COLUMBUS, Ohio — Ohio State had been thinking about a rematch with Oregon long before the Buckeyes crushed Tennessee in the first round of the College Football Playoff on Saturday night.
Their first chance to avenge the Oct. 12 regular-season loss to the Ducks looked to be the Big Ten championship game, but that slipped away when the Buckeyes got upset at home by Michigan and missed out on the trip to Indianapolis.
Now, by virtue of Saturday night’s 42-17 win over ninth-seeded Tennessee (10-3), the eighth-seeded Buckeyes (11-2) will see the Ducks again in a quarterfinal game on a grand stage: the Rose Bowl on New Year’s Day in Pasadena, California.
“It’s going to be a heck of an opportunity for all of us,” Ohio State quarterback Will Howard said. “I think we’ve all been looking forward to this one, another crack at these guys. The way the last one ended didn’t sit right with me.”
In the first game, the visiting Buckeyes led twice in the second half but couldn’t hold it. They were driving again in the final minute. After a questionable pass interference penalty on freshman receiver Jeremiah Smith, Howard scrambled out of the pocket to extend a play and slid as time ran out, ending the 32-31 shootout on a mental error.
It would be the closest game of the season for top-seeded Oregon (13-0).
“We’re looking forward to the opportunity because it was not a great game for us,” Ohio State defensive coordinator Jim Knowles said. “And I know, quite frankly, the guys got a little pissed off. They used that game as motivation. So I’m sure they’re looking forward to another opportunity.”
The Ohio State defense, now statistically the best in the nation, allowed quarterback Dillon Gabriel (a Heisman Trophy finalist) and the Ducks to pile up 496 yards.
“You get to watch yourself play, and watch the mistakes that you’ve made, and you see how they attack you,” Ohio State linebacker Cody Simon said of reviewing the last meeting with Oregon. “But also, there’s a lot of football played in between that. They’ve changed. We’ve changed, and we’re just, we’re going to look at what we need to do, and trust the game plan the coaches have, and we’ll go and tackle them.”
Nearly everything was working right inside the frigid “Horseshoe” on Saturday night, the first December college football game in the history of 102-year-old Ohio Stadium.
Howard threw two touchdown passes to Smith and compiled 311 passing yards, his highest total since the Oregon game. TreVeyon Henderson and Quinshon Judkins rushed for two touchdowns apiece. The defense sacked Tennessee quarterback Nico Iamaleava four times and limited him to 104 passing yards, his lowest total of the season.
Oregon coach Dan Lanning recognized the Buckeyes’ ability to be explosive back in October.
“That’s an elite football that we just played,” he said at the time. “They’re really, really talented. They don’t have weaknesses.”