Ohio State national championship silences haters

ATLANTA — The 2025 edition of the College Football Playoff National Championship game wasn’t about revenge. It wasn’t about proving people wrong. Nor was it a matter of wadded up a scarlet and gray rag and stuffed it directly into the mouth of the coral of outside noise.

Bless their hearts, that’s what the Ohio State football team and coaching staff kept telling us. Beating Notre Dame on Monday night and winning the school’s first national title in a decade wasn’t about any of that.

But yeah, it totally was.

“We worked really hard to drown out the outside noise, really,” Ohio State quarterback Will Howard confessed, words spoken on the field moments after having a national champion T-shirt draped over his shoulders and emblazoned with slaps to the shoulders of his current . teammates as well as the Buckeyes of days ago. “But outside noise can also be a good way to bring a team together. You close the locker room doors to lock it all out, bunker down together and go to work. That’s what it did for us. I think that someone on this team will tell you.”

Well, now they will. Finally.

The “It’s not about that” mantra was what the Buckeyes kept repeating, in unison, starting all the way back in the summer weeks that led to a campaign when they were named the No. 2 in the nation in both preseason polls. Those expectations were earned in no small part because of a much-hyped offseason, fueled by a $20 million NIL shopping spree, according to athletic director Ross Bjork, to lure transfers from around the country.

We were told that no, it wasn’t about those players justifying their decisions to change teams. Like Howard, who came to Ohio State from Kansas State, and running back Quinshon Judkins, who became a Buckeye after carrying the football at Ole Miss. Both are still considered traitors by many in the places they left. But no, it was never about sending a message that they had the right to pack up and move to Columbus.

Yes, right.

“When people asked me why I left Ole Miss to come here, my answer was always the same: To go somewhere where I could win a national championship,” said Judkins, who scored three of Ohio State’s four touchdowns against Fighting Irish. He grew up a state over from the site of the CFP title game, 170 miles away in Montgomery, Alabama. “Now that championship has happened. And I’m not going to lie, to do it here in the South, in Atlanta, in front of so many people who have known me all the way back to high school, makes it even more special. “

We were told that no, it wasn’t about the all-star coaching staff, including offensive coordinator Chip Kelly, who once served as head coach of the Oregon Ducks, Philadelphia Eagles and San Francisco 49ers and left the same gig at UCLA to take a demotion at Ohio State. This winter was by no means about proving Kelly hadn’t lost the edge that once earned him acclaim as a mastermind behind modern football crimes.

Um, okay.

“For me, it feels good to be having fun again,” said Kelly, 61, with a smirk rarely seen during his NFL and UCLA tenures. Buckeyes coach Ryan Day, 45, is a Kelly protégé who was coached by Kelly as a New Hampshire player. Kelly’s playcalling, which has been a CFP bulldozer, scored touchdowns on Ohio State’s first four drives. “I never forgot how to train. But maybe I forgot how to have fun on the job.”

“I know,” Kelly added, laughing. “It’s a lot more fun when you move the football and win.”

And man, we were told so many times that this season or postseason was in no way about hitting a reset button on the perception of Day, in his sixth season at the helm of an Ohio State football program that is second to none. when it comes to pride, but also second to none when it comes to pressure. Day took a deep dive from that “Guys, it’s not about me” night on Nov. 30, after his fourth straight regular-season loss at the hands of arch-rival Michigan. With the Buckeyes awarded an at-large berth in the newly expanded 12-team CFP, he once again implored anyone who would listen that the narrative of his team’s postseason run be about its destiny rather than the coach’s future.

For a month of CFP games and days leading up to Monday night’s kickoff in Atlanta, he reminded us all that none of this was about him. Although a security detail was assigned to his home in Columbus ever since the Michigan game. Even as the internet was ablaze with posts about his job security and memes questioning his choice of beard dyes. Although in the days leading up to the title game, his wife opened up to a Columbus television station about the family’s dealings with death threats.

And even though Ohio State’s seemingly insurmountable lead during the game itself dwindled from 31-7 midway through the third quarter to a paltry eight points in the closing minutes.

But when the clock finally struck zero, the scoreboard read “Ohio State 34, Notre Dame 23,” and OSU-colored confetti rained down on their heads, the story — as told by the team itself — was indeed suddenly Day .. . and his staff … and his players … and their collective personification of T-shirts and flags carried by so many of their supporters among the 77,660 in attendance: OHIO AGAINST THE WORLD.

Even if, for them, Ohio’s flagship football team sometimes found itself up against no small percentage of Ohio itself. The people who refused to attend the CFP opener in Columbus because they were still mad about the loss at Michigan and will no doubt still consider this silly to have an asterisk because of that same loss.

Because for all Day & Company’s talk that this isn’t about revenge, the truth was revealed on their faces after the game. Their collective expressions of restraint, the ones we’d seen all fall, were instantly replaced by a collective look of relief. Their frowns washed away by Gatorade dumps, revealing the smiles of men who had actually just sent a message and who were finally willing to admit that had been their motivation all along.

You just had to ask. Because finally they would answer.

“I feel like from the very beginning of this thing we were knocking on the door. But you have to find a way to break through and get to where we are right now,” Day said, no longer flinching at the question. , but is definitely still working to stifle his emotions. “In this day and age, there’s so much noise. Social media. People have to write articles. But when you sign up for this job, when you agree to coach at Ohio State, it’s part of the job. I’m an adult. But the hard part is , that your family has to live with it the things that people will use to tear you apart and try to make it into something that brings you closer.”

For 3 hours and 20 minutes, Ohio State pushed Notre Dame back with both hands. They also pushed back on the would-be team destroyers and head coaches. When it was over, they pointed a finger at the same haters. It wasn’t a middle finger, but it was close. It was the finger that will soon be fitted for a national championship ring.

“Ohio State might not be for everyone,” Day added, smiling once more. “But it definitely is for these guys.”