 days before Ryan Day was being doused in Gatorade and lifting a national championship trophy, there were more people thinking he would be looking for a job than thought the above scenario was even possible.
There were fair criticisms of the coach — front and center among them the four losses to the team from the state above the northern border and the way in which they happened.
There were also things said about him that would get to even the most thick-skinned among us. His team was left for dead by some of its own fan base and people were all-but packing his bags for him.
That’s not even mentioning the hardships he’d been through in his life before ever becoming a coach.
The story coming out of the playoff-opening win over Tennessee was just as focused on Day and the split in the fan base about him than it was the way the team had responded from what happened Nov. 30.
He just kept getting his team ready to win one more game. Monday night, he was celebrating and any talk of “being born on third base” and “not able to win a big game” was thoroughly squashed.
How about Will Howard? He had come to Ohio State after not getting over the hump at Kansas State, had an inexplicable gaffe at the end of the Oregon loss and threw two interceptions on Nov. 30.
He proceeded to put together four masterful performances in the playoff, including a game-sealing bomb to clinch the title.
He had a phenomenal performance in the Rose Bowl to avenge that Oregon loss, he beat Texas in the semis, a team that had his number at Kansas State.
Now, instead of being talked about as a reason an extremely talented team was underperforming, he’s being talked about as a potential NFL player.
How about Jayden Fielding? He missed two field goals in the 13-10 loss Nov. 30, had to go through a competition in practice just to keep his job before the Tennessee game.
In the final minute of the national championship game, on the biggest stage in the sport, he was being hoisted up by teammates after he made his second field goal of the night to put the game away.
Jack Sawyer? The Ohio native that endured a playoff loss and four losses to the biggest rival, was in the thick of the flag-planting ordeal and was talked about as a great player that looked to be leaving Columbus without any hardware.
After making one of the best plays in the team’s history a round earlier, he was standing on the national championship stage with the trophy and the also maligned coach who had made him one of his first recruits.
How about the whole defense and coordinator Jim Knowles? It went from something cited as holding a team with a talented offense back, to being a big reason why the team was celebrating and had overcome that disappointing day in November.
The list could go on.
I don’t know that anyone outside of Day and his players and coaches, not even the most die-hard fans — most definitely not me — thought on the night of Nov. 30 that Monday could happen. But it did. What a story, and what a start to the expanded playoff.
It was far from perfect, the seeding format definitely could use some changes, but it provided a chance that would not have otherwise existed to showcase qualities that make sports so great, most of all among them — redemption.
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