Kirk Herbstreit describes Ohio State's mindset entering College Football Playoff

The Ohio State Buckeyes have had an emotional few weeks. They are dealing with the fallout of losing to the Michigan Wolverines, missing out on the Big Ten Championship Game, and now preparing for the College Football Playoff.

One person who feels he has some idea of what the Buckeyes are going through is ESPN analyst and former Ohio State player Kirk Herbstreit. He made an appearance on Pardon My Take ahead of that Playoff game against Tennessee. There, he broke down the situation for Ohio State and what he expects the team’s mindset to be right now.

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“Just going back to that senior day, just behind closed doors, just with the players, it was interesting to be there,” Kirk Herbstreit said. “Because if you go by the outside world, the feeling of Ohio State fans is very dejected by the Michigan game and nobody has really seen Ohio State since that fight at the end of The Game, and everyone just kind of left the stadium — I wasn’t there — but just talking to my son and a lot of friends who went to that game, like ‘Holy shit. What just happened? How did this happen again?’ [That] kind of feeling.”

There is a very real and large amount of outside noise for Ohio State, with there being some debate about Ryan Day‘s job security, which is outside noise the team needs to block out.

“Now, Michigan’s gonna play in a bowl game, and Ohio State’s going to a Playoff game,” Herbstreit said. “I think the fodder that’s out there on social media, ‘Screw Ryan Day. Screw,’ you know, this is not an exaggeration. I’ve heard people say everything. ‘I hope they lose the first game and he’s fired.’ Just bizarre set of circumstances for a team that, as you said, is one of the most talented, is in the Playoff, hosting a Playoff game, and you’ve got that kind of noise by a fraction of your fanbase.”

Herbstreit equated the situation at Ohio State to a basketball team preparing for an NCAA Tournament run. On top of that, he sees a good comparison between these two teams and former Ohio State teams that have been in a similar position.

“So, I think the reality is what matters most is the players seem to be super engaged. They kept talking about — almost every guy up there who talked said this isn’t goodbye. We’ve got four more to go. I don’t know how many times I heard we have four more games to go. I think in their minds they’re buying into that, kind of like March Madness when you get ready to make a run, you’ve got to win a few weekends. I think their focus is on trying to beat Tennessee and got to the Rose Bowl and down the line,” Herbstreit said.

“I think they believe that kind of if go back to the team with CJ Stroud when they lost to Michigan again, and then they had to play Georgia and everybody wondered how they’d play against Georgia and it was like a different team when they played Georgia if you remembered they played super aggressively, Stroud played out of his mind…the vibe of the players reminds me of that.”

Tennessee enters the game against Ohio State feeling that they deserved the home game and the higher seed. That’s not how it worked out but these are both clearly talented teams and in those games, the margins matter. That’s also why there is very real concern about the health of Ohio State’s offensive line.

“At the end of the day, though, are they good enough? We can talk all day about Jeremiah Smith and the receivers and all that, but the offensive line, if you really watch the Michigan game…when [Seth McLaughlin] went down with the Achilles,” Herbstreit said. “I think that offensive line is a serious question mark going up against Tennessee’s strength, which is their defensive front. So, how will that battle go will be a big factor because it was in the Michigan game. They’re not, obviously, getting any of those pieces back on that offensive line. So, that to me will be a big thing.”

This year is the first year of the 12-team College Football Playoff. With that has come home games in the opening rounds and unique environments for teams to play in. That’s a new challenge and with the outside noise around the Ohio State program, it could make for an interesting environment.

“Then, just the crowd. The energy in that stadium. I’ve heard Tennessee is gonna buy 30,000 tickets,” Herbstreit said. “I don’t know if that’s gonna be true, but just the vibe inside of that stadium. If things are going great, it’ll be obvious…if Will Howard throws a pick, how will the crowd react? If the poor field goal kicker who missed two against Michigan happens to miss a kick, how will the crowd react? I’m just wondering what the energy, what you’d think would be a night game in The Shoe, massive opportunity, huge advantage, but if things go sideways I’m just wondering how the environment inside the stadium will go.”

Ohio State and Tennessee are scheduled to kickoff at 8:00 p.m. EST on Saturday, December 21st.