“But Will was a leader.” You throw 33 dimes out the window and bring in nothing for the Bucks against the Michigan Man. Will Howard, is this the legacy you plan on leaving behind? H-ll no!! Howard ran when it was needed, and he threw those deep shots right on point. 29 throws and 24 landed with 2 touchdowns. Probably the best performance Will Howard has shown in the entire season. They said the SEC is here to invade the Big 10. So, what does OSU do? They thrash them left and right and snuck a 42-point win over a defense that even Bama bent knee. Still, it ain’t over. Bucks, raise your pitchforks cause Howard wants more bloodshed.

“When people ask you what happened here, tell them the North remembers.” 52-24. That was the fate of the Bucks last time they faced off against a big-shot SEC team. The Crimson Tide took them by their neck and curb-stomped them. The North remembers. So when Ryan Day finally got another shot at the natty, they once again had to face their fears. “Tell them Winter came for the Volunteers,” Howard wrote in his latest Instagram post.

One question: How do you deal with an extremely physical team that gets right up in your face? Do you try to ‘out-physical’ them? Or do you run the football like your life depends on? Ryan Day had made this mistake once. They tried to play up close and personal with a Wolverines team that loves making their opponents sweat and what did that get OSU? A UM flag on the midfield of Ohio Stadium. Never again.

So when Vols finally showed up for the playoff game, every fan knew that Josh Heupel and his boys survived every single game on that 10-win run off that defensive line. So this time, OSU cannot get too ‘touchy’. And Chip Kelly had the perfect solution: hit them where it hurt. The Bucks running corp covered over 300 yards. Their highest this season.

Follow that up with TreVeyon Henderson and Jeremiah Smith being absolute menace on the Vols defense, with 16 carries and 183 yards combined and you get a picture-perfect run game that Heupel and Co. had no answer for. And the OSU defense? Well, Vols QB Nico Iamaleava was commendable in the last 5 games, but he was just not good enough against the Buckeyes.

Nico has the lowest QBR compared to any other starting quarterback for a reason. Barely 100 yards on the board got sacked 4 times by the Ohio defense. Nico did try, but once again, it wasn’t good enough. We truly believe that any Buckeyes fan would be proud of what Day has managed to achieve in a single day. And we cannot wait to see what they do against the No.1 team in college football in 2024.

A dream rematch against the No.1 Ducks

“It’s going to be a heck of an opportunity.” This ain’t OSU’s first rodeo. Yeah, Dan Lanning is sitting on top with a bye week and a ton of time to prep, but do you remember what happened at Autzen Stadium back on October 12th?

Lanning got his taste of what a real powerhouse feels like. 1 single point on the board. That is how close OSU got to leaving a stain on that perfect 6 win resume. You wanna be the top team in college football? Then you better work for. And the OSU offense grilled the Ducks medium rare. 4 touchdowns against a defense that was holding off everyone else at only 15 points. This says a lot about what Chip Kelly can do with the Buckeyes receiver and running back corps.

But coming back to the present. This rematch could be a dangerous one for Ryan Day and Co. On paper, OSU’s defense is the best in the country, but then again, they did allow Dillion Gabriel to cover over 490 yards. This will once again be a back-and-forth game, and whichever team fumbles the football first shall end up being the first one to get knocked out of the race.