Not enough bang for the Buckeyes

A $20 million roster can't beat Michigan or win the Big Ten. Will the coach pay the price?

Kalel Mullings

On Saturday, Ohio State learned something that the Yankees, the 76ers, the Dodgers, the New York Rangers, and former California gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman learned long ago. The money might be great. It’s no good on the field.

The Buckeyes put $20 million into building their 2024 roster. The quarterback is a Hessian from Kansas State. The top running back is a Hessian from Mississippi. The top safety and center are Hessians from Alabama. Just add water, or at least the usual, naturally-recruited class of celebrities that annually comes to Columbus, and there’s your national championship right there. Along the way the Buckeyes would surely flick away Michigan and its three-game win streak in The Game, primarily because coach Jim Harbaugh and 17 starters picked up and left after their 2023 College Football Playoff title. Add the fact that Michigan came to Columbus on Saturday with the 127th-ranked passing offense, out of 133, in the FBS, and that it would be leaving perhaps its best offensive player (tight end Colton Loveland) and defensive player (cornerback Will Johnson) at home, and that 20 ½ point spread looked like a temptress with a grenade in her hand.

It was the most decisive spread since the 1969 game, which should have let loose some sirens, both automatic and human. In that one, the Buckeyes were coming off a national championship and a 50-14 win over Michigan. Bo Schembechler, coaching the Wolverines, made his scout team players wear a “50” patch in practice all season long. When the big day arrived, Ohio State flicked a switch and the room stayed dark. Michigan won, 24-12, in the biggest upset in the history of the best rivalry in college sports. Until Saturday.

This Michigan team is now the happiest 7-5 outfit in the game. It won, 13-10, because it stayed in character and Ohio State did not. Quarterback Davis Warren completed nine passes, for example. The Wolverines ran 22 plays in the fourth quarter and Kalel Mullings ran the ball on 15 of them, for 66 yards.

On the other side, Will Howard threw two interceptions. The first one set up a Michigan touchdown. The second one, however, preceded an interception by Caleb Downs, the Alabama transfer at safety. The Buckeyes had a first down on the Michigan 16, with a 10-10 tie. Three plays later, they were still there, and Jayden Fielding lined up a 34-yard field goal…and missed.

Not once in that series did a football approach the hands of Jeremiah Smith and Emeka Egbuka, the elite pair of receivers who caught a total of nine passes for 86 yards, which is something Marvin Harrison II or Jaxon Smith-Njigba or Chris Olave used to do by halftime.

Michigan approached the win late in the fourth quarter, but Warren was intercepted by Jack Sawyer, who ran it out to the 12-yard-line. Again, three plays, no touches by the Ohio State wide-outs. After the punt, Michigan assumed the ball on its own 40 and served up a five-course meal of Mullings. When he was done with his five carries, the Wolverines were on the Buckeyes’ 17, and eventually Dominic Zvada kicked the game-winner, 13-10, and knocked Ohio State out of the Big Ten championship game, which now features Oregon vs. Penn State. Michigan has transfers, too, of course, and Zvada came from Arkansas State.

It was an exhausting, ill-tempered day throughout the sport. In Chapel Hill and Tucson, there were postgame incidents involving a flag and a pitchfork that the visiting team tried to plant on enemy turf. In Tallahassee, Florida players did the same after a win over Florida State, and Gators coach Billy Napier reprimanded them and promised “consequences.”

In Columbus, Michigan’s Raheem Stewart and Terrence Dunlap tried to plant an “M” flag, but Sawyer came out and stood his ground, and players staged a for-real brawl that had to be squelched by pepper spray.. Eventually, former Michigan receiver Jason Avant wrestled the flag away from Buckeye players.

And, of course, there was lots of coaching talk afterward. Little of it, unfortunately, concerned Michigan’s Sherrone Moore, who also coached last year’s win because Harbaugh was under suspension.

He got the fulltime job, took some lumps early from Texas, Washington and Illinois, kept scrambling for a quarterback and, while no one was noticing, found ways for his team to improve. Michigan lost a tough 20-15 decision at Indiana, then opened up a 50-point can on Northwestern last week. Now Moore and the Wolverines will go to a bowl game and swing into action with better quarterbacking next year, at least on paper, although it’s difficult to find a more inspirational figure than Warren. From Manhattan Beach, Ca., Warren was ready for a fulfilling career at Loyola High when he discovered he had leukemia. The news took a while to sink in; he said he couldn’t really start treatments, that first week, because he had a 7-on-7 game coming up. But Warren got through it, despite a 35-pound loss, and transferred to The Peddie School in New Jersey. Harbaugh made him a preferred walk-on, and now he’s part of the permanent scrapbook.

The coaching issue at Ohio State should be simple, too. Ryan Day is 66-10. He has won a Rose Bowl and coached in a national championship game. But the home crowd was chanting his name in the same way NASCAR crowds chant Joe Biden’s, and all kinds of media types were seriously speculating that he would lose his job. He is, after all, 1-4 against Michigan now. Never mind the general gratitude in Ann Arbor that Harbaugh wasn’t fired after an 0-5 record against the School Down South. Once they thought about it, the Ohio State coach-hunters began ripping Day for failing to stop the flag-planting incident, or to dawdle in getting the players off the field. He hasn’t done much about the price of eggs, either.

A more appropriate target might be Chip Kelly, the ex-UCLA and Oregon coach, once known as an innovator, brought in by Day to run Ohio State’s all-star offense. True, the Buckeyes had some offensive line instability, but Kelly’s explosive plays somehow got lost in his briefcast. Kelly came to Ohio State to work with Day, whom he had coached at New Hampshire, but also said he felt he wasn’t really suited to be a head coach anymore. Almost everyone at UCLA agreed with that. Kelly said he wanted to concentrate on actual teaching. Maybe he can get a Master Class contract.

Day makes $9.9 million and a buyout would cost Ohio State $37 million. No one seems to blink at the dimensions of that. In the prior world, we might look at how college professors are driving Ubers in their spare time to make ends meet, but football never has been more separated from the purpose of the schools where it is based, or from rationality.

We’re also in a 12-team playoff world, and Ohio State will likely make the cut despite this loss, and despite the fact they’ve proven conclusively that they’re not the best team in the country. Maybe that assurance was a factor in their lassitude Saturday. But the Buckeyes do have three weeks before a first-round game. Note to the current roster: This might not be the best time to ask for a raise.

Otherwise:

Syracuse 42, Miami 38: Right after Ohio State lost to Michigan with desultory quarterback play, Kyle McCord hurled three TD passes as Syracuse (9-3) knocked Miami out of the ACC championship game. McCord was the Buckeye QB last year but transferred, and despite some tough moments he leads the nation in passing yardage, 20 yards ahead of Shedeur Sanders. Miami knew what it was getting into with the high-scoring Orange and led 21-0, but McCord led Syracuse into a 28-28 tie, and then Devin Grant forced a fumble by Miami’s Xavier Restrepo, scooped it and ran 44 yards for a go-ahead score. Down 42-35, Miami coach Mario Cristobal chose a field goal with 5:34 left, but Syracuse never gave up the ball again. Trebor Pena and Jackson Meeks both exceeded 100 yards receiving and accounted for three touchdowns. Miami ranks 14th nationally in total defense but gave up touchdowns on five of Syracuse’s last seven possessions.

Texas 17, Texas A&M 7: The Longhorns moved to 11-1 and now aim at Georgia, the one team that’s beaten them, in the SEC championship game. The first A&M-Texas game in 11 years was fairly cut-and-dried, with Texas running the ball 50 times and leading 17-0 at the half before a pick-6 and a blocked punt gave the Aggies some hope. Quintrevion Wisner ran 33 times for 186 yards, and Quinn Ewers, playing on a bad ankle, hit 17 of 28 passes, Vernon Broughton added two sacks for a defense that kept the Aggies (8-4) out of the end zone and held their running backs to 40 yards.

South Carolina 17, Clemson 14: What started as a wild dream is now a distinct possibility. The Gamecocks are now 9-3 after LaNorris Sellers, the electrifying freshman QB, scrambled for a 20-yard touchdown with 1:08 left. Sellers had done the same thing from 25 yards in the first quarter, and he wound up rushing for 166 yards. Shane Beamer’s team is tied for third place in the SEC and has won six consecutive games. South Carolina lost to LSU by three points, to Alabama by two and was only beaten soundly by Mississippi. Clemson (9-3) got good news when Miami lost to Syracuse, meaning the Tigers can play SMU for the ACC championship and an automatic playoff bid.

Army 29, Texas-San Antonio 24: Tulane lost to Memphis on Thursday, meaning Army could play host to the American Conference championship game with a win. The Cadets, who have only lost to Notre Dame, converted three fourth-down plays on their first drive, and Bryson Daily ran for two touchdowns, tying the league record for single-season touchdowns with 25. Army also held the ball for 40 minutes.

Brigham Young 30, Houston 18: BYU lost three fumbles and failed to pull away from Houston until Jake Retzlaff ran for a touchdown in the fourth quarter. This briefly sparked hope at Colorado, which would have joined Arizona State in the Big 12 championship game if BYU had lost. As it was, all the crucial Big 12 games went according to form, and Iowa State’s win over Kansas State sets up an ASU-ISU title game. BYU won 10 games and was the only team to beat SMU, so it will hope for more upsets next week in order to make a College Football Playoff case. Colorado, at 9-3, nurses the same hope.