by Photo via WSYX – John P. Wise
The Ohio State football team began the first round of the College Football Playoff with a 42-17 beat down of Tennessee at home in Columbus. While the Volunteers’ season is now over, the Buckeyes will advance to the quarterfinals where they’ll face Oregon in the Rose Bowl.
Unlike many times this season, Ohio State certainly did not start the game slowly, jumping out to a 21-0 lead in the first quarter. Tennessee settled down and scored 10 in the second to cut the lead, but the Buckeyes opened the third quarter with a big third down defensive stop to set the stage for the offense. From there, they scored 21 straight points to pull out of reach.
Quarterback Will Howard silenced the critics with his stellar performance, throwing for 311 yards and two touchdowns. He did throw an interception as well, but it certainly was not his fault as the ball was tipped in the endzone. Howard rushed for 37 yards as well. The recipe for success for Howard and Co. was to look for freshman wide receiver Jeremiah Smith, who absolutely dominated Tennessee cornerback Jermod McCoy. Smith finished the day with six catches for 103 yards and two touchdowns and the synergy between him and Howard was as strong as ever.
Emeka Egbuka quietly had a really nice as well, pulling in five catches for 81 yards. In the run game, TreVeyon Henderson was outstanding, rushing 80 yards and two touchdowns, while also recording 54 receiving yards. His partner, Quinshon Judkins also had an impact, although not as big of one, with 34 rushing yards and two scores. The offensive line, which had many questions going into the game, looked better and better as the contest went on and the unit kept an elite Tennessee defensive line pretty quiet.
On the other side of the ball, defensive coordinator Jim Knowles and his Buckeyes were great. J.T. Tuimoloau and Jack Sawyer had two and 1.5 sacks, respectively, and Ty Hamilton pitched in another 0.5 as well. The secondary also did a great job on Tennessee’s injured receiving core and the front seven as a whole made Volunteer quarterback Nico Iamaleava’s night miserable.
The last time Ohio State faced Oregon, we got perhaps the best game of 2024 in all of college football and there isn’t any reason why the upcoming quarterfinal should be any different. Despite a bad loss to Michigan, the Buckeyes proved they’re as good as anyone and are three wins away from a National Championship
