How Ohio State outlasted Texas in Cotton Bowl to set up CFP title clash with Notre Dame

ARLINGTON, Texas — Jack Sawyer was out of breath, needing water. The Ohio State defensive end had returned a fumble 83 yards for a touchdown to ice the Cotton Bowl semifinal against Texas, nearly blacking out in the process. Then he’d gone back out for another drive. On the sideline as the final seconds ticked down, he had just enough energy left to hold up his head coach Ryan Day, who’d leapt into his arms.

Forty-one days ago, the two men seemed destined to be defined by another loss to Michigan. Day for losing the game yet again. Sawyer for his outpouring of emotion and frustration, pulling a Michigan flag away from a Wolverines player and reigniting a postgame brawl that started with a flag-planting at midfield. Sawyer, from nearby Pickerington, Ohio, was Day’s first big recruit after Day became head coach in 2019. Now both head to the national championship game, their story not finished.

“There’s some guys on this team today that will become legends in Ohio State history,” Day said after the game.

Through two College Football Playoff rounds, Ohio State looked like an unstoppable juggernaut. But deep in the heart of Texas, the Buckeyes had to fight, scratch and claw through enemy territory on their way to the national championship game.

Ohio State beat Texas 28-14 in the Cotton Bowl semifinal, celebrating once again in the stadium where the program won its last national championship in 2015, and will head to Atlanta looking for another on Jan. 20. There the Buckeyes will take on Notre Dame, which beat Penn State in the Orange Bowl semifinal on Thursday night. The two storied programs last met on Sept. 23, 2023, a thrilling 17-14 Ohio State win sealed by a 1-yard touchdown run with one second left and the Fighting Irish short a player on defense.

A one-yard touchdown run by running back Quinshon Judkins with 7:02 to play proved to be the deciding score on Friday night, a few plays after quarterback Will Howard broke through the line for 18 yards to convert a fourth down and keep the drive alive. Texas’ ensuing drive came one yard away from tying the game just outside of the two-minute timeout, but Sawyer sacked Texas quarterback Quinn Ewers on fourth-and-goal, knocked the ball loose and ran untouched the other way past an erupting Ohio State sideline to put the game out of reach.

GO DEEPER

Nobody is more Ohio State than Jack Sawyer. The Cotton Bowl’s defining play had to be his

The finish continued the Buckeyes’ remarkable run in this CFP, seemingly sparked by their shocking 13-10 loss to Michigan on Nov. 30 in the regular season finale. That loss — Ohio State’s fourth in a row to its archrival, this time as a 19.5-point favorite — cost the Buckeyes a spot in the Big Ten championship and a potential bye in the CFP. It also prompted calls for Day to be fired.

But it turned into a galvanizing moment. Unlike some previous losses to Michigan, this one didn’t end the Buckeyes’ national title hopes. At Ohio State’s next practice, the group turned inward and found its focus, well aware of what was being said about them on the outside.

The Buckeyes had been a buzzsaw ever since, dispatching Tennessee 42-17 in a first-round home game and running through No. 1 seed and undefeated Oregon 41-21 in the Rose Bowl quarterfinal. Early on, it looked like the Cotton Bowl semifinal would be the same story as the previous two games.

More than 1,000 flights into and out of Dallas were canceled Thursday, as a snowstorm threatened to disrupt travel for fans, but the sun was out and the snow melting by the time the game came around, and Ohio State supporters showed up in droves. What was thought to be a de facto Texas home game turned out to have a sold-out crowd that felt more like a 50-50 split.

The Buckeyes got off to yet another efficient start, scoring a touchdown on their opening drive for the third consecutive CFP game when Judkins took a handoff nine yards into the end zone.

But the offense began to sputter from there, largely because of self-inflicted mistakes. A personal foul on running back TreVeyon Henderson stopped the momentum of the second drive, leading to a punt. A wide receiver holding penalty on a run halted the third drive. Another holding penalty and a false start wiped out the fourth.

“I felt like we were stopping ourselves on offense with the penalties,” Day said. “That was the conversation that was being had on the sideline and the locker room at halftime.”

GO DEEPER

Mandel’s Final Thoughts: Dramatic semifinals set up perfect finale in first 12-team Playoff

Ohio State was carrying the play, especially as Texas’ offense kept running into roadblocks. But the Longhorns’ defense helped Texas hang around, and facing fourth-and-1 at midfield with a minute left in the half, backup quarterback Arch Manning entered the game and ran to pick up the first down. (With Ewers expected to head to the NFL, which he confirmed to ESPN prior to Friday’s game, Manning will be the starter for Texas’ trip to Columbus for a rematch with the Buckeyes to open the 2025 season on Aug. 30.) A few plays later, Ewers found running back Jaydon Blue on a wheel route for a touchdown and, somehow, a tie game.

But as soon as Texas climbed back into the game, Ohio State struck. Running back TreVeyon Henderson took a screen pass 75 yards for a touchdown on the very next offensive snap, giving Ohio State a 14-7 lead with 13 seconds left in the second quarter to put the Longhorns back in a halftime hole.

Texas’ defense made clear that a Buckeye other than star freshman receiver Jeremiah Smith would have to be the one to beat it, bracketing Smith with double coverage all night. He finished with just one catch for three yards on three targets. When Howard forced a throw to him on the opening drive of the second half, Texas linebacker David Gbenda intercepted the pass.

“They did a good job,” Ohio State offensive coordinator Chip Kelly said of the defense on Smith. “They’re good players. We do have other guys. Carnell (Tate) made some plays. Emeka (Egbuka) made some plays. Gee Scott had some catches. … If you’re going to win the whole thing, you need them all.”

The Longhorns kept hanging onto the ropes, keeping a drive alive when Ewers tossed the ball to Blue while on the verge of getting sacked and Blue picked up the first down. A few plays later, Ewers found Blue on a wheel-route touchdown for the second time, tying the game at 14 with 3:12 to play in the third quarter. Somehow, this game was tied heading into the final frame, even as the box score slanted heavily toward the Buckeyes.

But Ohio State won the fourth quarter. Texas responded to Judkins’ second touchdown by driving all the way down to the 1-yard line, primed to tie the game again. Then an ill-advised running back toss on second-and-goal lost seven yards. Two plays later, Sawyer iced the game with the sack of Ewers, his former Ohio State roommate in 2021 during Ewers’ lone season as a Buckeye.

GO DEEPER

After doomed drive, Quinn Ewers’ fumble, Texas comes up short of title game once again

As soon as the clock hit zeroes, Sawyer went looking for Texas players to shake hands with. He found Ewers, and the two hugged and said a few words to each other.

“He’s a great dude,” Sawyer said. “I just told him, ‘Keep your head up. You played a great game and you’ve got a great future ahead of you. Stay in touch sometime soon.’”

Now the Buckeyes move on to face Notre Dame, led by former Ohio State linebacker Marcus Freeman. Ohio State is 6-2 all-time against the Irish with six victories in a row, including wins in 2022 and ’23. The Irish’s only two wins in the series were in the 1930s. The last time two different northern schools won back-to-back FBS national championships were 1976 (Pitt) and 1977 (Notre Dame). Following Michigan’s title last year, it’ll be yet another championship for the Midwest.

As much as Ohio State coaches and players have tried to move past talking about the Michigan loss, it’s a defining part of this journey. The postgame fracas between the teams ended with police deploying pepper spray on players from both sides. The expanded CFP gave Day, Sawyer and everyone else in scarlet and gray a chance to make up for it.

“The story of this team is yet to be told,” Day said. “No great accomplishments are ever achieved without going through adversity. That’s just the truth.”

“How do you know about someone’s character? When you go through tough times with them,” Day said later. “Everything is easy when things are going well. Everyone can be a frontrunner. The last couple years have been ups and downs. … I don’t think without going through those things, we would have come through the way we did in the fourth quarter.”

The promise of the Playoff’s expansion to a 12-team field was that one bad loss wouldn’t end your season. It wouldn’t end Sawyer’s national championship hopes. Ohio State was given another chance, and the Buckeyes have made the most of it.

“We’ve got to finish this thing, and they know it,” Day said. “They know it, because there’s so many great stories to be told.”

GO DEEPER

CFP national championship first look: What to expect from Notre Dame vs. Ohio State

(Photo: Alex Slitz / Getty Images)