Ohio State head coach Ryan Day sees a source of inspiration heading into the College Football Playoff that some may view as unusual.
Entering the Buckeyes’ semi-final matchup as the No. 4 seed facing No. 1 Georgia, Day is drawing hope for his team’s national championship chances from none other than — Georgia. More specifically, last year’s Georgia team.
“There’s been precedent on this,” Day said Dec. 4, referring to the Bulldogs.
The Bulldogs did, in fact, take a similar path to the playoffs in 2021 that the Buckeyes took in 2022.
While they ran the table during the regular season, winning each of their final five games by at least 24 points, their final game before entering the semi-finals was a loss in the SEC Championship Game to No. 3 Alabama.
Though OSU didn’t make its conference championship this year, it too closed its campaign with a loss to the No. 3 team in the country, Michigan in this instance.
“You look at last year, Georgia lost to Alabama in this SEC Championship, I think it was 41-24, and then went on to win the whole thing,” Day said. “So now it’s just a matter of what we do moving forward. Certainly the game at the end of the year is going to be in the back of our minds as motivation, now it’s just all about maximizing this month.”
After that loss, Georgia entered the playoffs as the No. 3 seed and took on No. 2 Michigan. The Bulldogs topped the Wolverines and then got revenge on the team that beat them, Alabama, in the National Championship Game.
This season, should the Buckeyes get past Georgia, they could very well have a shot at revenge against the team that beat them, so long as No. 2 Michigan gets past No. 3 TCU. The parallels really aren’t difficult to see.
Regardless, however, Day and Ohio State are happy to have a second chance at the life of their 2022 season.
“This is an opportunity that we didn’t have 48 hours ago, and now we do,” Day said Dec. 4. “So what do you want to do with it?”
Ohio State and Georgia kick off at 8 p.m. in Atlanta in the College Football Playoff Semi-Finals at the Peach Bowl Dec. 31.
