The Ohio State Buckeyes are feeling good. They’re feeling a lot better than they were a few weeks ago, to say the least.
It makes sense, too. On Saturday night, the Buckeyes blew out the Tennessee Volunteers in the first round of the College Football Playoff, 42-17, advancing to a quarterfinal game against the Oregon Ducks in the Rose Bowl on New Year’s Day.
Considering that this was Ohio State’s first game since November 30, when they lost to the unranked Michigan Wolverines 13-10 at home — their fourth-straight loss to the rival blue — nobody can blame them for feeling upbeat. A few weeks ago, head coach Ryan Day was being thrown to the wolves by a majority of the fan base, many of whom were calling for his dismissal after the Michigan loss.
That didn’t seem to be of any concern to Day on Monday morning when meeting with media members ahead of the Rose Bowl. He spoke of the energy that his team got from blowing the doors off of an SEC team on Saturday night.
“You can feel the confidence in the locker room,” Day said. “Have to make some adjustments like we always do. Issues are always there. But there was just an overall balance and confidence about the group coming off the game to know that we already have a playoff win under our belt. It will give us confidence going into the game.”
While Ohio State’s players might have picked up a boost in confidence from the win, Oregon players likely feel like they have a boost in health and recovery after enjoying the bye week that came with their No. 1 overall seed. Dan Lanning and his players have been recuperating and preparing for this upcoming matchup against the Buckeyes for a couple of weeks now, waiting for their chance to try and beat Ohio State again.
Ohio State players can have the confidence from winning a first-round playoff game in early December. The Ducks will take the confidence of being undefeated, the No. 1 seed, and having already beat the Buckeyes when the two teams faced earlier this season.
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