Everything was going so well. The Ohio State Buckeyes, fresh off a 2024 national championship, spent all of one day of the 2025 season out of the No. 1 spot. They evicted Texas from the penthouse in their first game, and proceeded to win their next 11 in a row. They finally got over on Michigan, scored at least 34 points in 10 of their first 12 games and they steamrolled right into the Big Ten title game.
And then — this is still a bit strange to type — they got beaten in the title game by Indiana. Indiana!
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Sure, the Buckeyes only lost by a 13-10 margin. The Ohio State defense managed to hold Indiana and Heisman winner Fernando Mendoza to only 13 points, by far the Hoosiers’ lowest total of the season. Look at the stat lines, and the teams appear remarkably well-matched.
But Ohio State also posted its lowest point total of the season. A crucial interception and missed field goal denied Ohio State the opportunity to put necessary points on the board, and the Buckeyes failed to convert a fourth-and-1 attempt on Indiana’s 5. For the fifth straight year, Ohio State missed out on a Big Ten title, and the 2025 model now has a big ugly L on its record.
And it might end up being the best thing possible to happen to the Buckeyes as they aim to repeat as national champions.
“it’s a game that we felt like we shouldn’t have lost,” Ohio State head coach Ryan Day said earlier this month. “But you’ve got to learn from it and grow from it and move on. And when you sit on it for this long of a time, it doesn’t sit well. And so we’ve got to make sure that that doesn’t happen again.”
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“I think the loss kind of brought us closer as a team,” cornerback Lorenzo Styles said just before Christmas. “That loss, we needed it. We didn’t want it, but we need it to bring us closer, and I think that’s going to launch us into this playoff round and this next game.”
Fortunately for Ohio State, the loss barely scratched the Buckeyes’ playoff standing, dropping them just one slot in the College Football Playoff. Plus, they’ve had to sit with that humiliating loss for three full weeks now, stewing and seething and waiting for another opportunity … which arrives on New Year’s Eve against Miami.
“When you lose a game, it certainly rips open the scab and allows you to dive into things a little bit deeper, which is exactly what we did,” Day said earlier this week. “We certainly have used these last three weeks to get ourselves ready to play this game.”
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Readiness is a key issue. The Cotton Bowl will come 24 days after the Big Ten championship loss, and that’s a lot of time to fall out of a routine that’s served you well for an entire season.
“When you get into the playoffs, you have to rebuild momentum,” Day said, “and that’s exactly what we need to do here.”
“It’s felt like a half a year [since Indiana], I feel like,” tight end Max Klare said. “So it’s definitely a little weird, something I’ve never really experienced.”
College football’s calendar is a mess for many reasons, but one end result is that a team ends up playing against itself for nearly a month of practices after a 13-game regular season. The trick, then, is making sure the team doesn’t devour itself or lose focus.
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“We’re tired of practicing against each other,” Day said. “They’re barking at each other in practice, almost getting like the preseason again. That’s a good sign. That means we’re ready to go hit somebody else. These guys are highly, highly motivated, and they know that sometimes the most difficult game is the first one in the playoff.”
“We know the last time we stepped on the field, we left something on the field. So this time, we got to leave everything out there,” linebacker Sonny Styles said. “It’s a one-game season at this point. So it’s win or go home.”
In the end, though, Ohio State wide receiver Carnell Tate said it best earlier this week: “We just figured out we gotta go score more than 10 points to go win the game.”
