Ohio State lives up to the “Leave no doubt” mantra in its dominant College Football Playoff opener against Tennessee

“There can be no doubt,” Day said the week before Ohio State University’s season opener when describing the team’s motto for the year. “It’s like if it’s a prizefighter, either knock him out or leave it to the judges, you can’t do that. We’ve talked about this a lot… This is what we have to do. That’s probably the thing we got the most out of this year.”

Ohio State didn’t always manage to do that during the regular season, particularly in the final regular season game against Michigan, which raised many doubts about the Buckeyes’ ability to compete in the College Football Playoff and even whether Day would make it will remain coach of Ohio State in 2025. However, in the Buckeyes’ first CFP game, they fully brought that mantra to life.

The Buckeyes took a 21-0 lead in the first quarter against Tennessee and never looked back. They earned a 42-17 victory over the ninth-seeded Volunteers, which once again established Ohio State as the expected national championship contender heading into the season.

Had the game gone differently, Ohio State could have looked back and marveled at moments – as there were many after the 1-point loss to Oregon and the three-point loss to Michigan in the regular season – and marvel if those plays would have changed the game . No pass interference was called on Tennessee’s Will Howard interception in the second quarter, and a questionable roughing the pass penalty was called on Kenyatta Jackson Jr. on the Volunteers’ ensuing field goal drive, which negated a Davison Igbinosun interception.

Those moments sparked a 10-0 run by the Volunteers that left some doubting whether the Buckeyes would win Saturday night’s game. Had Tennessee scored in the first round of the second half, the Volunteers would have made it a one-point game and potentially drawn Ohio State into a four-quarter battle.

Instead, the Buckeyes forced a punt and scored again on three straight possessions for another 21-0 run, putting the game so far out of Tennessee’s reach that it was able to take its starters out of the game early in the fourth quarter achieve a comfortable victory.

“We knew we had to win the next four or five minutes after the second half, and we did,” Day said after the game. “There have been a few calls and other things in the past where when you have one of those plays and it comes down to the last play, you look at those as game-changing plays. But if you leave no doubt, no one will talk about these pieces, because we did.”

Howard thought it was “great” that the Buckeyes pulled away quickly in the second half instead of allowing the Volunteers to continue hanging around.

“I think we did a hell of a job of not putting our foot down because when it’s 21-0, you know, 21-10 at halftime, we could have taken it easy. But the defense came out and got a big stop, we go down and score, go down and score again, it’s like we left no doubt,” said Howard, who was 24 of 29 for 311 yards and two touchdowns achieved. “And we could have made it a game, but the ability to go out there and keep our foot on the pedal was great.”

Ohio State entered the first round of CFP play with the opposite of momentum. Over the last three weeks, most of the public discussion about the Buckeyes locally and nationally has revolved around what went wrong against Michigan and what would happen if Ohio State lost to Tennessee, possibly including a coaching change if the Buckeyes were on the volunteers fell. The prospect of Ohio State falling short of its three main goals for the fourth straight year generated more discussion than the possibility that the Buckeyes would still achieve their goal of winning a national championship.

However, that goal always remained on the table and the Buckeyes never stopped believing in their ability to achieve it. Although they’re still a long way from actually doing that, as they need to win three more tough games, starting with a rematch against No. 1 seed Oregon in the Rose Bowl, the Buckeyes’ dominant performance against the Volunteers showed that this is the The case will be Nation – and strengthened their belief in themselves – that they are still capable of being the championship team that many expected them to be at the start of the season.

“It’s been a long week for us, a long few weeks, and to say it doesn’t weigh on you, it does. We’re very proud of who we are, these guys are very proud, and these guys, they love each other and they’re a great representative of Ohio State, and I’m glad they made it, the last (home) The game of these seniors ended with a win. But they’re not happy at all,” Day said. “They’ll quickly turn their attention to Oregon, which will be a rematch for us, which is exciting and a great opportunity to play in the Rose Bowl. “So I think it says a lot about who our guys are that we’re in were able to respond so comprehensively.”