When Syria’s dictatorship fell in early December, a celebration broke out nearly 6,000 miles away in Toledo, Ohio. At the parking lot of a Kroger supermarket, families danced and sang to Syrian music. Women ululated, and men wrapped themselves in the flag of their home country. People leaned on their car horns, expressing their joy at the end of a regime that relied on brutality and terror as a means of governing Syria for more than half a century and waged a civil war that forced millions of people to become refugees.

The first time I visited Toledo to meet Syrian refugees was nearly a decade ago, on my very first reporting trip as a host of All Things Considered. At the time, a 22-year-old named Mohammed al-Refai had just arrived in the city of 265,000. His situation was unusual. After his family fled Syria across the border to Jordan, Mohammed got a visa to come to the United States. His parents and siblings did not. Nobody could explain why; the State Department usually keeps families together.

So in Toledo in 2015, Mohammed settled into a group house with some American roommates just out of college who took him under their wing and called him Moh. He began to learn English and got a job at a halal butcher shop. When I first met him, some of the few English words he knew were “chicken legs, chicken breast, goat, steak, lamb.”

Mohammed dreamed of visiting his family in Jordan, but after Donald Trump was first elected president, leaving the country seemed like a bad idea. Trump had run on a platform of stopping Muslims from coming to the US. Mohammed was afraid that if he went to Jordan, he might not be allowed to return. “I need they be safe and close to me, my family, but I can’t do anything,” he told me just before Trump’s first inauguration in 2017. “I feel bad for they not with me.”

Later that year, the guys at the group house called me with an update. “I have my green card!” Mohammed said. The roommates threw him a party with a green cake. When he called his parents in Jordan to share the good news, they cried and shouted. “Come right now, visit us!” his mother said. But Trump had just banned travel from several Muslim majority countries, and so Mohammed sadly told them he wouldn’t feel safe visiting until he had a US passport.

He became eligible to apply for U.S. citizenship in February of 2020. But as the coronavirus shut everything down one month later, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services followed suit. It would be another two years until he finally took his citizenship exam in February of 2022. That afternoon, he joyfully called me from outside the Anthony J. Celebrezze Federal Building in downtown Cleveland. “Yes! Yes! Yes! I’m so glad I am now American citizen!” he said.

And a few months later, I got a voice memo from Mohammed. “Hey my friend,” he said, “I’m with my family in Jordan. I’ve been here two weeks.” It was the first time he had seen his family in seven years. One of the roommates from Toledo made the trip with him.

So when Bashar al-Assad’s regime fell, I immediately thought of Mohammed and gave him a call in Toledo. I asked where he was when he heard about rebels taking over Damascus and he said, “My dad and mom were watching the news.” At first I didn’t understand. “Was your family just visiting from Jordan? Are they living in Ohio now?” I asked. He explained that his whole family — parents, brother, and sister — received visas to come to the US about a year ago. They all live together now. They still often see the roommates Mohammed lived with for years.

As the family gathered to watch people dancing in the streets of Damascus, Mohammed’s family cried tears of joy. He called the McDonald’s where he now works as a grill manager to say he wouldn’t be coming in that day. A WhatsApp group of Syrians in Toledo quickly planned to meet at the Kroger parking lot for an impromptu celebration.

Mohammed told me his family doesn’t plan to return to Syria right away. “I don’t know how long it will take to fix everything,” he said. “Here it’s more safe … but maybe we’ll go visit back there.”

His family is from Daraa, a city in southern Syria where the revolution began in 2011. He still has friends and relatives in the country, including an aunt and uncle who fled their home during the war. “Now they can talk anything about Syria,” he says. “They’re not scared about anything.” They recently returned home. “They opened the house, they cleaned it,” Mohammed told me.

After so many years of uncertainty and separation from his family, living with his parents and siblings in Ohio feels surreal. “We got here and safe. No one killed. No one in jail. That was the dream,” he says. “And we find a good life in the United States.”

Mohammed says he might return to Syria in 10 or 20 years. But even if he does, “We will love America because she is saving us, and she took care of us.”

Many fans of the Oregon Ducks may remember the last time Oregon played the Ohio State Buckeyes in the Rose Bowl: 2010. The Ducks, still in the PAC 12 Conference, lost to the Buckeyes 17-26. Funny enough, a future Duck was witnessing this match-up in the stands.

“2010 was against Ohio State right? I was at that game, which is kind of crazy. It’s the only Rose Bowl game I’ve ever been to. My parents took me. I was little so I don’t remember a whole lot of it. I remember tailgating a little bit before and then sitting in our seats and it felt like we were a mile away. To come back now and be playing in it, it’s certainly special. We’re planning on ending this one a little bit different,” Bryce Boettcher said.

Star linebacker Boettcher was there to witness it all unfold. He would have been around seven years old at the time, and though he admittedly doesn’t remember much, his childhood of Oregon fandom has led him to being one of the biggest playmakers on both the Oregon football and baseball team.

So far this season, Boettcher boasts 87 total tackles (45 solo), two sacks, one forced fumble, and one interception against the UCLA Bruins.

Regarding this rematch, the Burlsworth Trophy award winner admits he’s excited for take two against the Buckeyes. Oregon beat Ohio State 32-31 earlier in October at Autzen Stadium.

“Yea it’s huge man. You dream of this game. It’s, like I said, what you dream of. I’m pumped to get to do it with this team in this circumstance, especially to get to play Ohio State again. I was hoping we were going to get them again,” Boettcher said.

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However, football purists may beg to differ. When it comes to playing a team twice, there’s a superstition around the ability to capture a second win. Boettcher argues against that theory.

“I think people have this misconception that when you play a team twice, it’s harder to beat them twice. Maybe if we were playing baseball that might be the case, but I think football is a little different. When you beat a team, there’s definitely a psychological aspect knowing that they’ve obviously already lost and we’ve already won. And we obviously covered that a little in the team meeting. I’m excited for this game, but nothing changes. We’re just going to go out and do what we do,” Boettcher said.

For this matchup, Boettcher an company have a clear idea for what they’re up against, and who won’t be returning to the field for the Buckeyes. Ohio State left tackle Josh Simmons and center Seth McLaughlin are both out for the season, making the trenches a little more vulnerable for Oregon’s defense to penetrate.

A key piece returning for the Buckeyes is running back duo of TreVeyon Henderson and Quinshon Judkins. The Ducks were able to limit Henderson to 87 yards and Judkins to 23 yards in their last meeting, but these two backs are forces to be reckoned with on the Ohio State offense, with over 800 yards a piece on the season so far.

“They’ve got a lot of weapons,” Boettcher said about Ohio State. “They’ve got two really good backs, good wideouts, good quarterback – I mean all around they’re a solid team. You’ve just got to game plan and do your best to eliminate those players. But at the end of the day, we play sound football on defense. We communicate and we’re the tougher team and we’re going to come out victorious.”

For Oregon’s defense, their latest performance against Penn State in the Big Ten Championship had more cracks than usual. Oregon allowed Penn State to total more yards, with 518 yards to round out the game. 292 of those yards were from Penn State’s rushing attack. Running backs Kaytron Allen and Nicholas Singleton both put up over 100 yards rushing each against the Ducks. When facing Ohio State, the Ducks’ defense has to improve in defending from the ground game.

“I’d say just communication and physicality, those are the two biggest things on defense,” Boettcher said. “Making sure you’re aligned right and adjusted right to what the offense is doing and once the ball snaps, just being the most physical team and we preached in practice and it shows up in practice, so I’m excited for this upcoming game.”

According to Boettcher, the steps to prepare for the team hasn’t changed. The Ducks are entering this New Years quarterfinal game with the same mentality they’ve had this entire season, or “FEBU” as it’s been called by players and coaches. Though this team stresses each game is nothing but another opportunity, for an Oregon kid with a personal tie like Boettcher, there’s got to be a little bit more emotion riding on the roses.

“Same preparation as we had in the Big Ten as we’re going to have for this game. We believe in ourselves. You know, you’d like to stop every single team to five rushing yards every single game but that’s not going to happen. Like I said, same preparation we’ve always had. Nothing changes. Just being the most physical team in practice.”

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Immediately following Michigan’s 13-10 upset of then-No. 2 Ohio State, and the aftermath that took place at midfield, questions were immediately raised as to why the Buckeyes neglected to use the best weapons they had on offense — their wide receivers.

Ohio State head coach Ryan Day and offensive coordinator Chip Kelly were at the center of nationwide criticism for their offensive strategy, but Michigan defensive coordinator Wink Martindale and the Wolverines’ defensive front deserve credit for holding OSU to their lowest regular season scoring output since 2011.

How did the Wolverines do it?

“We were really confident in the game plan,” Martindale told reporters on Saturday, as Michigan prepares to face Alabama in the ReliaQuest Bowl. “And, you know, our whole message was all week, let’s take them to the deep end in the fourth quarter. And we knew then that we could take over the game defensively.”

Day and Kelly rigthfully came under fire for their insistence in trying to run the football, with a banged-up offensive line, between the tackles against the heart of Michigan’s defense — Mason Graham and Kenneth Grant.

However, Martindale and the Wolverines were able to dictate some of that with the defensive looks they presented Ohio State, sacrificing numbers against the run in order to prevent big plays over the top through the air. Michigan needed Graham, Grant, the rest of the defensive line and the linebackers to hold up against the run despite the Buckeyes having a numbers advantage. They did just that, and after the Wolverines got a few good licks in on OSU quarterback Will Howard, the rest was history.

“I know there’s been a lot of speculations about this and that…but, you know, all credit to the players,” Martindale said. “The game always has been, always will be about them. I come out with that on Twitter because that’s what it was. We just physically outplayed them.

“When your best players are playing their best, that’s when you have a lot of success. And you saw that with Makari’s hit on the quarterback. Earnest’s hit on the quarterback that was sort of hidden, that no one saw because it was on a read sweep play. He got it pretty good. And after that, [Howard] started getting a little nervous back there. So, you know, the guys had a great rush plan. Lou had a great rush plan. And Kevin with the four upfront. LaMar and BJ did a great job with the coverage aspect of it. Just sticking to our game plan. And, you know, it was a lot of fun to watch.”

After Ohio State exploded for 42 points against a Tennessee defense that was also very stout during the 2024 season, more questions were raised as to how Michigan was able to hold the Buckeyes in check. Martindale’s further explanation wasn’t overly complicated.

“We felt good going into the game of how we were going to attack them and give them some different looks that they weren’t used to,” the defensive coordinator said. “And then when they started getting used to it, we went to a different look. And, you know, it kept them, you know, guessing and reaching the entire game. But you could see, you know, that Tennessee game, what kind of explosive offense it was. I mean, they’re a very talented group. And it was just, you know, our day that day. And I’m glad we had it.”

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