Ohio State beats Tennessee 42-17 in first round of College Football Playoff | News, Sports, Jobs

Staff Photo/Preston Byers Ohio State’s Jack Sawyer prepares to take the field for warmups before Saturday’s College Football Playoff first-round game against Tennessee at Ohio Stadium in Columbus.

COLUMBUS – Three weeks after a stunning loss to rival Michigan, Ohio State returned to Ohio Stadium, the scene of one of the worst defeats of the Ryan Day era, and posted one of the best victories since Day became the head coach of the Buckeyes prior to the 2019 season.

On Saturday night, Day and his team took a step toward redemption and a national championship by defeating Tennessee 42-17 in a highly anticipated College Football Playoff first-round game between the Big Ten and Southeastern powers Conference (SEC).

Although Tennessee fans, clad in their signature orange, kept their promise and made up a significant portion of the 102,819 in attendance, Ohio State quickly eliminated the loyal volunteers from the game.

Led by their stifling defense and efficient passing from quarterback Will Howard, the Buckeyes tore through Tennessee’s defense en route to three straight field goals, which gave Ohio State a 21-0 lead in the first quarter.

After a mediocre second quarter, in which they turned the ball over, punted and missed a field goal, the Buckeyes began to dominate again.

In the second half, Ohio State scored a touchdown on each of its first three offensive possessions. Meanwhile, the Buckeye defense, which had given up points on back-to-back grueling drives in the second quarter, began again stopping Tennessee quarterback Nico Iamaleava and the Vols’ offense, which gained 26 total yards in the third quarter.

The victory, Day’s first against an SEC opponent, was emphatic and much-needed for the team and its head coach after weeks of criticism from fans and media members, as well as questions about safety Day’s job description.

But Chip Kelly, the Buckeyes’ offensive coordinator and a longtime close friend of Day’s, said the sixth-year OSU head coach led “forward” after suffering a fourth straight loss to Michigan last month.

“I just saw the guy I’ve known since I was five. And I told him a long time ago he was built for this,” said Kelly, who coached Day when the latter was a quarterback at New Hampshire. “He understands the gravity of his position, he understands how everyone feels about Buckeye football, and rightly so, and he feels exactly the same way. So I don’t think anyone took the North team’s loss harder than him. And that’s just the type of person he is.

Ohio State got off to an unusually fast start Saturday night, but that didn’t come without help from Tennessee.

The Buckeyes’ first drive of the game, like many have done this season, seemed to stall when Bryson Eason brought down Buckeyes quarterback Will Howard for a 13-yard loss on third down. However, the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) officiating crew said Eason grabbed Howard’s facemask, giving OSU another set of downs and the second chance it had need.

Two plays later, Howard found TreVeyon Henderson out of the backfield for a 21-yard gain. Howard then followed the completion with a deep strike to freshman phenom Jeremiah Smith, who caught the pass 37 yards to the left side of the end zone for a touchdown.

The Buckeyes defense followed suit and forced the first of two consecutive three-and-outs from Nico Iamaleava and the Volunteer offense. And while Tennessee’s offensive unit became frustrated and stuck, Ohio State moved the ball at will.

On the Buckeyes’ second drive, Howard connected with Smith and Emeka Egbuka for completions of 18 yards and 40 yards, respectively, before Quinshon Judkins finished the possession with a 1-yard rushing touchdown.

The next drive had many similarities, as Howard found Henderson, Smith and Egbuka to get OSU inside the Tennessee 30-yard line. Once there, the fifth-year quarterback handed the ball to Henderson, who found open space on a run up the middle, maintained his balance on tiptoes along the sideline and scored on a 29-yard touchdown run to give the Buckeyes a 21.-0 lead with 3:27 left in the first quarter.

With the first 15 minutes belonging to Ohio State, Tennessee stopped the Buckeye touchdown parade with an interception; Will Brooks spotted Howard, whose pass found Smith in the end zone but popped into the air and then into Brooks’ arms five minutes into the quarter.

The defensive stop, Tennessee’s first of the game, seemed to give a boost to the Volunteers’ offense, and Iamaleava led the Vols on a nine-play, 62-yard drive that ended with a field goal. 36 yards from Max Gilbert. The possession also included a controversial passer call on Kenyatta Jackson Jr., which nullified a Davison Igbinosun interception.

On the next drive, after a three-and-out and OSU’s Joe McGuire’s first punt, Tennessee pulled away and eventually emerged with a touchdown as the highlight of a 16-play drive and 79 yards.

Ohio State went into halftime with a 21-10 lead after Buckeyes kicker Jayden Fielding’s 55-yard field goal attempt failed.

During the break, OSU defensive coordinator Jim Knowles, whose unit had largely limited the Iamaleava athleticism, went after his players.

“I chased them pretty well at halftime, I did, to be honest with you,” Knowles said, “because I felt like we were rolling at the start of the game, and then I I just felt like we took our foot off the gas a little bit, so I chased them at halftime and challenged them.

The defense responded to the challenge.

On the first drive of the second half, the Buckeyes allowed just eight yards and forced Tennessee to punt after just six plays. Knowles’ team did much the same thing after that; OSU allowed just 36 yards and forced a punt or turnover on downs on Tennessee’s first five drives of the second half.

Day said his team, after being outscored 10-0 in the second quarter, understood the importance of starting the third quarter on a good note.

“That’s why we knew coming out in the second half we had to win the next four to five minutes. And we did it. And that really helped,” Day said.

The offense also started scoring again.

After three scoreless drives to end the first half, OSU, like early in the game, scored touchdowns on each of its first three drives of the second half.

To regain the score, Howard, who threw for 311 yards Saturday, connected with Smith a second time on a 22-yard touchdown pass. On the night, Smith had six catches and 106 yards, which pushed him past the 1,000-yard mark for the season, making him the 10th player in Ohio State history to achieve the feat and the first to do so in his first season.

Henderson and Judkins also added another touchdown to their season total.

Judkins finished another drive with a 1-yard touchdown run to give the Buckeyes a three-point lead, at which point some Tennessee fans began heading for the exit, shortly before Henderson found a crease on middle of the field for a Score of 24 meters. The backs rushed for 114 yards and four touchdowns on 20 carries Saturday.

It was Ohio State’s first victory against Tennessee (10-3), which won its only previous game 20-14 on New Year’s Day in the 1996 Florida Citrus Bowl.

The Buckeyes (11-2) now turn their attention to Big Ten foe Oregon (13-0), which handed OSU the first of its two losses this season. The Ducks, defending Big Ten champions, No. 1 seed in the 12-team College Football Playoff and the only undefeated team in the Division I Football Bowl Subdivision, posted a 32-31 victory over OSU on Oct. 12 in Eugene.

Ohio State and Oregon will meet in the Rose Bowl on January 1 in Pasadena, California. The two teams met in “The Granddaddy of Them All” in 2010 when Terrelle Pryor, Jim Tressel and the Buckeyes defeated the Chip Kelly-led Ducks 26-17.

This will be OSU’s first Rose Bowl in three years; the Buckeyes beat Utah 48-45 in 2022.