Ohio State Could've Folded After Michigan Loss, But Jack Sawyer Says Buckeyes Chose 'Option B' For CFP

There was no doubt that Ohio State, along with head coach Ryan Day, had their backs against the wall following the Michigan loss to end their regular season.

What have they done since that loss to the Wolverines? Embarrassed Tennessee and Oregon, followed by a gritty performance against Texas in the semifinals that clinched a spot in the college football playoff title game. 

While you can dislike the Buckeyes all you want, you have to at least respect them for the run they've been on over the past month. This team was dead and buried by everyone with a platform, myself included. There was no way this group was going to go on a tear in the playoff and dominate every opponent after that humiliating regular season finale loss. Right? 

Wrong. And boy, do we look like a bunch of fools right now for thinking this team was going to fold up like a cheap Walmart tent. If you're wondering how this group of Ohio State players put the embarrassing loss to Michigan behind them, and then two weeks later destroyed Tennessee in a game that featured nearly 25,000 fans clad in orange infiltrating Columbus, look no further than the players themselves. 

There isn't a player that encapsulates what it means to be an Ohio State football player like Jack Sawyer, who strip-sacked his former roommate Quinn Ewers last week in Dallas and returned the fumble 79-yards for the game-securing touchdown. It was a moment that will live-on forever in the eyes of fans, and the OSU football program. 

Ultimatum From Ohio State Players Saved The Season

For all the outside noise that this group had to endure through social media, fans of the team, attacks against Ryan Day and doubts about how long they would continue playing in the postseason, this group of Ohio State players were ready for the challenge. 

All it took was an ultimatum that came during a team meeting, one week after the loss to Michigan that prevented them from playing for a Big Ten championship. What went on during the meeting was described by Jack Sawyer during a guest column in the Player's Tribune on Thursday, days before the Buckeyes prepare to play Notre Dame on Monday night in Atlanta. 

"After the TTUN game, we gave ourselves all a week to digest it. Then we had a meeting: players only, plus Coach Day," Jack Sawyer wrote. "And just like everything else in our program, that meeting wouldn’t have made for a great movie. It wasn’t a bunch of egos flying around, or big speeches. It was more just like … some family conversations. Don’t get me wrong: Those were grown man family conversations. Guys were upset, frustrated, tempers flared, it got heated.

Some difficult questions were asked, and no one shied away from any of them. Especially not Coach Day — and that’s such a credit to him, when you consider the circumstances. He’s got people all over town, the internet, radio, TV saying he’s this awful coach, or he should be fired. And it’s like he didn’t even care about any of that. All he cared about was our locker room, and our accountability, and our getting back on the same page. He was basically like, ‘We’re going to the Playoff.’"

ARLINGTON, TEXAS - JANUARY 10: MVP's Will Howard #18 of the Ohio State Buckeyes and Jack Sawyer #33 celebrate after winning the Goodyear Cotton Bowl against the Texas Longhorns at AT&T Stadium on January 10, 2025 in Arlington, Texas. (Photo by CFP/Getty Images)

Ohio State Had Two Options In That Meeting: Give Up, Or Fight Back

What came from that team meeting that spurned this insane run during the college football playoff will go down in history, especially if they win the whole thing come Monday night inside Mercedes-Benz Stadium. 

There was a moment where this group of football players had to decide how they wanted their story to be written, but they weren't going to let others dictate the finale. This was going to come down to those players, who had worked their ass off to get to this point, but suffered a bump in the road at the worst possible time. Yes, Ohio State fans were upset about the loss to Michigan, and they were also calling for Ryan Day's job in the process. 

But in the minds of those inside that room, they could've cared less about the outside perspective, it was time to go to war once again. 

"And once we were going (CFB Playoff), we knew we had two options. Option A: We could stay down after taking that punch from TTUN, and already be defeated, and play the way most people expected us to play. Or option B: We could get back up. Be pissed off. Lock in. Go out there, And play OUR f***ing game," Sawyer said of Ohio State's mindset.

ARLINGTON, TEXAS - JANUARY 10: Head coach Ryan Day of the Ohio State Buckeyes celebrates after beating the Texas Longhorns 28-14 to win the Goodyear Cotton Bowl at AT&T Stadium on January 10, 2025 in Arlington, Texas. (Photo by Alex Slitz/Getty Images)

Let's be honest, these guys didn’t come all this way, fighting for their chance to hoist the national championship trophy, only to let a late-season loss wreck their entire run, especially in this new era of college football. 

"We could quit, like we knew everyone wanted us to … or be the best team in the country, like we know we are," Sawyer noted.

 "We chose Option B."

As we sit here a few days away from two teams battling on the field to finish their own story, a lot of folks around the country, and within the ‘Ryan Day Haters Club’, were hoping they'd choose the first option. 

As you can tell from the past few weeks, ‘Option B’ has worked out just fine. One more game, with Notre Dame standing in the way ready to wreck this ‘comeback story’ for the Buckeyes.