The orange and green confetti rained down, the New Year’s ball had dropped, and transfer portal declarations have begun to hit social media. Now, as the rest of the College Football Playoff quarterfinals garner the attention of the college football world, Ryan Day has to sit back and dissect what in the world happened against Miami. The Buckeyes were vying for the program’s first back-to-back championships, but the Hurricanes were too much.
Everyone on social media — the loudest among those in the Lunatic Fringe™ — has a Ph.D in “I’m smarter than the head coach of my favorite team,” so everyone has the answers. What went wrong for Ohio State? On the surface, you can just say that Miami wanted it more, or it was just too physical. Did the officiating have anything to do with it? Miami was not penalized, and the two accepted penalties against Ohio State were borderline. No, let’s not blame the SEC officials; that’s lazy. How about blaming the long layoff between the Big Ten Championship and the Cotton Bowl? While there may be a correlation, as Ohio State was the fifth top-four seed in five games spanning to last year to lose in the quarterfinals, there’s no point in relitigating. The CFP is likely going to change yet again next season.
In reality, there were a few key issues Miami exploited that could have been fixed.
What Went Wrong for Ohio State in the Cotton Bowl
Double-Edged Sword
Remember back on November 10 when we wrote about Ohio State’s pace of play being a double-edged sword? Remember when Day said, “When it’s time to turn up the gas, we will?” Well, the offense could not, or would not, turn up the gas.
Yes, playing fewer snaps and attempting to mitigate injuries and wear and tear is great if it pays off. Unfortunately, what Day did with playing fewer snaps was akin to not driving your muscle car to preserve its resale value. There was no point because it didn’t help the Buckeyes win the Big Ten or the national championship.
The issue was the fact that while Day teased with one up-tempo drive, he never kicked it back into gear.
Ohio State got the ball back with 1:36 to go until the half. The Buckeyes tore down the field in nine plays to the Miami 39 in the span of 1:20. That drive was paid off by another shanked field goal.
After halftime, Ohio State was down 14-0 and received the kick. Day played with the intention of having four possessions in the second half despite the deficit. The Buckeyes scored on their first two drives, while taking 11:17 off the clock. The defense did its job and forced a punt. So, down 17-14, with 10:16 to go, Day’s offense spent 4:20 to go six yards on seven plays, ultimately punting it back with only 5:56 to go. In essence, Ohio State only had the ball three times in the second half after coming out of the locker room down 14.
They needed to turn it up and couldn’t. The play clock was regularly bled down to within five seconds, effectively eliminating the razor-thin margin for error it dug itself into after a terrible first half.
Special Teams
When Day let Parker Fleming go after 2023, he was not replaced. Instead, Day said different assistant coaches would handle different aspects of the special teams units. Needless to say, that hasn’t worked. Ohio State needs a special teams guy.
Between head-scratching procedural penalties to neither the punter nor kicker being up to snuff, there needs to be some kind of improvement heading into 2026. The Buckeyes rolled with Joe McGuire as punter all year because redshirt freshman Aussie punter Nick McLarty was not consistent enough in practice. McLarty has a powerful leg, evidenced by his viral moment punting a ball out of a stadium. McGuire’s final punt of the day went 39 yards, setting Miami up with great field position, which was paid off with the back-breaking touchdown.
At the same time, everyone in the stadium knew what was about to happen when Jayden Fielding took the field to attempt a 49-yard field goal at the end of the first half. It’s becoming a meme in the same way that Nick Saban’s Alabama teams took forever to field a good kicker. Behind Fielding was Jackson Courville, the Ball State transfer. In his time with the Cardinals, Courville missed two extra points in 56 attempts. When it comes to field goals, Courville was 26-of-34 (76.5%). Fielding, in his three years, was 45-of-58 (78.9%).
For reference, in their careers, Courville made two of his six attempts of over 50 yards; Fielding missed all three of his attempts.
The answer is not in the building.
Seeing Ghosts
Finally, you should expect your star players to step up on the biggest stage. Caleb Downs forced two fumbles and was the second-leading tackler with eight. Jeremiah Smith put up 157 yards and one touchdown on seven catches. Julian Sayin, aside from the two touchdown-scoring drives, struggled.
Miami destroying the Ohio State offensive line weighed on Sayin. The redshirt freshman Heisman Trophy finalist was sacked five times in 12 regular-season games. Against Indiana and Miami, Sayin was sacked 10 times. Just like any quarterback unaccustomed to pressure, Sayin was rattled. His feet were unsettled, his eyes dropped after the first read wasn’t there, and he missed too many open reads. He threw a pick-six on the Buckeyes’ third drive of the game. That play wasn’t the worst of the three-play drive. He took a sack after not pulling the trigger on a wide-open Max Klare up the seam that would have resulted in a touchdown. Those two plays resulted in a 14-point swing.
Sayin has been incredible this year; there is no denying that fact. And lobbing criticism for this performance is in no way negating what he did for the Buckeyes. However, the redshirt freshman in his first season as a collegiate quarterback finally looked as such.
The game plan didn’t help him out, nor did the Buckeyes’ inability to run the ball for the majority of the game. As a result, Sayin’s completion percentage fell to 77%, just 0.4% off the record for the best single-season mark.
Heading into 2026, if Sayin can continue to develop on his reads, as well as be willing to pick up free yards on the ground, he could have a massive year-two jump, just as C.J. Stroud did.
Dishonorable Mentions
- Neither the offensive nor the defensive line played with much physicality.
- Arvell Reese finished the year on a six-game streak of no sacks.
- Only three quarterback hits.
- Kenyatta Jackson Jr. only managed one tackle.
- Why was the number-two running back the second-leading receiver?;
- No Klare targets.
Now What?
In the coming days, we will put out an actual postmortem on the 2025 Buckeyes. As of the time of publication, the Buckeyes have lost Bryson Rodgers, Jelani Thurman, Bryce West, C.J. Hicks, Sam Williams-Dixon, and Lincoln Kienholz to the transfer portal. Brian Hartline is officially off to USF. Day brought in former LSU wide receiver coach Cortez Hankton for the same role.
Day still needs to find an offensive coordinator and a dedicated special teams coach. Of course, that’s not including potential departures or retirements. Hopefully, Matt Patricia is having so much fun coaching the Buckeyes that he will stick around.
The Buckeyes will likely have to rebuild the defense with a handful heading to the NFL. At the same time, attacking the portal will be a winning formula. We will take a closer look at who should be a target in the first wave of portal commitments.
2026 is here. Ohio State is in a better spot than it was the last time it fell in a bowl game. Even then, the schedule is tougher, and Ohio State was punched in the mouth by Indiana and Miami. How will Day’s Buckeyes respond?
