The big question coming out of the College Football Playoff quarterfinals: Can anyone beat Ohio State?

After demolishing Tennessee in the opening round, Ohio State rolled out to a 34-0 lead and cruised to a 41-21 win against previously unbeaten Oregon in the Rose Bowl. In the month-plus since losing to rival Michigan for the fourth year in a row, the Buckeyes have turned back into a juggernaut.

OSU will next take on Texas, which rode Quinn Ewers’ late-game heroics and survived a major scare against Arizona State in the Peach Bowl. Ahead 24-8 in the fourth quarter, the Longhorns needed double overtime to escape with a 39-31 win. Beating the Buckeyes in the Cotton Bowl will take more consistency than what Texas brought into the matchup against the Sun Devils.

Penn State slowed down Boise State running back Ashton Jeanty and scored a 31-14 win against the Broncos in the Fiesta Bowl. The Nittany Lions have outscored two playoff opponents by a combined 69-24.

They’ll meet Notre Dame, which scored 17 points in a 54-second span across the second and third quarters to beat Georgia 23-10 in a Sugar Bowl delayed one day following the deadly attack in New Orleans early Wednesday morning.

The national semifinals will begin on Jan. 9 with Ohio State as the favorite for the national championship. Before looking ahead, here are the winners and losers from the quarterfinals:

Winners

Ohio State

Oregon never stood a chance. After topping OSU 32-31 in the regular season, the Ducks were swamped by one of the most electric offensive performances in Rose Bowl history. The Buckeyes put up an even 500 yards of offense on 8.8 yards per play, led by quarterback Will Howard’s 319 passing yards and three touchdowns without an interception. The backfield pairing of TreVeyon Henderson and Quinshon Judkins combined for 179 yards and two scores, both from Henderson, on 25 carries. But the star was freshman receiver Jeremiah Smith, who looked more than NFL-ready with 187 yards and a pair of touchdowns on 26.7 yards per catch. Not to be outdone, the OSU defense had eight sacks, 13 tackles for loss and became the first team to hold Oregon under 300 yards since Utah in the 2021 Pac-12 championship game.

Ryan Day

Day has exorcised the bad vibes stemming from another loss to the Wolverines by orchestrating this dominant start to the playoff. Going into the 12-team tournament, the thought was Day had to win at least one and maybe two games to get himself into more secure territory with the OSU fan base; so far, consider this a job well-done. But you have to ask: Given how they’ve looked in these two games, would Day come under fire again if the Buckeyes don’t win the whole thing?

Notre Dame

Beating Georgia marks Notre Dame’s biggest win in years and solidifies the school’s decision to gamble on an unproven Marcus Freeman three years ago. Credit the Fighting Irish for taking advantage of the opportunities provided by Georgia’s missteps, including a crucial fumble and a strip-sack that resulted in a Riley Leonard touchdown late in the second quarter. The Irish also returned the opening kickoff of the second half for a score. On the other hand, Leonard averaged just 3.8 yards per attempt, though he did have 65 yards on the ground; the receiver corps really struggled to get separation against Georgia’s secondary, with a long reception of just 14 yards; and the typically potent backfield pairing of Jeremiyah Love and Jadarian Price had only 51 yards on 13 carries. Notre Dame also went just 2 of 10 on third down and scored just two field goals outside of the 54-second barrage that decided the game.

Penn State

The Nittany Lions’ defense got the job done against Boise State despite losing star edge rusher Abdul Carter to an apparent arm injury in the first half. That sapped what is typically a very strong pass rush and made things a little easier for Boise quarterback Maddux Madsen. But the defense was up to the challenge of stopping Jeanty, who had his worst game in what had been a memorable 2024 season. If we’re nitpicking another double-digit playoff win, PSU made the curious choice to shy away from a very effective running game and had several questionable play-calling decisions on short-yardage plays, allowing the Broncos to hang around longer than expected before the Nittany Lions delivered the knockout blow on Nick Singleton’s 58-yard touchdown run.

Quinn Ewers

Texas survived and advanced despite Cam Skattebo’s best efforts. The senior put together perhaps the most impressive individual performance of the postseason, running for 143 yards and two scores, pulling down a team-high 99 receiving yards and even throwing a 42-yard touchdown that sparked the Sun Devils’ fourth-quarter comeback. But Ewers had one of the best games of his college career with a terrific final stretch. He was perfect on the final drive of regulation to set up a missed 38-yard field goal and then threw a pair of touchdowns in overtime, including a ridiculous 28-yard strike on fourth down to force the second extra frame.

Losers

Oregon

That Oregon lost might not be surprising, even given the regular-season win against the Buckeyes. What was startling, though, was the ease with which OSU marched through the only unbeaten team remaining in the Bowl Subdivision and the playoff’s unquestioned top seed. This might not force Oregon to return to the drawing board — this team was the best in the country during the regular season, with wins against the Buckeyes, Broncos and Nittany Lions. But this is a definite letdown that will lead to some offseason soul-searching in Eugene.

Georgia

A startling number of mistakes doomed any chance Georgia had of winning with backup Gunner Stockton starting in place of an injured Carson Beck. Stockton acquitted himself well, all things considered, completing 18 of 29 throws for 225 yards and a score, but his fumble after being sacked with under a minute to play in the first half led to Notre Dame’s first touchdown. Running back Trevor Etienne’s fumble late in the first quarter ended a 71-yard drive that lasted over eight minutes. Georgia also committed a crucial offsides penalty to extend Notre Dame’s backbreaking drive late in the fourth quarter. But you can toss out the self-inflicted errors and focus on something even more painful for Georgia: Notre Dame was the better team in the Sugar Bowl, and it wasn’t that close.

Arizona State

There might not be a huge sense of disappointment around ASU after an amazing push to the Big 12 championship and the program-establishing double-overtime loss to the Longhorns. (At a minimum, there’s no doubt there would have been much more heartbreak on the opposite sideline had Texas lost.) What the Sun Devils achieved this season will probably make them the preseason Big 12 favorite heading into next September and one of the top contenders to get back into the playoff. But there were missed chances here to take down the Longhorns, not to mention a dose of controversy: Officials didn’t call a targeting on Texas defensive back Michael Taafe on a third-down completion during the Sun Devils’ final drive of regulation, which would’ve set up ASU for the potential game-winning field goal.

Ashton Jeanty

That Jeanty still went for 104 yards against one of the top run defenses in the FBS should be commended, even if that total was 23 yards shy of his previous season low and even if the Nittany Lions became the first FBS opponent to keep the Heisman Trophy runner-up out of the end zone. Disappointingly, however, Jeanty came up just short of Barry Sanders’ single-season rushing record. That shouldn’t detract from one of the best years by a running back in FBS history.

COLUMBUS, Ohio – The number of Ohio high school students who are dually enrolled in courses to earn college credit continues to rise, although participation in Cuyahoga and Summit counties was lower than other parts of the state, according to a recent report from the Ohio Department of Higher Education.

Ohio’s dual enrollment program is called College Credit Plus. Students enroll in courses for free – sometimes taught on nearby college campuses, sometimes offered at the high school by teachers who meet adjunct college faculty requirements, and sometimes online. Textbooks are also free, and students earn both high school and college credits.

The latest Department of Higher Education report shows a 5.3% increase in College Credit Plus enrollment, to 80,163 students in grades 9-12, in the 2022-2023 school year. College Credit Plus began in the 2015-2016 school year, with 53,273 students, although another dual-enrollment program existed before then, dating back to 1989.

Students and families in the 2022-2023 year saved $193 million in college tuition through College Credit Plus. The report estimates over $1 billion in all has been saved in the eight years of the program.

The following was College Credit Plus participation in Northeast Ohio:

-Cuyahoga County: 9%, or 5,000 students out of 58,399 students in grades 9-12

-Summit County: 7%, or 2,012 of 26,906 students in 9-12

-Lorain County: 15%, or 2,341 of 15,112 students in 9-12

-Lake County: 10%, or 1,082 of 10,810 students in 9-12

-Medina County: 14%, or 1,308 of 9,099 students in 9-12

-Geauga County: 11%, or 510 of 4,839 students in 9-12

-Portage County: 9%, or 576 of 6,621 students in 9-12

Putnam County in northwest Ohio had the highest participation, with 33% of its students in grades 9-12 dually enrolled, followed by Washington County in eastern Ohio with 30%, and Hancock County in northwest Ohio with 29%.

Hamilton County had the lowest percent of dually enrolled students in 2022-2023, at 5%. Summit and Ashtabula counties tied for second lowest at 7%.

READ MORE: State announces $3 million to prep high school teachers to teach college courses

Ohio Auditor Keith Faber looked at College Credit Plus in detail in August 2022 and made several recommendations for improvement.

“Despite the obvious benefits of College Credit Plus, we found that the program was not consistently promoted or used at the local school district level,” the audit said.

The audit said that nationally, dual-enrollment programs can close education gaps for students from economically disadvantaged backgrounds. However, in Ohio, these students are lagging in College Credit Plus participation.

An October study by Columbia University’s Teachers College also found that among low-income Ohio students who took dual enrollment courses, only 9% had completed bachelor’s degrees four years after high school, compared to 11% of low-income students nationally.

READ MORE: Study: 83% of Ohio students who take college classes in high school go on to college

Faber’s audit recommended that state K-12 education and higher education officials work to expand high-speed internet for low-income students, who often lack the ability to take dual-enrollment courses because of their internet speeds at home. It also said that districts can eliminate barriers by providing support services for low-income students who participate in College Credit Plus.

The Ohio Department of Higher Education report for the 2022-2023 year found that of the 80,163 students in College Credit Plus, 55,486 were not economically disadvantaged; 15,774 were economically disadvantaged and the family incomes of 8,903 were unknown.

Laura Hancock covers state government and politics for The Plain Dealer and cleveland.com.

PASADENA, Calif. – It’s only been 14 games, but Ohio State offensive coordinator Chip Kelly had already seen enough of receiver Jeremiah Smith to make his proclamation.

“He’s the best receiver in the country, and he showed it tonight,” Kelly told USA TODAY Sports.

It’s hard to argue.  

As the College Football Playoff stage gets bigger, the Buckeyes freshman receiver continues to shine. His latest offering – a dominant performance against top-seeded Oregon in the Rose Bowl to get his team into the semifinals. He finished the night with seven catches for 187 yards – a career-high that broke the school record for most receiving yards in a game by a freshman – and two touchdowns. He was named Rose Bowl offensive MVP.

It only took three plays for his impact to be felt Wednesday. Smith took a short toss from quarterback Will Howard and evaded multiple tacklers before so jogging into the end zone for a 45-yard touchdown. 

As he made his way into the end zone, he held up a peace sign and signaled to the Oregon crowd to quiet down, and that’s pretty much what they did anytime No. 4 got his hands on the ball.

Smith was doing it about any way he wanted to. He was winning one-on-one matchups against a top 10 passing defense and he was maneuvering through the secondary to find himself wide open for big plays. Each time Howard threw the ball toward Smith’s direction, you could sense the impending doom awaiting the Oregon fans and the anticipation to celebrate for the scarlet and gray.

What’s more impressive about Smith’s performance is that most of his damage came in the first half. Smith had five catches for 161 yards as Ohio State was comfortably ahead 34-8 at the break, while Oregon has accumulated only 131 total yards.

It’s bee quite the run for Smith since a loss to Michigan knocked the Buckeyes out of the Big Ten title game. Through two playoff games, Smith now has 13 catches for 290 yards and four touchdowns as Ohio State has gone up against two of the top defensive units in the country. 

There may have been an extra incentive for Smith to show out against Oregon. Leading up to the Rose Bowl, he recalled the disappointment of the one-point loss to the Ducks in October and how that experienced helped Wednesday’s performance.

“We knew we had to get the ball to the perimeter, take shots and just win one-on-one matchups, and that’s what we did,” Smith said. 

Oregon coach Dan Lanning had Smith capabilities in that first meeting as he finished with nine catches for 100 yards and a touchdown. 

Now after seeing Smith befuddle his defense again, Lanning believes he’s ready for the next level – even if he has to wait two more seasons. 

“He’s strong, attacks the ball in the air as well as any receiver I’ve ever seen. The guy is NFL-ready. He’s that talented and that special,” Lanning said. “He’s got all the tools. A really talented player.”

There is some irony that Ohio State is full of veterans and transfers lured through name, image and likeness, yet it’s a true freshman that’s setting the tone in the postseason. 

But that was the feeling Buckeyes coach Ryan Day had when Smith first stepped foot on campus. 

You just aren’t the nation’s top recruit by accident. Day said Smith has a serious demeanor and isn’t one to talk much, but whenever he does speak up, “people listen.”

“He had a look in his eye he wanted to make an impact as a freshman,” Day said. 

It’s clear there’s maturity, accountability and confidence in Smith. He recalled telling Howard, who had his own big day with 319 passing yards and three touchdowns, just to get the ball to him and other receivers and they’ll make the play for him.

“It doesn’t matter if it’s a bad ball or not, we’ll make our quarterback look good,” Smith said. 

Ohio State has been a cottage industry of producing standout receivers in recent years. Smith is looking every bit of someone who will be on the NFL draft stage in 2027. Before then, Buckeyes fans have the rest of this playoff run and more to marvel at their new star.

“He’s got a couple more years until he goes, but he’s as good as I’ve ever seen,” Kelly said.