“Lose again, and you’re done”.
That’s the message the College Football Playoff committee sent to Ryan Day and the Ohio State Buckeyes after a sloppy loss to USC on Saturday.
With just four games remaining in the regular season, the Buckeyes are now tasked with proving it’s still the team that bulldozed Iowa and beat Indiana in October, not the one that struggled to cobble together 18 points against a Trojan defense ranked 58th in the country in touchdowns allowed.
The objective is clear: win out. The players who will determine if that objective is successfully completed or not may include some lesser-known names, however, and that doesn’t just mean at quarterback. Several freshmen could see their responsibilities increase quickly as the Buckeyes’ playoff hopes begin to dim.
If Ohio State is going to get back on track, it may need a few young players to make an impact sooner rather than later.
This one’s obvious. The freshman signal caller from Mission Viejo, California, was tasked with replacing Heisman candidate Julian Sayin last week and performed relatively well given the circumstances. With Sayin likely to miss the rest of the season, Day now turns to Fahey to provide some much...