Dec. 22—COLUMBUS — Three weeks after its most disappointing performance of the season Ohio State produced one of its most powerful efforts.
The Buckeyes (11-2) looked like every bit of a national championship contender and almost nothing like the team that lost to Michigan in a 42-17 win over Tennessee in a College Football Playoff first-round game Saturday night at Ohio Stadium.
That win will send OSU to a College Football Playoff quarterfinal against No. 1 Oregon in the Rose Bowl on Jan. 1, where it could get a little revenge for a 32-31 loss to the Ducks earlier this season.
The quality of play wasn’t the only difference on Saturday from the last time Ohio State was on the field at home. The game plan very definitely had a different look than the much-criticized run heavy plan against Michigan.
Quarterback Will Howard, who was 24 of 29 for 311 yards and two touchdowns, and freshman wide receiver Jeremiah Smith, who caught 6 passes for 103 yards and caught two touchdown passes, led the offense.
OSU’s 476 yards of total offense was nearly twice the 252 yards it had against Michigan.
Ohio State jumped out to a 21-0 lead after one quarter on a 37-yard touchdown pass from Howard to Smith, a 1-yard touchdown run by Quinshon Judkins and a 29-yard touchdown run by TreVeyon Henderson.
The only time Tennessee appeared to have even a faint chance of getting back into the game was when it cut the lead to 21-10 at halftime and was receiving the second half kickoff.
But OSU’s defense forced the Volunteers to punt on their first possession of that half and the Buckeyes increased their lead to 28-10 on a 22-yard touchdown pass from Howard to Smith to quell that mini-threat.
“I’m proud of our senior for a lot of reasons. One, for the fact they were able to finish their last game at Ohio Stadium like that. I’m also proud of the way they responded. To see the way they responded in this game you could tell from the jump they had a look in their eye that they were going to win this game and they played that way,” OSU coach Ryan Day said.
“We called this game more aggressively. There’s no question about that. But also I think we did some things in this game that maximized what we have in terms of our strengths and minimized our deficiencies.
“I thought Will was excellent. He did a good job of placing the ball and made some big time throws. And certainly Jeremiah was dynamite again. But we also had balance in this game. It wasn’t like we were just throwing it all over the place,” he said.
“I thought we blocked better in this game, we ran through contact better in this game and we threw better in this game. That made a huge difference. There was a confidence coming out of that first quarter. Even coming out of warm-ups you could feel it.”
Howard said he was excited when he saw the game plan for Saturday night’s game.
“Coming into this game I was really fired up about the game plan, even more than usual. I never go into a game feeling bad about a game plan but I was fired up about our game plan today,” he said.
“I think having the two or three weeks we had to get ready for these guys gave us a little bit of an edge. We were able to really break them down and figure out what we liked and didn’t like and what we did well.”
Tennessee (10-3) caught a bad break when it had to play most of the game without its leading rusher Dylan Sampson, who came into the game with a pre-existing hamstring injury which limited him to two rushes for a total of 6 yards and one catch for 2 yards in the third quarters.
Sampson rushed for 1,485 yards and 22 touchdowns and was the Southeastern Conference Offensive Player of the Year.
Offensive guard Luke Montgomery got the most significant playing time of his college career when he was part of a rotation at that position.
“I noticed Luke’s energy, toughness and edge. I’ve got to watch the film and see how he did but we blocked much better in this game and they have a good front,” Day said about the sophomore from Findlay.
Now Ohio State turns its attention to Oregon.
“There’s a lot of football ahead of us. Great win. We’re going to enjoy this for 24 hours and then it’s on to Oregon,” Day said.
Howard said, “The way that last one ended doesn’t sit right with me. It still bugs me. I’m just thankful for the opportunity that we get another crack at them.”
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