A serious Ryan Day and a smiling Dan Lanning pose for post-press conference photos. (Press Pros Feature Photos by Scott Stuart)
Ohio State and Oregon mined the portal for the quarterbacks it takes to win, but one team has playoff experience. And just like it usually does in the NFL, that might make the difference in Wednesday’s Rose Bowl.
Pasadena, CA – Despite the daily air quality alerts this week in greater Los Angeles, college football’s trend toward an NFL-like experience is clearly visible at the Rose Bowl.
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Perhaps, the two best teams remaining in the 12-team field – No. 8 Ohio State and No. 1 Oregon – play each other Wednesday afternoon in the College Football Playoff quarterfinals. Happens before the Super Bowl all the time.
Veteran columnist Jeff Gilbert writes Ohio State football and OHSAA sports for Press Pros Magazine.com.
And where would the Buckeyes and the Ducks be without free agency?
The transfer portal brought them each the most important player on their teams – the starting quarterbacks.
Ohio State head coach Ryan Day told Kyle McCord after last season that he would have to compete to keep his job. McCord left for Syracuse and had a great season. Good for him. But Day knew he needed a QB with more than a great arm to pair with an otherwise loaded lineup.
He found Will Howard, who wanted to leave Kanas State and play for a coach who would better prepare him for the NFL. Howard’s improvement as a passer is visible. But there’s more to Howard, and it showed more than ever in last week’s first-round romp over Tennessee.
“We saw a winner in Will … we saw a leader,” Day said Tuesday morning at the head coaches press conference. “We felt like if he came in and understood how we do things on offense and surround him with the supporting cast that we have, that we had an opportunity to go make a run at this thing.”
Oregon coach Dan Lanning has chosen wisely for quarterbacks the past two years in the transfer portal.
Oregon coach Dan Lanning is a back-to-back portal winner. He recruited Bo Nix away from Auburn in 2023, went 12-2 and won the Fiesta Bowl. Nix is a rookie starter for the Denver Broncos. Then Lanning hired the well-traveled Dillon Gabriel away from Oklahoma this season. Gabriel’s record with the Ducks is 13-0.
“Anytime we look to add somebody to our program, we’re looking not just to add what kind of player are we adding, but what kind of character,” Lanning said. “We’ve been really fortunate to hit in the portal and have some success.”
Whatever your eyes and prejudices tell you, the numbers back up the successful imports both quarterbacks are.
Howard rates as the No. 3 quarterback in the country. Gabriel rates No. 7.
Gabriel is No. 2 in completion percentage (73.2). Howard is No. 3 (73.2).
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The outcome never solely relies on one player, but QB1 play will be instrumental in the battle for the roses. Don’t throw an interception in the wrong end of the field, don’t miss an open receiver on a crucial third down and drop a couple dimes in the end zone. The QB who does that most consistently will likely win Rose Bowl MVP and will start scouting the next opponent on the flight home.
To get there, both coaches talked about the importance of their field generals visualizing the game before it’s played.
“We always talk about playing the game as many times as you can before you play the game,” Lanning said. “That’s really important, regardless of the setting, whether that’s the meeting room, walk through, sitting in your hotel room at night. If you do that, that gives you the best opportunity to be successful on game day, where you can visualize a lot of those different experiences that are going to show up in the game.”
Ryan Day on the playoffs: “… you also have to anticipate what’s coming next.”
Day, of course, compares playoff games preparation to the NFL, a place he used to coach. He understands the discipline it takes for a quarterback to always look forward and not rest on what he’s done in other games.
“When you watch how NFL teams prepare late in the season, you notice that there’s just a lot of that going on,” he said. “Whether it’s walk throughs, meetings, you have to visualize things. You can’t always do everything the same way you did in August or September. So you have to fall back on your experiences, but then you also have to anticipate what’s coming next.”
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Howard has been a players’ spokesman all season, speaking to the media after wins, losses and during the week. He understands the pressure, and that’s why Day doesn’t hesitate to add to the load a QB feels.
“Ultimately it’s going to come down to his leadership in this game,” Day said.
Coaches also must understand what playoff games are like. When the Rose Bowl kicks off, Day will be a head coach in a playoff game for the sixth time. He’s won twice. This is Lanning’s first playoff game as a head coach.
Experienced coach vs. inexperienced coach happens regularly in the NFL. History shows experience matters.
When the coaches greeted each other on the interview stage Tuesday, they shook hands and smiled. Lanning’s head might not have been spinning at the magnitude of the moment, but the moment was clearly a big one for him as the rookie. He smiled a lot more during the questions than Day, who has learned winning these games takes a mental edge that ignores the pageantry.
So, we wonder, what is each coach really thinking. They know they have the quarterback it takes to win, but where is their true focus? That matters because a head coach’s focus has a way of being visualized by his team.
When they posed for the post-interview photos with the trophy, Lanning grinned like a new recruit. Day looked like Patton at the Battle of the Bulge.
Day looked that way when he spoke after trouncing Tennessee. So we know far more about his and his team’s demeanor. It is Lanning’s personality to smile more, so maybe it means nothing. Maybe it means close to everything.
And maybe the Buckeyes will want it more. Losing at Oregon and to Michigan are powerful motivators. Playing at the Rose Bowl is nowhere close to ultimate happiness for them.
That’s the standard Day set when he told McCord he wasn’t good enough. Day surely didn’t smile that day either.
You don’t have to visualize that.
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