Resilience, known as the capacity to recover quickly from difficulties; is the undisputed one word description of the Ohio State Buckeye Football team.
Down starting Quarterback Braxton Miller and backup J.T. Barrett they were forced to adopt the next man up theory meaning ready or not Cardale Jones it’s your turn to lead this underdog Ohio State team.
The epitome of David and Goliath, Oregon forced 4 turnovers, 2 in the first half and 2 in the second but Ohio State stayed strong, stayed confident and stayed resilient in defeating Oregon the 6.5 point favorite 42-20 to win the first ever college football playoff national championship.
The new era has begun with an upset that pinned arguably the greatest college quarterback of all time (Marcus Mariota) against the third string sophomore from Ohio State. Coach Urban Meyer won his third national championship 2 with Florida and now one with Ohio State with big Ezekiel Elliot the offensive player of the game carrying the ball for career highs 36 times, 246 yards and 4 touchdowns averaging 6.8 yards per carry. Ohio State jumped out early to a 14-7 lead in the first quarter and took it to halftime up by 11, 21-10 but out of the gate in the second half Oregon came charging back scoring 10 unanswered points bringing the score to 21-20 and after that it was all Ohio State who got behind that monstrous offensive line and pounded Oregon’s front 7 to absolutely embarrass them by 22 points.
Marcus Mariota 755 completions, 1130 attempts, 66.8 completion percentage, 10463 yards, 9.3 yards per throw, 10.6 adjusted yards per attempt, 103 touchdowns, 13 interceptions and a quarterback rating of 172.4 statistically speaking one of the best ever to play the college game will forever be immortalized in Oregon Duck history. This blemish (loss to Ohio State) on his record is nothing compared to what he has done for the University of Oregon and with this most likely being his last game in college, the NFL awaits.