DALLAS — It hadn’t even been 12 hours since the confetti rained down from the rafters onto the AT&T Stadium turf, so you could understand why Tyvis Powell had a hard time putting into words what winning a national championship meant to him.
“For me, it was like a dream come true,” Powell said at Tuesday’s press conference. “Just to see us go out there and sending the seniors out with their last victory, that’s just the greatest feeling in the world.”
An underdog for the third-straight time, Ohio State came out victorious once again Monday night when it routed No. 2-ranked Oregon, 42-20, to claim the school’s first national championship since 2002 and win the first-ever College Football Playoff.
The Buckeyes did it with their third-string quarterback, Cardale Jones, and with a team that features 11 starters that are either freshmen or sophomores. They also overcame the loss of one of their teammates and an early-season defeat on the field to Virginia Tech in Week 2.
“This feeling is unreal right now because three or four months ago, everybody counted us out,” Jones said. “They said we wouldn’t be here at this point in our careers, in the season and the way we were just smiling through all that, it was just unbelievable.”
The win means a lot for Buckeyes head coach Urban Meyer, who had made it his mission to bring a national title back to his home state from the day he accepted the job. But it also means something to the Ohio State players and the Big Ten.
Meyer doesn’t want the appreciation for a championship to get lost in the shuffle.
“We’re still reveling in the win and I want these players to really appreciate it because I am,” Meyer said. “It’s something I’ve learned over my journey is I’m going to enjoy this darned thing. How do I do that? I enjoy being around Tyvis and Cardale and these players.”
And as good as Ohio State was this season, the potential is for it to be even better next year. The Buckeyes have the majority of their players coming back and the potential for a quarterback controversy for the ages. A repeat is certainly not out of the question.
But Meyer’s not worried about any of that right now. He’s still trying to enjoy this one.
“Right now, we’re in the celebration phase,” Meyer said. “Eventually we’re going to get to the learn from it phase and then the next guys like this wait for the next mission. That’s the pattern we’re going to have and repeat and those kinds of things, but that’s certainly not in the conversation right now.”
