Ohio State Football: Buckeyes ready to thrive as underdogs in CFP

The Ohio State football team is back in the CFP taking on Clemson next Saturday. All of the sudden the Buckeyes are underdogs, but that’s where they thrive.

For the first time since 2016, the Ohio State football team finds itself in a College Football Playoff semifinal. The Buckeyes finished an incredible historic regular season 13-0, winning their third consecutive Big Ten Championship in come-back fashion.

They hadn’t really experienced much adversity all year until the rematch with Wisconsin. But the Buckeyes responded as any top ranked team would by not panicking, sticking with the game plan and executing to come back and win dramatically.

In the preseason, Ohio State was an underdog as hardly anybody picked them to win their conference or make the College Football Playoff. However, as the season wore on, the Buckeyes quickly became the Big Ten favorite as well as a legitimate national championship contender.

Ohio State debuted as the No. 1 ranked team in the initial CFP rankings by the committee in early November, but flipped back-and-forth with LSU until the final rankings where the Tigers finally overtook the Buckeyes for good. The playoff seeding left Ohio State ranked second having to play Clemson in the Fiesta Bowl.

All of the sudden the Buckeyes went from an invincible team, in the eyes of the media, to one that doesn’t stand much of a chance against the defending champions in the desert. On top of this, some of the Ohio State players felt they and their teammates were slighted at the College Football Awards to add to the chip on their shoulder.

The good news for Buckeye Nation is Ohio State has not lost a game as an underdog since before Urban Meyer arrived in Columbus. Meyer was a master motivator and always got the most out of his teams when no one but themselves believed in them. Ryan Day was mentored by Meyer over the last two years and will likely use the same tactics.

I expect the Buckeyes to come out firing on all cylinders on a mission to prove to the country they belong amongst college football’s elite. In 2016, Ohio State was shutout by Clemson in their semifinal and then left out of the playoff the following two seasons. There is a bad taste in the mouth of these Buckeyes and this will be the best performance of the season from Day’s group.

Look for a motivated J.K. Dobbins to anchor the offense led by quarterback Justin Fields who will need to make plays with both his arm and his legs to have success against the stout Tiger defense. Chris Olave and K.J. Hill will be the impact players at wide receiver for the Buckeyes in this matchup.

Day has been elite in situations facing top-ranked defenses, so we can expect more of the same as his innovation and creativity will be put on full display in Arizona on Dec. 28.

Co-defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley will look to go out on a high note before leaving to officially become the head coach at Boston College. The Silver Bullets will play hard, fast and physical, as well as show many different looks to force Clemson quarterback Trevor Lawrence into some bad decisions.

Chase Young will move around a lot pre-snap and continue to be a game-wrecker, having a major impact on the outcome. The key for the Ohio State defense will be slowing down Clemson running back Travis Etienne and staying true in coverage against the speedy and lengthy receivers on the outside.

If the Buckeyes can force the Tigers to become one-dimensional offensively, it will be a long day for Lawrence. The same can also happen in reverse if Clemson can force Ohio State to become one-dimensional.

This game is probably the most even possible matchup college football could have given us this season. Talent is fully equated and skill is immense on both teams. It is going to be an absolute war in the desert and the winner will almost certainly be favored in the National Championship Game.

But in order to get there, Ohio State and Clemson must go through each other first. This will be the best college football game of the season and one you will not want to miss.