Ohio
Tennessee overwhelmed in humbling Playoff loss at Ohio State: ‘It stings’
COLUMBUS, Ohio — By the time the beating was finished, most of the thousands of Tennessee fans who flooded into Ohio Stadium were gone.
At least two remained — one in a Peyton Manning jersey and another in a coonskin cap — and hovered over the tunnel as the stone-faced Vols walked into the beginning of the end of their season.
They offered encouragement and some high fives in contrast to the derisive “S-E-C” chant coming from the Ohio State student section as the Buckeyes celebrated a cherished Rose Bowl berth that eluded Tennessee.
Ohio State 42, Tennessee 17.
The Vols’ 21-0 hole after the game’s first 12 minutes was too deep to escape. Ohio State’s talent at edge rusher and receiver overwhelmed Tennessee.
Cutting the lead to 11 at halftime offered a brief glimmer of hope until Ohio State forced a punt on the second half’s first possession and followed up with a 65-yard touchdown drive to slam the door for good.
GO DEEPER
Tennessee fans’ orange invasion of Ohio Stadium: ‘Don’t tell us we can’t do that’
“Everybody was just disappointed,” Tennessee coach Josh Heupel said.
The offensive line struggled to provide quarterback Nico Iamaleava with clean pockets. Tennessee’s receivers couldn’t find space in the secondary, forcing Iamaleava to hold onto the ball and try to create an offense built from scraps of quarterback scrambles.
The secondary struggled to cover Ohio State’s stellar receivers and even when they did, freshman phenom Jeremiah Smith and NFL-bound senior Emeka Egbuka hauled in contested catches anyway.
“They made some plays. That’s gonna happen against a good team,” Heupel said. “What we didn’t do is come back and find a way to get on the right side of it. That’s defensively, offensively, it’s everybody.”
Nico Iamaleava on his 20 carries: “I didn’t expect to run that many times.”
Josh Heupel said some of those were him scrambling.
— David Ubben (@davidubben) December 22, 2024
Injuries, Ohio State’s defense and the early struggles forced Tennessee to try to morph on the fly into a team it isn’t.
Dylan Sampson, the SEC’s Offensive Player of the Year, suffered a hamstring injury late in the regular-season finale against Vanderbilt and aggravated the injury early on Saturday. Tennessee knew entering the game Sampson would be limited, but he was barely available and couldn’t continue after briefly returning in the second half.
He carried the ball at least 19 times in every SEC game this season. He carried the ball twice on Saturday.
Iamaleava hadn’t run the ball more than a dozen times all season. Between called runs and scrambles, he had to carry the ball 20 times. The Vols’ longest passing play of the day was just 21 yards. Iamaleava finished with a season-low 104 passing yards despite throwing the ball 31 times, just the third time this season he’s topped 30 attempts in a game.
“It sucks to go out that way,” Iamaleava said. “That’s not who we are, man.”
He averaged 8.3 yards per attempt during the regular season, good for 21st nationally. He averaged 3.3 yards per attempt on Saturday.
“When we’re not creating explosives, whether it’s poor calls or execution, it puts you in a phone booth,” offensive coordinator Joey Halzle said. “We didn’t stretch them enough. We didn’t force them to respect us going by them enough to make them change up what they were doing. When you let them play comfortable and play in their game plan and don’t make them change, it creates long nights like what happened tonight.”
The defense gave up 311 yards through the air to Will Howard, a quarterback who had just one 300-yard game this season. Tennessee had surrendered 300 passing yards in just one other game this year, to Carson Beck and Georgia.
The Vols lost by 25 in a game in which they won the turnover battle, 1-0.
“Their skill on both sides of the ball was as good as you’ll see,” Heupel said.
Defensive coordinator Tim Banks said the Buckeyes offense didn’t do much the Vols hadn’t prepared for on film. They just did it well and consistently won 1-on-1 matchups.
A breakthrough season crescendoed to the program’s first College Football Playoff bid and arguably the biggest game for the program in at least two decades.
Tennessee fans flooded into Ohio Stadium by the thousands. Instead of witnessing another breakthrough, they were forced to shiver through a breakdown on the sport’s biggest stage and a game that was barely competitive, just like the three first-round games that preceded it.
The only matchup of Big Ten and SEC teams in Round 1 produced the most lopsided result of the opening weekend of the expanded Playoff, with the Big Ten team’s players parading around their home field with roses between their teeth.
Tennessee has looked the part of a good team all season, but losses to Georgia and Ohio State laid bare the reality that the Vols have yet to ascend into the sport’s upper crust and aren’t ready to chase the kinds of titles that have eluded the program since 1998.
Ohio State’s offensive game plan showed aggression and a desire to stretch the field early, making it clear that Tennessee would not be facing the same Buckeyes team that lost a brawl at the line of scrimmage against Michigan three weeks ago.
The Vols came up against one of the nation’s most talented teams. For 60 minutes, the Buckeyes looked the part, flexing at Tennessee’s expense.
“It stings losing like that,” linebacker Will Brooks said.
It was tough to swallow for Heupel, who used the word “disappointed” 10 times in his 14 minutes with reporters after the loss. Multiple times, he was left shaking his head.
He saw the same thing that the thousands of fans in orange witnessed, too.
“Disappointed in our performance for our fans,” Heupel said. “People that have watched us, it wasn’t our best football tonight.”
But it’s the football Tennessee will be left to ponder as it enters an offseason that started earlier than anyone in orange hoped. As Heupel addressed his team, he began by using that word, acknowledging the disappointment of Tennessee’s first trip to the Playoff before pointing to the future after closing a stretch of 30 wins in three seasons.
“Everybody better let that soak in,” Heupel said, “and it’s gotta propel you to whatever’s next.”
(Photo of Nico Iamaleava: Saul Young / USA Today Network via Imagn Images)
Ohio
National Weather Service says more snow for Northeast Ohio next week
CLEVELAND, Ohio — The National Weather Service said Saturday evening that even though the Northeast Ohio region has had plenty of snow to go around from the last three and a half days, more snow is on the way.
NWS meteorologist Mike Griffin said there will be lingering snow flurries and showers Saturday night. After the last few days of snow, Welshfield, in Geauga County, saw the most snowfall with 16.1 inches, he said, followed by North Royalton with 15.1 (Cuyahoga County); Burton with 13.9 (Geauga); Brunswick with 13.2 (Medina); Broadview Heights with 13.1 (Cuyahoga); Rusell Center with 10.3 (Geauga); Strongsville with 10 (Cuyahoga) and Hinckley with 9.6 (Medina).
“The past few days (of snow) have been more deeper in the snow belt than the secondary snow belt,” Griffin said. The primary snow belt takes up most of Northeast Ohio, including Lake, Ashtabula, Geauga and eastern Cuyahoga counties, he said, whereas the secondary snow belt includes eastern Lorain County, western Cuyahoga County and Medina, Summit and Portage counties.
Most of the time the primary snow belt is the one that gets hit the worst, he said, when the wind blows from north-northwest. This week’s storm brought wind that came from the western end of Lake Erie, hitting the secondary snow belt, which is more inland, Griffin said.
Northeast Ohio should expect light snow showers Sunday night into Monday. Another, more heavy lake effect snow will approach on Tuesday into the end of the week, Griffin said.
Kaylee Remington is the shopping and entertainment commerce reporter and metro reporter for cleveland.com and The Plain Dealer. Read her work online.
Ohio
Ohio State Buckeyes Transfer Expected to Land with Rising Big Ten Opponent
The Ohio State Buckeyes have seen a handful of players opt to enter the NCAA transfer portal. One of them is offensive lineman Zen Michalski.
Michalski joined Ohio State in the 2021 recruiting class. In that class, he was the No. 22 ranked offensive tackle in the nation and the No. 3 recruit in the state of Indiana.
When he originally committed, the Buckeyes felt that he had a chance to become a huge piece of the future. Unfortunately, that has not been the case.
Now, it sounds like he has found his new team. That team also happens to be a rising opponent for Ohio State in the Big Ten.
According to a report from Matt Zenitz of CBS Sports, Michalski is expected to take his talents and transfer to the Indiana Hoosiers.
Joining the Hoosiers will be somewhat of a homecoming for Michalski. He is from Indiana and will be joining a team that ended up making the College Football Playoff this season.
Under head coach Curt Cignetti, the Hoosiers are back on track. They got blown out in the playoff, but the program is building the right way and has a chance to be a very serious contender in the coming years.
Michalski could end up being a huge get for Indiana. He would have a chance to play a consistent role and prove that he still has the ability that made him such a high-profile recruit back in 2021.
Coming into the offseason, the Hoosiers needed to find a right tackle. Michalski would be able to slide right into that position and start for Indiana. It’s a perfect fit for both the team and the player.
As for the Buckeyes, the loss of Michalski should not impact them much at all. He did not play much and they will have plenty of talented offensive line depth in 2025.
Seeing him land with the Hoosiers stings a bit, but Ohio State shouldn’t lose sleep over this likely outcome.
Ohio
Michigan State Insider Podcast: Recapping Spartans’ Win Over Ohio State
No. 18 Michigan State extended its win streak to seven games with its 69-62 victory over Ohio State on Thursday.
The Spartans went into Columbus and were able to pull off the road win, despite blowing a 14-point lead in the second half.
It was a valiant late-game effort for Michigan State, which improved to 12-2 on the season and is 1-0 to start 2025. The Spartans are also 3-0 in conference play.
Our Aidan Champion recaps the contest on this postgame edition of the Michigan State Spartans Insider Podcast.
You can watch the episode below:
Michigan State senior center Szymon Zapala led the way with 15 points. He also recorded two blocks. Spartan senior guard Jaden Akins did his part on offense as well, scoring 14 in the victory.
Redshirt freshman guard Jeremy Fears Jr. was arguably the MVP of the game for the Spartans as he posted 6 points, six rebounds and seven assists.
Sophomore forward Xavier Booker had a bounce-back performance after falling off in his last two outings. He finished with 9 points and two blocks.
Junior forward Jaxon Kohler nearly ended up with another double-double, scoring 8 points while collecting 10 rebounds.
Sophomore forward Coen Carr tallied 11 points. He was efficient from the charity stripe, knocking down 7-of-8 free throws.
The Spartans were tested by veteran guard Bruce Thornton, who was a huge part of the Buckeyes’ comeback late. They also had to deal with Ohio State’s leading scorer in the contest, junior guard Micah Parrish, who finished with 13 points and also excelled down the stretch.
Michigan State struggled from deep in the contest and continued to have trouble turning the ball over. But it was able to overcome those issues and secure the road win, a tough feat in the Big Ten, especially considering the setbacks.
The Spartans will look to build on their perfect start to conference play with a home matchup against Washington on Thursday. It will be the first time the two teams face off since 2010 when Michigan State narrowly defeated the Huskies, 76-71, in the Maui Invitational. That game is set for 8 p.m. EST.
Don’t forget to follow the official Spartan Nation Page on Facebook Spartan Nation WHEN YOU CLICK RIGHT HERE, and be a part of our vibrant community group Go Green Go White as well WHEN YOU CLICK RIGHT HERE.
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