The Ohio State Buckeyes look like a buzzsaw at the moment, and Texas Longhorns head coach Steve Sarkisian is well aware of that fact.

Ohio State will be facing Texas in the Cotton Bowl next Friday with a trip to the National Championship Game on the line, and Sarkisian understands that the Longhorns are big underdogs.

The Buckeyes have opened as 5.5-point favorites over Texas, which actually seems like a rather slim margin considering what they just did to the previously undefeated Oregon Ducks.

But keep in mind: the Cotton Bowl will actually be played in Arlington, so the Longhorns technically have homefield advantage.

Still, it will be difficult to find anyone outside of the Lone Star State actually picking Texas in this game, and Sarkisian knows that.

“I need Longhorn Nation to show out in Arlington. We’re going to need everything we’ve got to try to win this game,” Sarkisian said, via Eleven Warriors. “Clearly, we’re massive underdogs. Nobody’s going to give us a shot. So we’re going to need all that we can to try to win this game.”

The Longhorns are one of the best teams in the country, but they don’t quite match Ohio State in terms of raw talent.

We saw the Buckeyes’ scary talent on display in the Rose Bowl, when they jumped out to a 34-0 lead against Oregon and ultimately came away with a 41-21 victory.

Meanwhile, Texas nearly lost to the Arizona State Sun Devils in the Peach Bowl, surviving in a double-overtime thriller.

Of course, stranger things have happened on the football field, so Ohio State absolutely cannot take the Longhorns lightly.

Devin Royal’s internal clock told him he was out of time.

The green-and-white-clad crowd of 14,797 was screaming as the Ohio State freshman held the ball, and likely the game, in his hands. A Tyson Walker free throw had just pulled Michigan State even against upset-minded Ohio State with 6.4 seconds remaining as Royal tried to get the Buckeyes set up for a final shot. Frantically, the freshman looked for his primary outlet to inbound the ball only to find the Spartans had taken it away.

“I’m counting in my head,” Royal said Thursday, thinking back on the moment. “I’m at five (seconds) myself, so I’m trying to hurry up and get it in.”

No whistle blew, and Royal managed to thread a pass into Bruce Thornton amid three Michigan State defenders. What happened next set off a celebration not seen in 12 years: Thornton pushed the ball up the court, found Dale Bonner along the 3-point line and fed his teammate for a game-winning shot that swished through the net with 0.2 seconds remaining.

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The shot will live on in Ohio State lore as the first road winner against the Spartans since William Buford’s jumper lifted them to a share of the 2012 Big Ten title in the final game of the regular season. It also snapped a 17-game road losing streak for the Buckeyes. But while Bonner’s name gets the headline for the play, that shot doesn’t go in – and Ohio State isn’t in position to shock the Spartans – without the first true standout game of Royal’s career.

On that Sunday afternoon, Royal finished with 14 points on 6-of-6 shooting and added two steals and two rebounds in the most playing time of his freshman season to that point: 17:54. It was a glimpse of why the Pickerington Central product had been such a coveted recruit, one who picked the Buckeyes despite a hard push from Michigan State coach Tom Izzo.

Friday night, those two teams meet for the first time since Bonner’s shot when the Spartans come to Value City Arena in the lone matchup between Ohio State and Michigan State this year. This time, Royal features prominently atop the scouting report amid a breakout sophomore season that was hinted at last season.

He leads the Buckeyes in rebounding (7.5 per game) and is second in scoring (14.8) after averaging 2.4 and 4.7 last season, respectively. It’s the kind of growth players sometimes show from freshman to sophomore seasons, but coach Jake Diebler said that’s not exactly how Royal’s summer went.

“At times you can just assume (that growth) is going to happen, but there’s a work, there’s a mentality, there’s a maturity required to make that jump,” Diebler said. “He was a little inconsistent with that at times in the summer. We talked about it. He owned that, and then he took off because I think he was honest with himself.”

When the Buckeyes reported for fall camp, Diebler said Royal had flipped the page and quickly began to assert himself as a high-level player.

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“You’re seeing a great deal of benefit from the hard work and mentality he had really starting in August,” the coach said. “He’s a great story about what I want our program to be about. I want guys to come in and grow and get better and he’s certainly done that.”

When Ohio State returned from holiday break, Royal was hardly able to practice due to an illness that had him questionable for the Dec. 29 home game against Indiana State. He gutted out 19:44, finishing with 13 points and four rebounds in the 103-83 win against the Sycamores.

In two Big Ten games this season, Royal leads Ohio State in scoring average (20.0) and rebounding average (7.5). For the Buckeyes to knock off No. 18 Michigan State, Royal will have to play a big part.

Just like he did last year.

“It taught me a lot,” Royal said of that experience. “It’s a very physical game. Tom Izzo definitely put in them (the mentality) to be physical a lot. I know coming into this game I have to put it into some of the younger guys who might not know about it.”

ajardy@dispatch.com

@AdamJardy

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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.