Cotton Bowl – Syndication Server

One projection has Notre Dame in College Football Playoff semifinals

Would you consider this to be a successful season?

All Notre Dame can do right now is wait for the conference championships to be awarded. After that, it’ll know who it’s playing in the first round of the College Football Playoff. What happens after that is anyone’s guess at the moment.

Still, Brett McMurphy of the Action Network has taken a crack at where he expects the Irish to be seeded and how far he expects them to go. His outlook for them at the moment is a very positive run.

In his latest playoff and bowl projections, McMurphy has the Irish grabbing the No. 5 seed, which is common for a lot of experts right now. He predicts them to win their first-round game over UNLV and then defeat Arizona State in the Fiesta Bowl quarterfinal. He has them falling to Oregon in the Cotton Bowl semifinal.

While this wouldn’t end the Irish’s national championship drought, it would mark a very successful season all things considered. Hopefully, it would be a stepping stone to finally winning that elusive title in 2025.

Contact/Follow us @IrishWireND on X (formerly Twitter) and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Notre Dame news, notes and opinions.

Follow Geoffrey on X: @gfclark89

PHOTOS: Tennessee-Kansas State 2001 Cotton Bowl in snow and ice

Tennessee finished the 2000 season 8-4 (5-3 SEC).

The Vols lost to Kansas State (11-3), 35-21, in the Cotton Bowl on Jan. 1, 2001. Temperature at kickoff was 29 degrees Fahrenheit in Dallas, Texas. The contest was played in snow and ice.

Tennessee freshman quarterback Casey Clausen completed 7-of-25 passing attempts for 120 yards, one touchdown and three interceptions. He was sacked two times.

Running back Travis Henry recorded 180 rushing yards and one touchdown on 17 attempts for the Vols.

Kansas State quarterback Jon Beasley totaled 210 passing yards, two passing touchdowns, 98 rushing yards and one rushing touchdown.

Below are photos of the Tennessee-Kansas State game at the Cotton Bowl on New Year’s Day in inclement conditions.

Ohio State defensive player-by-player PFF grades from Cotton Bowl loss

What does Pro Football Focus say about the grades of each individual performance on the defensive end from Ohio State’s effort in the Cotton Bowl? #GoBucks

Ohio State football finishes the season with an 11-2 record after a poor performance in a 14-3 loss to Missouri in the Cotton Bowl.

The Buckeyes defense put out a tremendous effort as it managed to keep Missouri scoreless through three quarters and off the scoreboard on its first nine drives of the game.

The Tigers were eventually able to wear down the Buckeye defense as they put together touchdown scoring drives of 95 and 91 yards in the fourth quarter to put the game away.

In this article we dig deeper into each position group’s performance on the defense using Pro Football Focus grades.

Ohio State offensive player-by-player PFF grades for Cotton Bowl loss

How did PFF grade out the offensive players for Ohio State in the Cotton Bowl. #GoBucks

Ohio State football finishes the season with an 11-2 record after a poor performance in a 14-3 loss to Missouri in the Cotton Bowl.

There was uncertainty coming into the game about what this offense would look like with starting quarterback Kyle McCord transferring to Syracuse and superstar wide receiver Marvin Harrison Jr. sitting out. Unfortunately, this performance only left Buckeyes fans with more questions headed into next season.

Ohio State produced one of the worst offensive performances in recent memory, managing just three points all game. In this article we dig deeper into each position group’s performance on the offense using Pro Football Focus grades.

The day after: Digesting Ohio State’s gut wrenching Cotton Bowl loss to Missouri

That one was hard to swallow, but the sun rose today and the Buckeyes will soon too.

Not many fan bases would be disappointed by a 10-2 season, but the expectations for Ohio state football are just different.

After getting embarrassed in the Cotton Bowl by Missouri, the 14-3 loss magnifies the issues surround the Ryan Day led Buckeye program. As someone who is normally looking at Ohio State with Scarlet and Gray color glasses, this loss made me take off the blinders.

The struggles that have plagued Ohio State over the last three years once again reared its ugly head, losing a big game on the national stage made it so much worse.

I have plenty of thoughts on Friday night’s Cotton Bowl loss. Let’s start off with the direction that Day has led this program.

Social media reacts to Ohio State’s loss to Missouri in the Cotton Bowl

Social media was unsurprisingly in a foul mood after Ohio State’s loss to Missouri in the Cotton Bowl. #GoBucks

We’re all still kind of in shock and disbelief over what we saw from the Ohio State football team in a loss to Missouri in the Cotton Bowl on Friday night. To say that it was uninspiring and lackluster would be a major understatement. In the end, OSU could only muster a field goal for the entire game and fell to the Tigers 14-3.

As you can imagine, and maybe because you felt the same way, Ohio State social media was not at all pleased with what we all witnessed on a television or streaming device coming out of Dallas.

We took a lot of time pouring through a lot of the posts on X, formerly known as Twitter, and picked out some of the best of them to share with you.

Warning: Buyer beware because it isn’t pretty. In fact, it’s downright ugly and you might want to shield some of these from those you love.

Five levelheaded things I think I know after Ohio State’s loss to Missouri in the Cotton Bowl

Here are five more levelheaded observations on what we saw from Ohio State on Friday night in the Cotton Bowl. #GoBucks

Well, that wasn’t pretty, in fact it was downright ugly in Dallas at the Cotton Bowl. It was always going to be an uphill battle with Kyle McCord entering the transfer portal, but then when Devin Brown went down with an injury early in the game against Missouri, it made things even more difficult.

What we witnessed was a game in which Ohio State couldn’t get anything going on offense, and a defense that played its tail off but wore down toward the end of the game. The result will go down as one of the most lackluster bowl losses in OSU history, 14-3.

All of Buckeye Nation wanted answers after the game, and we took some time to sleep on it and take stock of what in the world went wrong on Friday night. But hey, contrary to what you might have been led to believe, there isn’t actually asteroid bearing down on Columbus to wipe out the Ohio State program as we know it.

While it would be easy to pile on (there’s been plenty of that), this reflection will probably be a little softer than other ones your reading, or even what’s going through your own collective thoughts.

Here are five somewhat levelheaded things I think I know after watching what unfolded in Dallas against Missouri.

Ohio State flops in Cotton Bowl as Lou Holtz again trends on social media

Pssst – Lou was right.

Lou Holtz may be just a week shy of his 87th birthday but that doesn’t mean the legendary former head football coach at Notre Dame doesn’t still see the game well.

Holtz made comments about Ohio State not being physical enough during an appearance on the “Pat McAfee Show” the day before Notre Dame battled the Buckeyes in September. Notre Dame didn’t win the game, but that doesn’t mean what Holtz said wasn’t true.

Holtz mentioned Ohio State had a bunch of wins under Ryan Day, but that the common theme in each of their losses under their head coach was the team was out-physicaled.

That was once again the case in Friday night’s Goodyear Cotton Bowl as the Buckeyes fell to Missouri, 14-3.

Ohio State’s defense played well, but the biggest difference in the game came late. Ohio State ran for 97 yards all night. Missouri gained 94 yards on 17 rush attempts in the fourth quarter when the game was on the line.

Out-physicaled in money time again.

Oh, and social media had a field (Ryan) Day on the Buckeyes head coach while referencing Lou Holtz. Check out some of the best below.

Ohio State suffers 14-3 loss to Missouri in Cotton Bowl

Not ideal. #GoBucks

The 2023 season unfortunately ends on a low note with Ohio State losing 14-3 to Missouri in the Cotton Bowl. The loss drops the Buckeyes record to 11-2 on the season.

There was a lot of uncertainty on the offensive side of the ball coming into tonight’s matchup, and those question marks were warranted as the Buckeyes managed to put up only three points.

With Kyle McCord transferring to Syracuse, Devin Brown got the start at quarterback. Brown’s first career start was unfortunately short lived after an injury to his lower leg suffered on a sack on the third drive of the game.

True freshman Lincoln Kienholz came in and the Buckeyes struggled mightily to move the ball all night long. The unit looked out of rhythm all night long, struggling to move the ball at all.

The Buckeye defense gave a phenomenal effort, keeping Missouri scoreless through three quarters, but ultimately was asked to do too much as Missouri engineered two 90-plus yard touchdown drives.

With the season in the rearview mirror, the Buckeyes now head into the offseason which will largely be dictated by NFL draft declaration decisions amongst many key players on both sides of the ball, as well as who the Buckeyes can bring in via the transfer portal.

Ohio State players that earned their Buckeyes leaves against Missouri

Not many earned their Buckeyes leaves against Missouri. #GoBucks

This was not how many of us saw the Cotton Bowl playing out, but Ohio State once again faltered late against Missouri and ending up losing 14-3.

It should come as no surprise after what we saw from the Buckeyes that there weren’t many players on the offense that earned the world famous helmet stickers.

The defense played at an elite level, even with their backs against the wall for most of the game. Short fields and limited rest saw the Buckeyes falter late, but that really wasn’t their fault. As you will see below, no offensive Ohio State players earned their leaves against Missouri, just a few defenders.