Ryan Day stresses importance of winning 'middle eight' vs. Texas in College Football Playoff semifinal

With 29 seconds left in the second quarter of the Cotton Bowl Classic, Texas finally found the end zone, evening the score 7-7 against Ohio State. Alas, head coach Ryan Day and his Buckeyes didn’t panic.

Instead of kneeling the ball, Ohio State drew up a beautiful screen pass to running back TreVeyon Henderson, who took the ball 75 yards to the house. It was a bounce-back moment for Henderson, who’d committed a pivotal unsportsmanlike conduct penalty earlier in the half.

As the Buckeyes headed into the locker room, Ryan Day discussed Henderson’s massive play.

“He’s been around for a long time, so we trust him,” Day said. “He can’t let his emotions get out of whack right here. We knew this was going to be a battle. We knew it was gonna go into the second half. So, did a nice job here at winning the end of the first half. Now, we got to win the middle eight here by coming out with a great drive in the second half.”

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Texas hasn’t made it easy on the Buckeyes thus far. Before Henderson’s 75-yard touchdown, Ohio State had only amassed 161 yards of total offense. The Buckeyes’ backfield particularly struggled, only recording 36 rushing yards on 11 carries in the first half.

For reference, Ohio State racked up 390 yards of offense in the first half of its 41-21 win over Oregon last week. Obviously, the Buckeyes are having to fight a bit more to find success on offense against the Longhorns.

They shouldn’t expect Texas to lighten up, either.

“Well, the field position helped,” Longhorns head coach Steve Sarkisian said when asked about Texas’ lone touchdown of the half. “We were backed up there a few times. Had an opportunity the first drive. Didn’t convert the fourth down.

“Got some field position. Found some momentum. It was unfortunate on the screen. We’d been playing really good defense until the screen hit us. But there’s a lot of football left to be played.”

Tune into ESPN to catch the second half of the Cotton Bowl Classic. The winner will advance to the national championship to face off against the Notre Dame Fighting Irish.