COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) — It was unlike the other playoff games Ohio State had played so far this season. We didn’t see the early explosive plays on offense. We saw plenty of penalty flags. And the Buckeyes had their backs against the wall until the final 2:13 of the Cotton Bowl.

Turns out, it was a moment that Ohio State had been preparing for all year long.

“I believe that the resilience that we’ve had to show throughout the entire season and throughout some of these guys’ careers has led us to this opportunity to win this game and go play for a national championship,” head coach Ryan Day said.

Here’s what we learned from the Buckeyes’ 28-14 Cotton Bowl win over Texas.

Cool heads prevail on offense

Ohio State was unable to take charge of the game like it had in the previous two playoff contests. Instead, the Buckeyes were forced into a four quarter battle — plagued by nine penalties — with the Longhorns. OSU quarterback Will Howard was forced to grind it out against a defense who had largely shut down star wide receiver Jeremiah Smith.

“We knew they were going to be keying him. Obviously, the first two rounds of the playoffs, (Smith) went off so we knew they were going to try and do something to take him away,” Howard said. “That means that we got to be smart and get the ball to other guys.”

That’s exactly what Howard did. TreVeyon Henderson, who earlier drew an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty, delivered a momentum-changing play at the end of the first half with a 75-yard touchdown to give the Buckeyes a 14-7 lead going into the locker room.

“I don’t think anyone thought that that was going for 75 yards,” Howard said. “That was a huge play for us. A huge swing.”

Then in the fourth, the Buckeyes needed a 13-play, 88-yard drive that took nearly eight minutes to secure the lead. The march down the field included a crucial fourth down conversion where Howard made an 18-yard gain on his own and finished with Quinshon Judkins scoring his second touchdown of the night.

“I fell on purpose. I’m joking. I didn’t fall on purpose,” Howard said. “It was a great play and a statement drive. We needed that. We had been beating ourselves all day with penalties and just getting behind the sticks. […] And obviously what the defense did on that next drive sealed it.”

Pickerington’s Jack Sawyer propels Buckeyes to victory

The Longhorns were one yard away from tying the game late in the fourth quarter. But the red zone defense who had made headlines earlier in the season prevailed when it mattered the most. Lathan Ransom pushed Texas back to the eight yard line on second down. Then on third down, Jack Sawyer forced an incomplete pass. Moments later, the Pickerington native delivered a play that will go down as legendary.

“What happened on fourth down by Jack just symbolizes not only his career but our team in general and who they are,” Day said. “The toughness and the clutch play right there was something that I’m sure the whole city of Columbus exploded with all of Buckeye nation during that play.”

Sawyer forced Texas quarterback Quinn Ewers to cough up the football. The senior defensive end ends up with the scoop and score, returning it 83 yards the other way to give Ohio State a commanding 28-14 lead and punching the Buckeyes’ ticket to the national championship game. The play is the longest defensive return score in CFP history.

So what was Sawyer thinking during that run to glory?

“Just don’t fall like Will did,” Sawyer said. “I’m kidding but seriously I hit about the 30 and I looked back and said I hope I got some blockers. I’m running out of steam here. They were running with me side by side and that just speaks volumes to who this team is.”

No hard feelings from former roommate Quinn Ewers

On the other end of that play was Ewers, who up to that point had thrown for two touchdowns and had not turned the ball over. The Texas quarterback is a former Buckeye who shared a room with Sawyer during his lone season in Columbus.

“I saw Jack running with the ball down the sideline. It sucks man,” Ewers said. “He’s a great player. Great individual. Great person. Jack’s a great player and he made a great play.”

Ewers ended up completing 23 of 39 passes for 283 yards and two scores. His late interception to Caleb Downs ended any faint hope the Longhorns had in getting back in the game and instead sparked conversations on Ewers’ future with Texas.

“I just said great season. He’s a great guy,” Sawyer said. “He’s had a lot of success and he’s a great person you know. I just told him to keep your head up. You played a great game and you got a great future ahead of you.”

Buckeyes back in the title game

As Ohio State enjoys its third ever Cotton Bowl victory, attention now turns toward Notre Dame, who stands in the way of the program’s ninth national championship. The Buckeyes will have ten days to prepare for the Jan. 20 contest in Atlanta, the final hurdle to the team’s ultimate goal.

“We talked about how we want to keep this team together. It’s a great team,” Day said. “They do everything the right way and so now they get ten more days together.”

Atlanta is the final stop on the Buckeyes’ redemption tour. It’s where Ohio State suffered that heartbreaking Peach Bowl loss in the 2022 CFP semifinals at the stroke of midnight on New Year’s Eve. And it’s the final piece of the puzzle to putting all of OSU’s past demons behind them.

“It’s an opportunity to tell their story if they go win one more,” Day said. “That’s really exciting.”

Ohio State EDGE J.T. Tuimoloau left Friday’s Cotton Bowl against Texas with an apparent ankle injury. He appeared to get caught underneath a teammate and immediately headed to the tent.

Tuimoloau got rolled up on the pile in the second quarter and quickly reached for his ankle. He limped off the field and went straight to the medical tent with the training staff for further evaluation.

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Tuimoloau emerged from the tent shortly thereafter with his left ankle heavily taped. ESPN’s Holly Rowe reported he was in plenty of pain, but looked like he’d try to return to the College Football Playoff semifinal.

“J.T. right now, as you see, a very heavily taped left ankle,” Rowe said on the broadcast. “He is in quite a bit of pain. He keeps grimacing as he tries to run. But he has gone up and down the sideline a couple of times here. It looks like he’s going to try to go. But, guys, I can tell you, he is in a great deal of pain right now.”

Tuimoloau is in the midst of the best year of his career after returning to Ohio State this season. He entered Friday with 49 tackles, including a career-high 17 tackles for loss and 10.0 sacks. Prior to his departure in the Cotton Bowl, he had two tackles and 1.5 sacks as the Buckeyes ramped up the pressure on Quinn Ewers.

Ohio State has been rolling through the College Football Playoff, bouncing back well from a season-ending loss to Michigan. The Buckeyes cruised past Tennessee in the first round and blew out No. 1 seed Oregon in the Rose Bowl last time out.

Hot starts have been key to Ohio State’s success, and that was the case on Friday when Quinshon Judkins found the end zone on the Buckeyes’ opening drive. Ryan Day said it’s crucial to set the table for the rest of the game.

“We’ve always wanted to have fast starts and we all know that,” Day said. “I do think that, you know, we’ve talked about, you know, early in games, you know, you want to set the tone for the game, you know, as an individual but also as a team, as a unit.”

“You know, both games, we’ve started off with the ball and we’ve gone right down and scored. So execution fuels emotion. That certainly has a big part of it. They go together. We’ve executed well on those first couple drives and that’s had a big part of it. Defense has got some three-and-outs early in the game. We’ve been able to jump on the last two opponents.”

Rewind to Week 8 of the 2023 season, and Will Howard found himself on the bench in the second half of Kansas State’s game against Texas Tech.

Howard, who attempted only one pass in the second half of the game, was relieved by true freshman Avery Johnson, who scored five rushing touchdowns as Wildcats coach Chris Klieman said the quarterback-run game was open. Johnson’s performance led to Kansas State’s 38-21 win that night.

Fast forward a year, and Howard is in a position no one saw coming. After losing his role for a short time in 2023, the fifth-year senior has Ohio State in the College Football Playoff semifinal and has thrown for a CFP-leading 630 yards with five touchdowns in two dominant wins over Tennessee and Oregon.

REQUIRED READING: Why Ohio State QB Will Howard has extra motivation for Texas in College Football Playoff

The 6-foot-4 signal caller heads into the Buckeyes’ Cotton Bowl matchup with Texas on Friday with 3,490 passing yards with 32 touchdowns to nine interceptions this season, putting himself on the NFL draft radar.

While Howard took the majority of the snaps the rest of the way for Kansas State, he did surrender some work to the Wildcats’ young phenom in 2023. His transfer to Ohio State has been clearly the right move for the Downing, Pennsylvania, native.

Here’s everything to know about Howard’s transfer last offseason, and how he has excelled at Ohio State this season:

Why did Will Howard transfer to Ohio State?

Howard never explicitly stated his reasoning to leave Kansas State, however, with one extra season of eligibility remaining due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Howard likely wanted to play for a team ready to compete at the national stage.

Howard likely wasn’t going to achieve that at Kansas State, although he went 12-5 as the starter there in 2022 and 2023 with a 2022 Big 12 championship win over TCU, who reached the national championship that season. He also knew he’d be one of the top transfer portal quarterbacks available in a year where numerous teams had a spot to fill, along with respecting that the Wildcats had Johnson in waiting.

Ohio State, of course, also had a spot open, as Kyle McCord entered the transfer portal despite throwing for 3,170 yards with 24 touchdowns to six interceptions last season. All signs pointed to the Buckeyes taking a quarterback regardless of McCord’s move, however, to promote competition for the spot after some of McCord’s blunders in big games.

Howard took official visits to Miami, USC and Ohio State, and ultimately chose the Buckeyes due to the opportunity to win a national championship, plus the exposure on the national stage that would hopefully improve his NFL draft stock.

“The goal I have, I want to go win a national championship,” Howard told ESPN after committing. “At the end of the day, I want to go be a starting quarterback in the NFL. … I feel like the best place to stick as a quarterback in the NFL is as a first- or second-round pick in the NFL draft. Going to Ohio State gives me a chance to make a jump and leap into that conversation.”

Howard nearly entered the NFL draft last offseason, especially after landing a coveted invite from the Senior Bowl. However, he seemingly thought that a season at Ohio State would do more for his chances than leaving last season.

REQUIRED READING: Will Howard continues to prove Ohio State football can win with him at quarterback

Howard made huge strides as a passer during his time at Kansas State, going from a run-first quarterback to a consistent passer. His biggest jump came at Ohio State, however, as his completion percentage rose to 72.6% this season, over 10 points higher than his previous best of 61.3% in 2023.

Howard said his production at Kansas State didn’t match what he thought of himself as a player, and that rung true after his showing with the Buckeyes this season.

“The week before I committed here I received a Senior Bowl invite,” Howard told reporters at his introductory press conference last January. “That was probably the thing I was closest to doing was going in the draft. I was projected a third- to sixth-round pick, that’s what I was hearing. You can never really trust everything you hear, but that was consensus what I was hearing.

“I just felt like I had the opportunity and felt like my talent level didn’t match where my stock was. And I felt like I couldn’t pass up an opportunity to try and bump that up and go somewhere to compete for a national championship.”

Will Howard stats

Here are Howard’s year-by-year college stats:

• 2020 (Kansas State): 90 of 168 passing (53.6%) for 1,178 yards with eight touchdowns to 10 interceptions; 78 rushes for 364 yards with three touchdowns
• 2021 (Kansas State): 30 of 55 passing (54.5%) for 332 yards with a touchdown to an interception; 32 rushes for 184 yards with four touchdowns
• 2022 (Kansas State): 119 of 199 passing (59.8%) for 1,633 yards with 15 touchdowns to four interceptions; 35 rushes for 22 yards with three touchdowns
• 2023 (Kansas State): 219 of 357 passing (61.3%) for 2,643 yards with 24 touchdowns to 10 interceptions; 81 rushes for 351 yards with nine touchdowns
• 2024 (Ohio State): 268 of 369 passing (72.6%) for 3,490 yards with 32 touchdowns to nine interceptions; 82 rushes for 165 yards with seven touchdowns