“Miami trusted its pass rush, led by dominating ends Rueben Bain Jr. and Akheem Mesidor (above), more than it feared Ohio State’s ability to block them.” – Press Pros Columnist Jeff Gilbert
Just unpacked and washing out the stink of Wednesday night and a disappointing finish to the Ohio State football season from both mind and laundry, what we saw amounted to what we’ve seen and intimated for the past four seasons.
Regardless of who wrote it, and some write it more poignantly than others, there’s been no beating around the bush in explaining why the Ohio State Buckeyes lost in the Cotton Bowl and their quest to advance to the semi-final round of College Football Playoff championship.
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Principal beat writer Jeff Gilbert penned it in game-story form during the wee hours of Thursday morning, following the Buckeyes’ 24-14 loss to Miami at AT&T Stadium. “Their first half of offensive football couldn’t have been much worse,” wrote Gilbert.
He added: “Miami trusted its pass rush, led by dominating ends Rueben Bain Jr. and Akheem Mesidor, more than it feared Ohio State’s ability to block them.”
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In a following post by columnist Marcus Hartman, he wrote: “The 2025 Silver Bullet defense really was that good, exceeding expectations. And the offensive line really was as much of an issue as it seemed like it might be as years of subpar recruiting caught up with the unit.”
Others put it similarly. Some softer, and some more harshly.
But as Gilbert later added in his post, “The Buckeyes outgained the Hurricanes 332-291. Sayin was 22 of 35 for 287 yards. Smith caught seven passes for 157 yards. But the Buckeyes rushed for only 45 yards, a total impacted heavily by Sayin’s five sacks for losses totaling 42 yards.”
That’s what it looked like from the press box. And from the end zone, and the sideline, this is what it looked like.
Miami was simply not impressed with Ohio State’s ability to fight back physically at the point of attack – that time-honored phrase you hear about winning the line of scrimmage. Ohio State couldn’t do it, and Miami knew it. They talked about it, excitedly, and it motivated them, reinforcing how they had been coached throughout the week after watching game films from the season and the recent loss to Indiana in the Big Ten Championship game. This team can’t compete with us, tackle to tackle – not unlike the excitement you might hear in a high school game.
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Some of it was due to injury, but fourteen games into a college football season everyone has to deal with injury. But you have to have the depth at this level of football to compensate for injury.
“You got to have depth, and you got to perform in those moments,” Ryan Day said. “That’s the bottom line, and it’s our job as coaches to get them ready.”
And the sheer numbers suggest that the inexperience of Julian Sayin wasn’t necessarily the issue. He threw for 287 yards and connected on 22 of 35 attempts. But you can’t complete passes from the turf (sacked five times). And it’s tough when you’re running for your life.
And twenty four hours later Alabama got their own lesson in one-dimensional football. You have to be able to run the ball at this level of competition or you get blown out in the manner in which Indiana manhandled the Crimson Tide.
You have to have all the elements of a championship-caliber team, including confidence, that Mississippi showed in beating a favored Georgia team…including the ability to gain yards and first downs on the ground, as Ole Miss quarterback Trinidad Chambliss did.
You can’t get stuffed – beaten – at the line of scrimmage in the manner that Oregon did to Texas Tech.
There is some addition by subtraction that suggests that Ohio State had more than had a fighter’s chance. Take away the ‘pick six’, and add the missed field goal, which had the distance to be good from more than 48 yards.
Now you’re even at 14-14, yes. But crippled because by game’s end you still had just 45 yards rushing. Run the ball effectively and you keep the Miami offense off the field. You lessen the stress on your own defense. You flip the emotional script of the game – that confidence that Miami had, knowing they were the more physical team. You do these same things and you have that fighter’s chance, along with the four losses against Michigan, too.
And who in the United State of America believes that anyone should be a more physical college football team than Ohio State?
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As for recruiting, it’s impossible to know all the intangibles of an 18-year-old like #8-ranked Max Riley (Avon Lake) and #52-ranked Mason Wilhelm (Lakewood St. Ed). Both are members of the Buckeyes’ 2026 recruiting class and suddenly pivotal in salving the recent revelation of this open wound.
And the same can probably be said for the nation’s #1 offensive line prospect, Darius Gray, who’s committed to South Carolina. After all, 3-star recruit Akheem Mesidor was no household name when he committed to play at West Virginia in 2021. Subsequently, he transferred to Miami in 2022, and on Wednesday proved to be a difference maker in the Buckeyes’ loss to the Hurricanes.
So, is it staff? Player development? Style of play?
Whatever it is – if anyone really knows – it seems to be catching. Ohio State isn’t the only marquee football program in the country with its head spinning like Linda Blair’s this weekend. You can’t call anyone in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. They’re all on the phone talking about who to hire to replace Kalen DeBoer and his $10 million salary. But it’s hard to believe that there’s anyone better than Ryan Day, with the highest winning percentage amongst them all.
And yes, his brand of football does win with Jeremiah Smith returning, and Chris Henry committed to replace the impact lost with Carnell Tate playing on Sundays next year.
But against Miami the world saw that Jeremiah Smith wasn’t enough.
That Chris Henry can’t help you if the quarterback’s lying on his back.
Maybe it’s time to take a page from Nick Saban, whose protege’ list at Alabama includes Dan Lanning (Oregon), Jeff Golding (Mississippi), Mario Cristobal (Miami) and Curt Cignetti (Indiana). Is it just coincidence?
Maybe, but physical football was never a coincidence during Saban’s reign.
And rarely…was winning the big game!
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