Ohio State’s dominant 42-17 victory over Tennessee in the first round of the College Football Playoff has set up an exciting rematch against the undefeated, top-seeded Oregon Ducks.
The Buckeyes had anticipated this quarterfinal showdown since the CFP bracket was announced but remained focused on the Vols until securing the win.
Now, with Oregon coming off a Big Ten Championship victory over Penn State and a first-round bye, Ohio State head coach Ryan Day has highlighted why both teams are vastly different from their midseason meeting, which the Buckeyes lost.
“It’s not like we played them just a couple weeks ago,” Day said. “This was midseason, and there’s been a lot of football played since then. Like I said, I feel we’ve evolved. They’ve evolved. Different teams. So there are certainly things that you want to look at that happened in that game but also, as time’s moved on, how they’ve changed, how we’ve changed and how does that fit as we put together the game plan.
“But ultimately, we want to make sure that we’re putting together a great game plan so our guys can play fast, they understand what we’re trying to get done in terms of attacking in all three phases, and they can play with emotion and physicality.”
The Buckeyes’ heartbreaking 32-31 loss to Oregon during the regular season came down to the wire. However, Day believes adjustments since that game have prepared his team for this pivotal rematch.
“We’ve made adjustments coming off that game, and we worked hard to make sure that we’re putting our guys in the best position to be successful,” he said. “We’ll do that again against these guys this week and go compete our tails off.”
The highly anticipated rematch between Ohio State and Oregon is scheduled for 5 p.m. ET on New Year’s Day and will be broadcast live on ESPN.
