If you think about it, the Oregon Ducks are a lot like the Indiana Hoosiers.
Oh yeah, that's the stuff right there - scorching hot magma right from the jump. Some clarification for this take - if you think about it from Ohio State's perspective then the Ducks and Hoosiers become shockingly similar over the course of history.
The Buckeyes are 81-12-5 lifetime against IU. That's an extra-crispy 85.2% winning percentage which includes a 30-2-1 record in Bloomington - a significantly higher clip than the one OSU enjoys at home in the Horseshoe. Why do Ohio State fans refer to Bloomington as Columbus West? That's not even the main reason. Different column.
Over the past 75 years IU has beaten Ohio State thrice. The Hoosiers got Woody in his first season, Earle in his last one and Coop the year after that. Comparatively, Phil Knight's sneaker empire's third win against the Buckeyes has not yet taken place.
The 2024 COLLEGE FOOTBALL Playoff WAS A reckoning WHERE "Ohio State on Paper" ABRUPTLY TRANSFORMED INTO Ohio State in Reality.
Cropdusting Oregon with the Power Five's most peasantacious program's odious history might seem disrespectful. However, Ohio State enjoys an 83.3% winning percentage against Oregon away from Columbus. That doesn't give Eugene a Columbus West designation, and it's not only because of fewer meetings.
It is because a full third of Ohio State-Oregon events have been what football enthusiasts refer to as consequential, Game of the Century-adjacent clashes in a sport where every meeting between ranked teams feels historic.
Below is the series history heading into the 2025 Rose Bowl Game, which doubled as the national quarterfinal of the newly-expanded College Football Playoff. Consequential.
| YEAR | WINNER | SCORE | HISTORICALLY CONSEQUENTIAL? |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1958 | OHIO STATE | 10-7 | 1958 Rose Bowl (yes) |
| 1961 | OHIO STATE | 22-12 | No.2 OSU declined a Rose Bowl invitation, forfeiting a shot at the national title (no*) |
| 1962 | OHIO STATE | 26-7 | Played in Columbus the week before the Michigan game (!) (no) |
| 1967 | OHIO STATE | 30-0 | Game played at Oregon (no) |
| 1968 | OHIO STATE | 21-6 | Undefeated national championship season; must credit 1961 postseason (no) |
| 1983 | OHIO STATE | 31-6 | Home opener; non-conference schedule was Oregon & Oklahoma #80scocaine (no) |
| 1987 | OHIO STATE | 24-14 | Non-conference schedule was WVU, Oregon and at LSU #80scocaaaaaaaine (no) |
| 2010 | OHIO STATE | 26-17 | 2010 Rose Bowl (yes) |
| 2015 | OHIO STATE | 42-20 | 2014 College Football Playoff title game (yes) |
| 2021 | OREGON | 35-28 | Game played at Ohio Stadium (no) |
| 2024 | OREGON | 32-31 | Conference game played at Oregon (no) |
| 2025 | ??? | ????? | 2025 Rose Bowl & CFP National Quarterfinal (yes) |
Reader, you are distracted by the 1961 note. Understandable. Quick detour/explainer:
Early 1960s Ohio State faculty had grown weary of the university's burgeoning national reputation as a "football school" and decided to do something about it.
Following the undefeated 1961 regular season, they seized the means of postseason production and refused the Rose Bowl invitation on OSU's behalf, sending Minnesota instead of the Buckeyes to Pasadena to beat the shit out of UCLA.
This move cost the program more than just another Rose Bowl ring and North End Zone banner. Recruiting was negatively impacted, since Ohio kids in the early 1960s dreamed of playing in California bowl games on New Years Day; the ones they grew up watching on 12-inch black and white television sets under gray skies.
Woody responded by
punching every single OSU professor in the noseexpanding Ohio State's recruiting footprint beyond Ohio as a tentpole to his Natty-or-Bust program strategy. If you're curious how that 1961 Pasadena forfeit ended up working out for the program during that decade, look no further than the Super Sophs from the 1968 national champions.That celebrated recruiting class included legends like John Brockington (NY) Bruce Jankowski (NJ) Jan White (PA) Tim Anderson (WV) and Jack Tatum (NJ) who were part of a wider net cast in earnest during the years which followed that academic forfeit.
More players began showing up on campus without any childhood dreams of playing for the Buckeyes. If you're curious about the lasting effects, take a look at the current roster. John Cooper merely turbocharged what Woody brought to the recruiting room following the homebound winter of 1961.
Oh, this would have happened anyway. I don't know, reader. I've met quite a few native Ohioans who believe childhood indoctrination is a competitive advantage and every recruit from everywhere else has too many risky carpetbagger tendencies to be trusted with a silver helmet. It took football-hating professors to force the issue.
In conclusion, the 1961 OSU faculty parlayed its distaste for football into a vengeful bureaucratic gesture which ultimately resulted in *checks notes* Ohio State becoming an intergalactic football powerhouse which not coincidentally is now too academically selective for most Ohioans to attend anymore.
From the bottom of my heart: Thank you, nerds.
Detour concluded. Let's get back to cropdusting the Oregon football program.
Take one last look at that chart above through Duck eyes to appreciate how Ohio State's wins in this series felt like ancient history during the buildup to the 2025 Rose Bowl.
Oregon's wins were the two most recent games. The law of small numbers strikes again - sure, let's call that a trend. Both meetings involved the same Ohio State head coach who entered the 2024 postseason carrying a personal brand albatross which squawked incessantly about how winning important games was just outside of his skillset.
The Buckeyes' nine wins in the Oregon series were about as relevant as Rutherford B. Hayes' hemorrhoid cream. History is a vast container. It can be what you just ate for breakfast a few hours ago, but also what happened back when dinosaurs played chicken with meteors. Chickens are dinosaurs, by the way. Different column. Our hypothesis:
The Oregon Ducks are a lot like the Indiana Hoosiers.
Neither of the two outings Ohio State dropped to the Ducks were consequential. The Buckeyes controlled their destiny for conference and national titles following both losses. All losses hurt. Some losses crush dreams and end seasons.
The Ducks were 0-9 lifetime against the Buckeyes heading into their 2021 visit when then-head coach Mario Cristobal figured out One Simple Trick to beating the Buckeyes, which was allowing CJ Stroud to throw for a billion yards while running the same play on offense which Kerry Coombs could not solve.
Michigan did something similar a few months later, with one extra enhancement the NCAA is still actively investigating. The epitaph of that first series win was Stroud's gargantuan stat line and a Buckeye defensive strategy run with the same discipline as three baby goats trying to fornicate with a canned ham.
The second time it was Will Howard sliding one second too late, right after Jeremiah Smith was called for an OPI that should never have been called. Oregon hardly dominated, but won.
So of course the Ducks were optimistic heading into New Year's Day. They were undefeated conference champions who had deconstructed the defending national champs on their own field during the regular season, as well as the consensus preseason favorite - the latter of whom they would be facing again while having had three weeks to prepare.
Beating Michigan, Ohio State and Penn State in your first B1G season is special. Congrats.
What Oregon failed to appreciate - despite having received an ominous warning via the First Round Playoff Game the Buckeyes hosted against Tennessee - was that Ohio State losing to Michigan for a fourth straight year released Evil Ryan Day from purgatory.
It would take mere minutes for the Ducks to realize their dream was over. And there was still over a half of football left to be played, which makes for a special kind of nightmare.
Welcome back to My Favorite Things. Today we're running back the 2025 Rose Bowl.
EPISODE 23: IT WAS 34-0 IN THE 2ND QUARTER
Do you remember who started at running back for the Buckeyes in the 2025 Rose Bowl?
Quinshon Judkins got the Tennessee start. TreVeyon Henderson started against Michigan. Think it over. The answer is related to Oregon’s first mistake of the game, which was failing to call a timeout prior to Ohio State's first snap. Spicy hint! Don't hurt yourself.
Let's ask more questions: Where does this game rank in program history? Was this the greatest Rose Bowl performance Ohio State has ever had? Candidates include the 2022 game against Utah, in which the Buckeyes set program, Rose Bowl and college football bowl game records.
That was the one where Marvin Harrison Jr. caught three touchdown passes and still had no shot of being the game MVP. It was also the same game where the Buckeye defense allowed 38 points and the Buckeye special teams allowed a kickoff return touchdown.
The previous Pasadena visit came against Washington in Urban Meyer's last game - the Buckeyes were up 28-3 in the 4th quarter and survived for a 5-point win. Nice win. Not the best.
In the Rose Bowl trip prior to that one, Chip Kelly was on the opposite sideline in what turned out to be a Tresselball Masterclass. The Ducks were given a grand total of 18 minutes of possession, which, that's just not enough time to score enough points.
If the passage of time has dulled how devastating that Rose Bowl was to Oregon, some reminders:
There was the Arizona State classic on New Year's Day 1997, the 1969 one against OJ Simpson and USC which doubled as a consensus national title bout for the Buckeyes. And some others long before that. So which one was the best one?
More questions - was this the greatest Ohio State performance against an undefeated opponent? Many candidates to list there, couch that until your next bathroom trip - what about the greatest 1st half ever?
Prior to New Year's Day, the 2014 B1G Title Game was the recency-bias leader. The Buckeyes were up 38-0 at halftime with a 3rd string quarterback slicing up the Wisconsin Badgers and despite killing the clock in the 2nd half, they left Indy with the trophy and a shutout.
The correct answer is probably the 1995 Iowa game, where two Buckeyes pulled ahead for the Heisman and Biletnikoff in a single half and never looked back. It was 56-0 before halftime against a ranked team.
But the point to all of these questions is the 2025 Rose Bowl is in all these conversations.
This game was consequential. Ohio State scored more points against the undefeated no.1 team in the country in the 1st half of the 2025 Rose Bowl than all four of its playoff opponents would score against them in four 1st halves combined.
Playoff teams on big stages. This was belt-to-ass, and the cheeks disintegrated into dust.
It took three plays to realize the anomaly wasn't what happened against the Volunteers. The anomaly was what happened against the Wolverines.
The Buckeyes sacked Oregon QB Dillon Gabriel eight times in Pasadena. In the Ducks' 13 other games, they allowed 10 sacks. This was while playing contain for the better part of the 2nd half with the game out of reach. They could have doubled the season total.
Jeremiah Smith had more 1st half receiving yards than Oregon had total yards. The Buckeyes had four 1st half touchdowns which went over 40 yards apiece. The Ducks' rushing offense on the season dropped 22 spots nationally because of this game, in which they were held to minus-23 yards rushing. Sacks have stat sheet consequences.
Ohio State played one playoff game prior to the Rose Bowl and two afterward. In 240 minutes of playoff time, the Buckeyes trailed for six minutes - after Notre Dame's first drive, and that was it. But that's hindsight. Oregon had barely trailed all season, and when it did it was by single digits for single minutes.
In the buildup to the rematch, the vibe coming from fans of the B1G champs was confidence.
Yall want more oregon fans before the rose bowl? pic.twitter.com/46adUslgLZ
— 9inxes (@9inxes) April 9, 2025
This is your brain on excessive social media consumption. Ohio State, and specifically Ryan Day currently have a Michigan Problem which has very little to do with toughness or the team's ability to take a punch. This era's primary blemish has everything to do with overthinking on that Saturday.
And overthinking is not why the Buckeyes lost to the Ducks, Missouri or Georgia - which comprise all of Ohio State's non-Michigan losses going back to the 2021 Oregon game.
If you've accidentally tripped your social media algorithm to include posts from Michigan Helmet accounts (incels whose entire personality is making love to the memories of the past four Ohio State games because no living human would ever fuck them) you might be led to believe what that Oregon poster did.
This is the origin story of the so-called Lunatic Fringe. Losing to Michigan is a choice, as demonstrated by Ohio State's unconscionable strategy of ceding every one of its schematic advantages while sending 5-star talent to the sidelines to punt on 4th and short during this drought.
The cause for Day's weird aversion toward playing to his team's potential against that fucking team is still unsolved. That said, a fan of any other program choosing to believe those strange benefits would be extended to their team is a level of delusion only possible through excessive social media consumption.
The incels have nothing else to hump. Kids, use less social media. It's hurting you.
Advantages -
— Geaux Ducks (@GeauxDuck) December 24, 2024
HC - #GoDucks
Staff - #GoDucks
QB - #GoDucks
RB - #GoDucks
WR - Even
TE - #GoDucks
OL - #GoDucks
DL - Even
LB - #GoDucks
CB - #GoDucks
S - #GoBucks
Special Teams - #GoDucks
Now this is your brain on fandom. Ohio State entered this rematch - reminder, they lost the first one by one point at Oregon - disadvantaged at every position except Safety and even at Wide Receiver. That would suggest the Ducks severely underperformed in the first meeting.
So let's get into it, and we'll start with the pre-game flyover because it's awesome and failing to appreciate every one of the trappings that come with Pasadena on New Year's Day is treasonous against both college football and the United States of America.
Since it wasnt on tv, no better flyover @nbc4i pic.twitter.com/IIA9IpIDiq
— Joe Nugent (@joenuge) January 1, 2025
If you haven't been to the Rose Bowl and you're juggling too many idyllic destinations on your checklist of places to see before the meat sack housing your soul hits its expiration date, consider moving Pasadena higher. You probably have some disappointments on your list.
For example, you don't need to see Venice in person. You can get gelato and smell sewage at any number of American cities without the jetlag. They have gondola rides at the Venetian in Las Vegas on water that doesn't contain centuries of Black Death bacteria in it.
No reason to see the pyramids in Egypt when you can just visit the Bass Pro Shops in Memphis instead. The Eiffel Tower? They have one of those at Kings Island in Cincinnati. You can barely tell them apart. The Rose Bowl is one of one. It belongs on your list.
Every other bowl game is a knock-off imitation that falls way short. A decade ago I wrote:
You have to stand (at the Rose Bowl) and see it, breathe the air and feel the ambient energy to understand that this setting - for a football game or anything else - is perfection. There is no better college football venue on this planet or any other.
Ohio State lost that afternoon, but I got to shotgun a warm beer with Neutron Man cheering me on so the afternoon felt victorious. Man, he would have loved the 2025 Rose Bowl.
Alright, first play from scrimmage. Our initial question deserves an answer:
Do you remember who started at running back for the Buckeyes in the 2025 Rose Bowl?
The indomitable QuinVeyon Henderkins backfield dynamo allowed for inexhaustible tailback freshness through 16 games. One of those guys was on the field for the game's first play, and it was Judkins. But he was lined up wide, as a receiver.
Henderson was on the sideline when the game began with the Buckeyes in 12 personnel. The first TE was Bennett Christian, lined up wide next to Judkins. But the other TE was lined up with Will Howard in the backfield, starting a football game at running back for the first time in his life.
Maybe you knew. But you probably did not realize that Gee Scott Jr. started at running back.
Now, if you're Oregon head coach Dan Lanning, you should have at least been tempted to call a timeout upon seeing that personnel package because that ain't right. That's suspicious.
Gee is a converted wide receiver who joined the Buckeyes back when Chris Spielman was still changing out neck rolls between quarters. Impossible not to notice a 6'4" quarterback lined up next to a 6'3" tight end in the backfield. That wasn't on the film. He didn't call timeout.
Scott then goes in motion in what appears to be one of those dastardly bubble screens fans hated ever since the first time Cade Stover mailed in a blocking assignment. Ohio State is opening the Rose Bowl with this? Happy New Year, trolls.
And we're off. It took one play to realize the Tennessee massacre wasn't a one-and-done affair for the disappointing team left for dead after choosing to lose to a 21-point underdog.
You really want to know why people get so mad at Ryan Day? Because with the way this team is constructed, everyone knew this Ohio State team was in there somewhere and nobody could understand what took so long for it to show up. It's really that simple.
— Ari Wasserman (@AriWasserman) January 1, 2025
Ari's not wrong. Where was this against Michigan was the refrain against Tennessee, and by the time Ohio State was three plays into the Rose Bowl it was evident the anomaly wasn't what happened with the Volunteers. The anomaly was what happened with the Wolverines.
The 2024 College Football Playoff was a reckoning where Ohio State on Paper abruptly became Ohio State in Reality. The best defense in the country, absolutely solid-to-stacked at every position. On offense they had two RB1s in the backfield. A heady senior QB. Wide Receivers to envy. Tight Ends who do everything well. Meh special teams, which was an upgrade from the previous three seasons.
The offensive line was depleted and alarming. But one game earlier it had bullied the SEC's second-best defensive line into a municipal dumpster, emptied several overfilled state fair port-o-lets on top of it and padlocked the lid. The line was treading on Slobs territory and trending up.
So this wasn't miraculous. This was Ohio State on Paper finally animating and deploying.
Carson Hinzman snaps the ball, and then Scott and Christian both set up their blocks to clear a path for Judkins on an obvious bubble screen. Except it's a ruse. The blocks are fake.
Jeremiah Smith and Emeka Egbuka are both quickly open - not unusual at all - but so is Christian the moment he sheds his blocking facade. No one on the field is more open that Scott, whom Howard hits in stride for a game-opening 30-yard gain.
Two plays later, Jeremiah Smith is in the end zone. It took one minute. Ohio State 7, Oregon 0.
Slide Route on the Backside of GT Counter pic.twitter.com/XmCJFsGgdJ
— Coach Dan Casey (@CoachDanCasey) January 1, 2025
The undefeated B1G champions had not lost a 1st quarter since the last time they faced the Buckeyes, whom they ended up beating. No need to panic yet. After all, they had the advantage at every position except Safety. Wide Receiver was a push. Refer to the list above.
No one beat Oregon all season. They were barely challenged en route to the overall no.1 seed.
Following the postseason's conclusion, Ohio State released a theatrical video which included highlights from all four games as well as scenes from preparations and celebrations. Following the Tennessee massacre, Day is seen in the Woody giving instruction to several players who had taken a knee to listen.
What he tells them in that video - they're getting ready to play the undefeated number one team in the country which has already beaten them once - is ominous and telling:
Fellas, this game does not have to be close.
Whoa. That's different. Woody used to talk about hitting harder to outlast opponents. Earle basically copied everything his coach did, but with a fraction of the gravitas. Coop used to talk about winning the surest way. Tressel called every game a battle.
Urban canonized seasons with heart palpitation-inducing themes like The Chase and The Grind. Conservative, outlast-them-be-smart energy has permeated the program since its inception.
Day stood up in front of his team which had lost on Senior Day to a soiled diaper and told them the 2nd Round of the College Football Playoff - at the Rose Bowl - did not have to be close.
Here's how Smith punctuated his first TD, facing a sullen green wall staring back at him.
Oregon went three-and-out on its first offensive drive. The Ducks moved nine yards in 90 seconds, after the Buckeyes had gone 75 in three plays spanning 60.
So Oregon snapped the ball three times before punting back to the Buckeyes on the fourth one. They went right back to Jeremiah on 1st down for a 29-yard gain. It was pretty.
Jeremiah Smith is UNSTOPPABLE #PMSCFPESPN2 https://t.co/4ZOf8gTG17 pic.twitter.com/tnJ18yHiJC
— Pat McAfee (@PatMcAfeeShow) January 2, 2025
He would end up with 41 receiving yards on this drive. He had 45 on the previous one. He had 35 during the entire Michigan game on four downfield targets. Stop shouting at the sky. Just enjoy this.
Oregon was ready for Smith, as the coverage here shows. You Can't Stop This is a strategy.
There are three Ducks over there. Howard telegraphed this throw after watching Smith run his entire route. Then, as the ball was still gliding toward where all four players were on the field, tackling began in advance.
Making contact before the ball arrives is generally a penalty, but the current condition of officiating makes this rule a crapshoot. If this wasn't pass interference, pass interference doesn't exist.
Tennessee would have been trailing 28-0 in Columbus to start the 1st round if pass interference existed. Offensive holding isn't a penalty at all. Barely exists. Different column.
Ohio State's second drive ended with the only remnant of angst the Lunatic Fringe could have justifiably filed charges against on the afternoon, which was Day choosing to settle for a 36-yard punt instead of stressing the Ducks further.
At the time, few realized Day didn't believe the game would be close. It felt 2023 Michiganish.
For 51 seconds, anyway. That's how long Oregon held onto the ball before punting again. Three plays into Ohio State's third drive, Emeka Egbuka got his first postseason touchdown since the 3rd quarter of the 2022 Peach Bowl.
— BuckeyeMOB (@Buckeye_Mob) April 2, 2025
That was his favorite route at Ohio State, a pipe right down the seam. The Buckeyes at their best use every inch of the field to stress defenses. Since Brian Hartline took over the receiver room, that unit has mastered the art of deploying quick hands.
This is where receivers deceive blind defenders while the ball is heading in their direction. Raising your arms in anticipation is telling on yourself. It is why Brian Robiskie never won a single 50/50 ball in his career. His catching motion signaled hey the ball is almost here and defenders responded with quick hands of their own.
Receivers in Hartline's room stay in their running gait until the last fraction-of-a-second when they use quick hands to secure passes. His best pupil at doing this was Garrett Wilson. Contested catches, one-handed catches, bread-basket catches. Quick hands raise the success percentage.
Marv was probably second. Egbuka is no worse than third. He might be second after this one.
Now it's 14-0 Ohio State and the scarlet side of the stadium is getting spicy. Do you know how many times Oregon successfully came back from double-digit deficits during its 13-0 B1G championship season?
The answer is zero times. Oregon also trailed by double-digits zero times in 2024.
Everything here was uncharted and if you're an Oregon fan looking at an 0-14 hole where the guy who isn't Jeremiah Smith just piped your defense - which honestly, did nothing wrong on that play - your bowels might be gurgling.
The Ducks were in the danger zone, and their next drive netted two 1st downs but only 26 yards. The Buckeyes got the ball back and the good news was they didn't score in three plays.
JEREMIAH SMITH IS ABSURD #PMSCFPESPN2 pic.twitter.com/d2oPXjWbHk
— Pat McAfee (@PatMcAfeeShow) January 1, 2025
They did go back to Smith, though. And kind of like the Emeka touchdown, there's nothing wrong with the coverage here. The cushion is totally reasonable. Hand-checking him at the line is probably going to end up getting a defensive back slapped into the second row.
There's even safety help here. But Howard's feet were perfect, his timing was perfect, his release was perfect and whenever that all happens on a passing play, usually result matches the rest of it.
He threw the ball where only Jeremiah could catch it. Which he did in front of Lanning.
This was part of a 10-play field goal drive, which in a game like this without intimate knowledge of Ohio State football during Day's tenure might be chalked up to a body blow. This field goal was more important than that.
Noah Ruggles might have disrupted an ancient burial ground of some kind when he taunted Utah's special teams after kicking the game-winning field goal to seal the 2022 Rose Bowl. One postseason later, a national title shanked off his foot and landed in Decatur.
Jayden Fielding has missed three field goals in Michigan games since then, two of which would have won the 2024 meeting - albeit pathetically, but a pathetic win over Michigan is better than an amazing loss. I'll happily fight you in the parking lot of your choosing if you disagree with that.
Day sent Fieldling out to kick a field goal against Tennessee during the middle eight in the 1st round - another middle eight Ohio State would lose, a miserable trend nobody remembers anymore following this postseason - so him splitting the uprights with a two-touchdown lead in the Rose Bowl was consequential. Not just a body blow.
It was more important to Fielding than it was to the Buckeyes, at least in that moment. I choose to believe Notre Dame lost the national title game when Ohio State went up 17-0 on the Ducks, because Fielding was making things right with whatever scorned spirits Ruggles had upset on that same field three New Year's Days earlier.
Oregon's next drive went seven plays for 29 yards and no points. The Buckeyes got the ball back.
The 2024 National Champion Ohio State Buckeyes do not play football today.
— Does Ohio State Play Football Today? (@DoBucksPlay2Day) February 23, 2025
But Pat McAfee is still calling it better than Fowler...pic.twitter.com/Wvl5oKq95o
This drive lasted two plays, the second of which was the moment for me, probably for you and definitely for Cris Carter, Maurice Clarett and Ohio State's cheerleaders.
Enjoy the audio/video above as well as the alternative angle GIFs below. Of note:
- Pat McAfee saying Smith was wide-ass open during the play. Tony Romo could never.
- Darius Butler shouting uh-oh, touchdown while Howard was still in his throwing motion.
- ...on a 43-yard pass, breaking Brent Musberger's 18-year old record for early touchdown calls.
- Previous record set in 2006 on Antonio Pittman's TD against Michigan with 30 yards still to go
- Notice Scott clearing out the secondary. He knew it was a touchdown even before Butler did.
A 24-0 lead in the Rose Bowl? Urban nearly blew an even bigger lead on the same field with a team that was just one Nick Bosa core muscle tear away from a national title run, and that was even with Alex Grinch on the staff.
No comfortable leads in life. No comfortable Rose Bowls, either. Twenty-four isn't enough.
Every horror sports has to offer is possible if you have cynical brain matter. But this was a watershed moment in the 2024 season, because despite being up 17-0 prior to this snap Ohio State fans had not collectively performed one special thing for a long time.
We didn't really do it against Tennessee, which was a glorious evening punctuated by intrusive where was any of this three goddamn weeks ago spasms. Some of us may have done it after Howard's garbage-time touchdown against Indiana after Henderson had taken a slide, or Jack Sawyer's scoop-and-score against Purdue.
But none of those events carried the same energy as the moment the Buckeyes went up 24-0 on the no.1 CFP seed. What happened next didn't feel possible after the Michigan debacle. After Smith scored - he was wide-ass open - we all laughed.
Spontaneous, guttural and condescending laughter. A rare phenomenon occurring during high-stakes sporting events when the favorably absurd happens in cartoonish volumes.
Oregon hadn't trailed by double-digits all year. They hadn't trailed by three touchdowns since facing Georgia to start the 2022 season. What was happening to the Ducks on was cartoonish.
They were getting their doors blown off in the greatest bowl game ever conceived, apologies to Super and Salad. Conditions for spontaneous laughter were abruptly met. It requires two emotional elements to arise, converge and create special energy - a joyous vortex. The first element is euphoria.
The second one - proper medical term here - is assholery. According to Dr. Denis Leary the origin of this element is unknown, but several organs are potential sources:
That special feeling we get in the cockles of our hearts
Maybe below the cockles
Maybe in the sub-cockle area
Maybe in the liver, maybe in the kidneys
Maybe even in the colon, we don't know
We don't know. Humans all have slightly different operational wiring. I screamed when JJ scored and I can tell you the laughter which followed came from my sub-cockles. As for you, maybe your liver pulsed. Perhaps you farted, or laughed and farted at the same time - organs have minds of their own. That's actually true, ask a doctor.
This might shock you but you can look it up: Norman Rockwell's death and the invention of the GIF happened within a decade of each other. No one captured American nostalgia on canvas like Rockwell did, but this animated image feels more American to me than anything he ever painted.
It's the big horns in TBDBITL all rising in scattered fashion that does it for me. The first ones up are the pros who are there to work - they saw JJ wide-ass open and got ready for Buckeye Battle Cry. The last ones were preoccupied shouting incoherently at each other and miss the initial lift.
They were laughing with us. Maybe farting. TBDBITL has its share of assholes. I love them all equally. Pasadena is a business trip. But it's a way of life too. It's a magic carpet ride.
The whole damn country watches the Rose Bowl because it is the best television real estate of the whole year - twilight on New Year's Day. Knowing how many living rooms were watching the team that couldn't break 10 points against the ReliaQuest Bowl champs destroying an undefeated team with the best odds to win the whole thing was funny to everyone not rooting for or betting on the Ducks.
And as soon as Fielding punched in the 24th point, those observers gained abrupt clarity.
Congrats, Michigan, you launched Ohio State.
— Skip Bayless (@RealSkipBayless) January 1, 2025
Look, I don't want to give the worst people in the world too much credit for Ohio State's CFP run. Ohio State beat Ohio State and Michigan just happened to be on the field that afternoon.
We probably never get to see the live version of Ohio State on Paper unless Day concludes that Michigan's offense is so bad (true) that the Wolverines are not going to be able to sustain a meaningful drive against his defense (also true) so he might as well turtle everything else (hey, OSU crushed that part) and win with superior talent, Tressel-style (only Jim Tressel can pull off Tresselball - that's why it's called that).
Instead, Day fed Michigan confidence for four quarters and turned Ohio Stadium into a big anxious mess that infected everything. That wasn't a talent-equated game. You beat the shit out of inferior teams quickly and without mercy. Otherwise, you fuel them.
Day learned this and removed the restraints from his offense. Uh oh, world.
Michigan fucked it up for everybody.
— Brandon Walker (@BFW) January 1, 2025
The Michigan game fucked it up for everybody. A 24-0 lead is no time to revisit one of the worst afternoons in program history, but it is worth clearing the credit. Let's get back to this play.
Scott runs a deep crossing route and distracts everyone in green, most notably the safety who should be paying closer attention to Smith. Tate double-moved his guy directly into hell. He might still be there; someone should check on him.
Every assignment is being handled with murderous efficiency - everyone's open and Howard has time to throw! But the tie for who gets the ball is broken by the best player on the field. He gets the touchdown.
Smith has seven targets in the middle of the 2nd quarter, or almost twice what he got against Michigan the whole game. The Wolverines were fortunate to only face Ohio State on Paper.
The Buckeyes' touchdown-scoring drives had lasted 3, 3 and 2 plays. Twenty-one points in eight plays. Oregon went 3-and-out against on the following drive, giving Ohio State the ball back again. Time to run some clock since they're scoring to quic- **record scratch**
TREVEYON HENDERSON TO THE HOUSE
— Pat McAfee (@PatMcAfeeShow) January 1, 2025
IT'S AN ASS BEATING IN PASADENA#PMSCFPESPN2 pic.twitter.com/iWpnqnVjlF
That's the McAfee broadcast cut above. The national one with Kirk Herbstreit had Chris Fowler calling this touchdown a crimson avalanche which bothered a lot of Buckeye fans, hitting the same nerve tweaked by hearing Alabama transfer in front of Seth McLaughlin, Caleb Downs or Julian Sayin whenever their names are called.
Fowler misspoke. He might have been holding in a laugh or a fart from the cockles of one of his organs because this game was making assholes out of all of us. He uttered some forgettable scarlet alliteration after a Judkins touchdown against the Volunteers and he just used red shades interchangeably.
This wasn't worth getting pissy about - every school that has yellow as a color doesn't call it yellow. It's remarketed as gold, or something cringe-stupid like maize, which refers to one specific grain of corn. Iowa calls its yellow old gold. Reader, it's all yellow.
Ohio State wears red. It's technically scarlet. Crimson is darker. It's not worth getting upset over, especially after a 66-yard touchdown taking place while Oregon has 66 yards total and zero points to go with it. This play was not intended to go for six.
The players played championship football all season. The coaches finally came around once the postseason began. Old people tend to be slower.
This wasn't the no.1 song from the 2023 season, Stretch into the Boundary (feat. No Gainz). It's a pre-snap motion-heavy nightmare for a defense bracing for Egbuka, or Scott again, or the freshman who is taunting their entire sideline after every snap.
A well-executed conservative snap feasting on recency bias. Stretch into the Boundary was lazy, man-ball nonsense that fed defenses confidence. The Ducks trying to chase down Henderson are all coming from the opposite side of the field where the receivers' routes led them.
It wasn't a crimson avalanche. It wasn't a scarlet one, either. Handoff into the boundary with the creeping dread of another downfield pass coming. This was supposed to just be a safe play for some safe yards.
So to recap the two 1st halves of the CFP thus far: Bomb to Jeremiah, deep seam to Emeka, right sideline track meet for TreVeyon. Did Oregon even watch Tennessee film? This was a rerun. This all happened in the 1st half against the Volunteers too.
It's now 31-0 in the 2nd quarter of the 2025 Rose Bowl, the national CFP quarterfinal. Ohio State has now matched its point total from their first meeting with over half of the game still left to go.
We're putting a premium on the 31 points, but the duck egg on the other side of the ledger demands more attention. Oregon's first play after Henderson's touchdown was one of those misplaced tenderizers. What game are you even playing, Coach Lanning?
BARS by the way
— Pat McAfee (@PatMcAfeeShow) January 1, 2025
ABSOLUTE BARS #PMSCFPESPN2 pic.twitter.com/lRgMO1A5P9
Running into Ohio State's defensive line was a bad idea all year. All of those guys could have been earning NFL paychecks last season. Running into Ohio State's defensive line this coming season, yeah well we're going to be forced to talk about that soon. But not now.
Larry Johnson's unit made bizarre headlines in Eugene, forfeiting the right to pressure the quarterback and consequently contributing to the worst night of Denzel Burke's football life. Not even three months later, the same guys played a different scheme.
The players played championship football all season. The coaches finally came around once the postseason began. Old people tend to be slower.
I'm obligated to show the 34th point because of the title of this column, so here it is. For page symmetry's sake, enjoy this Judkins counter to the field side with a 15-yard facemask bonus.
Note the guilty party, OU's Jabbar Muhammad looking for a holding flag from the Down Judge after turning Judkins' helmet 270 degrees. No call! Refs were in the bag for Ohio State.
The final score was 41-21 Ohio State, but it was 34-0 in the 2nd quarter. We don't need to dilute this 1st half with a 2nd half that was all about OSU getting to the Cotton Bowl healthy.
But that doesn't mean we need to ignore some of the fun stuff that history would forget otherwise, namely Oregon's tradition of playing Shout by the Isley Brothers at the end of the 3rd quarter. The song had a memorable scene in the movie Animal House, which was filmed in Eugene. That feels weird to have to explain but I find myself getting older every day.
Shout is a good tradition. Michigan deciding The Killers song about being cuckolded is now a Michigan football tradition just soils it for everyone else. Mr. Brightside gets shouted by everyone in every bar, pub, car or funeral where it's ever been played. Oh, that's a Michigan song now, got it.
Here's how Shout looked on the Ohio State sideline.
The Oregon tradition of singing the song Shout has turned in to a fun time for Ohio State.
— Adam King (@AdamKing10TV) January 2, 2025
The defensive line really enjoying the moment. pic.twitter.com/zqi4zToUCB
Shout dropped in 1958, shortly after Ohio State's first meeting with the Oregon Ducks, in Pasadena (W, consequential). Hang on Sloopy wasn't recorded until 1964. John Tatgenhorst, a TBDBITL music arranger was obsessed with it and begged for the band to play it until director Charlie Spohn realized John wasn't going to stop asking.
So they played an arranged version of Hang on Sloopy during the Illinois game and the crowd appeared to really enjoy it. They kept playing it and now you cannot cross over into a 4th quarter with Ohio State involved without hearing TBDBITL play it.
John passed away a year ago at the age of 85 and didn't get to see any of the 2024 season. Once Shout finished playing and the Ohio State DL stopped dancing, the other marching band - the one representing the visitors - had the floor.
Here's the 2025 Rose Bowl Hang on Sloopy in its entirety.
#GoBucks pic.twitter.com/U6CXFTF8Lu
— The Ohio State University Marching Band (@TBDBITL) January 2, 2025
It's the big horns in TBDBITL rising in unison that does it for me. Thank you forever, John. RIP.
Jack Sawyer and JT Tuimoloau sharing a moment in the final seconds of this Rose Bowl win for Ohio State.
— Dillon Davis (@DillonDavis56) January 2, 2025
Two more to go, they said to each other. pic.twitter.com/U6l8Hn9CoE
Lip readers, that's two more to go. We already covered both of those games in this series. The team was euphoric after two big playoff wins, but the players were still wearing chips on their shoulders from having been counted out after the Michigan game.
The seniors were committed to playing four more after Michigan. They were halfway there.
Day's command of the program and culture have never been questioned, in fact they've been adulated. Confusing whatever has contributed to this November spell with the other 11 months of the year is...you know what, no one needs to be right or wrong. If Day disrespect burns hot enough to produce a 34-0 2nd quarter lead in the Rose Bowl, let's grind it into powder and spike the sideline Gatorade with it.
Jermaine Matthews Jr: Big Ryan Day guy pic.twitter.com/acrm6UZqcE
— Dave Holmes (@DaveHolmesTV) January 2, 2025
Following the Tennessee game, Day had Donovan Jackson flip a ceremonial down marker from CFP 1st Round to Rose Bowl. After the Rose Bowl he got the honors again. Then again after the Cotton Bowl. After that, there was no one left to play.
Jackson might have been Ohio State's MVP in a national championship season. He nearly left for the NFL a year ago and ended up staying on campus to save the season and Justin Frye's ass in the process.
It's hard to imagine the Buckeyes being able to do anything you saw - or even just watched above, scroll up and focus on him in those highlights - without no.74 keeping the line in line.
New Year's Resolution: Win Rose Bowl #CFBPlayoff #GoBucks pic.twitter.com/cGtbYq1sOo
— College Football Playoff (@CFBPlayoff) January 2, 2025
I never imagined the 1997 Rose Bowl following the 1996 season would ever be topped in my lifetime. It was the final one before the Bowl Championship Series began, which meant Ohio State would need to hit the Pasadena button in the seasons where it was the title-maker. Otherwise it was given consolation treatment.
The Buckeyes never reached the Rose Bowl with optimized BCS timing. The 2010 Oregon beating was righteous, but Arizona State was a minute from winning the national title. That was the closest any Cooper team got to cleansing a devastating Michigan loss.
This team surpassed the joy of that game with this one. No drama, no nail-biting, no unrequited momentum in a postseason less forgiving for teams who stumble late - this is the prevailing Pasadena memory now, until the next one finds a way to outdo what we saw in the 1st half.
Three months removed from this national title run, it's easy to grade out the most challenging postseason the sport has offered to date. The 1st round appointment with Tennessee was an A+, punctuated by the arrogance bundled-up Volunteers brought to Columbus which made the start-to-finish evisceration that much more righteous.
It also gave the seniors a consolation cleansing post-Senior Day in the Horseshoe.
If you can find the original game tape from the 2014 B1G championship, you'll see Luke Fickell walking up the sideline screaming holy shit! holy shit! in slow-motion going to commercial after Devin Smith's second touchdown. That's kind of how the 1st halves in Columbus and Pasadena felt.
The 2nd half of the Rose Bowl was properly muted and contained with two playoff games to go.
Texas presented the most formidable challenge of the postseason, and the Cotton Bowl was the best matchup. It also featured the most conspicuous Buckeye mistakes of the postseason. Ohio State defenders dropped four pick-sixes in Pasadena that you cannot remember and I didn't memorialize here - they didn't matter.
Mistakes kept the Cotton Bowl close. Henderson, Caleb Downs and Jack Sawyer were erasers.
This Rose Bowl MFT was about one half of football. The Cotton Bowl one was about one play (it also got a shirt). As for Notre Dame, the Irish never stood a chance. It was 31-7 in the 3rd quarter.
We began this recollection by lining up Oregon with Indiana in the pantheon of programs Ohio State has treated rudely throughout the history of college football. The Buckeyes have been inequitable in pain-sharing with both teams. That wasn't to suggest IU and UO are similar programs.
They've actually played each other this century. It was 23-0 in the 2nd Quarter with the Hoosiers returning to Bloomington from Eugene as victors. Looks like I own IU an apology.
