Unlike last season, there wasn’t much drama for Ohio State during Sunday’s bowl announcements. Any hopes of making the College Football Playoff were gone when Texas beat Oklahoma State in the Big 12 title game on Saturday afternoon.
Even before then, Ohio State would’ve needed a lot of help. The Buckeyes’ Playoff dreams were truly finished because of a third consecutive loss to Michigan last week.
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And that loss is still weighing on those in the program.
“It’s the players and the opportunity. That’s why you don’t get sleep — it isn’t about all the other stuff,” Ohio State coach Ryan Day said. “What matters are the players, what that game means to so many people. It hurts, it certainly does. You ask how long it’ll stay, it’ll stay forever.”
That game ended an otherwise successful regular season for the Buckeyes, who went 11-1 and are bound for the New Year’s Six. That’s what life is at Ohio State: It’s beat Michigan or nothing else seems to matter.
But something else does matter right now: the Cotton Bowl.
No. 7 Ohio State (11-1, 8-1 Big Ten) will play No. 9 Missouri (10-2, 6-2 SEC) at 8 p.m. ET on Dec. 29, in a game that can’t make up for the loss at Michigan but can still end Ohio State’s season on a high note and prepare it for the future. It’s the Buckeyes’ third trip to the Cotton Bowl after wins to cap the 2017 (vs. USC) and 1986 (vs. Texas A&M) seasons.
#CFBPlayoff New Years Six: Goodyear @CottonBowlGame
7️⃣. Ohio State // @OhioStateFB
🆚
9️⃣. Missouri // @MizzouFootball
Friday, December 29.
— College Football Playoff (@CFBPlayoff) December 3, 2023
Day said Sunday afternoon he hadn’t yet talked to his team yet about who will be playing in the Cotton Bowl and who will opt out to prepare for the NFL Draft. He said the team would have a meeting on Sunday night to go through everything but that he’s “expecting everyone to play.”
“I think our guys will be excited to play in the game and we’ll talk through all of that,” Day said.
But it’s likely the Buckeyes will go into the game against Missouri shorthanded in some capacity. In 2021, Ohio State went to the Rose Bowl without star receivers Chris Olave and Garrett Wilson. That was the day that Marvin Harrison Jr. and Emeka Egbuka got their first major snaps. Harrison jumped onto the national scene then, tallying 71 yards and three touchdowns.
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If Harrison and Egbuka choose to opt out of the Cotton Bowl, the Buckeyes will lean on more freshmen to carry the weight, as players like Carnell Tate and Brandon Inniss would be primed to get those snaps. It would be a chance for them to see how they can affect the game before earning major snaps next season.
Wide receiver isn’t the only position where players could opt out, either. The Buckeyes are going to have changes across the board next season, and it remains to be seen how much that will impact the bowl roster. Big Ten linebacker of the year Tommy Eichenberg and tight end of the year Cade Stover are seniors. It’s likely that both defensive ends Jack Sawyer and JT Tuimoloau enter the draft, along with running back TreVeyon Henderson, cornerback Denzel Burke and safeties Josh Proctor and Lathan Ransom.
Ohio State needs to know what it has out of its younger players, and this is a chance to see it before next season. That means more reps in practice to prepare them for the future. That’s always the case in bowl games, regardless of opt-outs. Most of the time bowl practice is a lot like spring practice, giving teams a chance to get younger players more reps.
“We had to play depth this year,” Day said, “and that’s a great opportunity for guys to step up and that’s what bowl practice is going to be about, getting young guys a bunch of reps and they have to utilize every rep that we possibly give them. I think our guys will be ready to roll at that point.”
But at the same time, the staff has to juggle the need to win and end the season right.
“Reps in practice will be spread around pretty good, but when it comes to playing the game, we want to win the game and that’s the No. 1 thing,” Day said. “The Cotton Bowl is a great bowl and we have a really good opponent.”
Missouri might not be the flashy matchup that would’ve come in the Playoff, nor is it an opponent like Oregon, which Ohio State has recent history with. But this is still an important game against an SEC team that lost only to Georgia and LSU.
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Regardless, for Ohio State this needs to be less about Missouri and more about itself. Can it finish the season with a win? Can it also prepare its younger players for a bigger role next season?
“We had the situation in the Rose Bowl and it built momentum into the next year,” Day said. “We want to be playing for a championship, but we’re going to finish things and do them the right way.”
This game won’t solve the Michigan problem or make people forget the Michigan loss, but it can have an impact on the program going forward.
“I think a lot of our guys were disappointed last week,” Day said. “We had a practice, got together, had a team meeting and we knew there would be a new target this weekend. There were a lot of prideful guys on our team. We’ll use this as an opportunity to finish things out the right way or build momentum for next year.”
And at this moment, that’s what Ohio State needs. It needs to look forward, not backward.
(Photo of Ryan Day: Gregory Shamus / Getty Images)
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