COLUMBUS, Ohio — Ohio State’s Curtis Samuel insists nothing changed.
The Sporting News’ first-team All-American sat at a table in the Woody Hayes Athletic Center on Dec. 15 fielding questions. He talked about the miraculous eight-yard reception where he reversed field to set up fourth-and-1. He recounted every detail of “29 lead,” the 15-yard touchdown run in a 30-27 double-overtime victory against No. 3 Michigan that pushed the Buckeyes into the College Football Playoff.
Samuel will be compelled to talk about every detail of those two plays the rest of his life. He scored the game-winner in one of the greatest installments of The Game — a poster that will cover walls in taverns, basements and locker rooms all across Ohio.
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It might seem like a life-changing moment. He doesn’t see it that way.
“I just care about the team,” Samuel said. “I’m not the type of guy who likes too much social media and all the, ‘Great job’ and all that.”
Samuel simply had a big moment in a big game. He glanced at his Nike gloves before recognizing the magnitude of that moment and what it meant for Ohio State.
“That was the biggest game of the year just because of the point we were at,” Samuel said. “The winner was likely going to the playoffs. That’s the reason that was such a big game — not just because it went into overtime because we went into overtime with Wisconsin — but just at that point of the season that was the biggest game.”
Samuel’s choice of Michigan as the biggest game shouldn’t come as a surprise, but there were several other big games that shaped Ohio State’s season and another one is coming at the PlayStation Fiesta Bowl against No. 2 Clemson on Dec. 31.
That’s all part of the Buckeyes’ big-game experience under Urban Meyer. Ohio State is 15-3 against Top 25 teams under Meyer since 2012, and Clemson handed the Buckeyes one of those losses in the 2014 Orange Bowl. Michigan State beat Ohio State in the 2013 Big Ten championship game and again in 2015, a game that kept the Buckeyes out of the College Football Playoff.
At Ohio State, big games come around all the time.
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Ohio State hasn’t lost to a ranked opponent since that shocking loss to No. 12 Michigan State in Columbus in 2015. That helped send the Spartans to the College Football Playoff and put the Buckeyes in the Fiesta Bowl against No. 8 Notre Dame.
That’s where some of the seeds for 2016 were planted. Linebacker Jerome Baker was a backup last season. He watched a loaded class that featured 12 NFL Draft picks, including first-round picks Joey Bosa, Ezekiel Elliott, Eli Apple, Taylor Decker and Darron Lee. Ohio State didn’t mail it in. They beat the Fighting Irish 44-28. The Buckeyes finished 12-1.
“We didn’t make it to the playoffs, but we were playing a very-tradition rich program,” Baker said. “I took it as that. Playing Notre Dame; that’s a lot of tradition in itself. This year it’s the playoffs. You just have to put it in perspective. I was blessed to be around guys like Zeke, Braxton (Miller), Joey, and you saw from last year how much that really meant to them. You just wanted to continue that drive.”
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Baker was one of 16 new starters for the Buckeyes that didn’t know what to expect when they traveled to No. 15 Oklahoma on Sept. 17. He watched Samuel open the scoring with a 36-yard touchdown run on fourth-and-1. Baker then made his own play with a 68-yard interception return for a touchdown. He looked teammates on the sideline and said, “Wait. I just caught an interception. Pretty good.”
He didn’t need more affirmation. Quarterback J.T. Barrett threw four TD passes to Noah Brown — who suffered a season-ending leg injury before the 2015 started — in a 45-24 blowout. Brown was another young player who pointed to that Oklahoma game as the confidence-builder for the rest of the season.
“I didn’t know what we were going to get,” Brown said. “We’ve got a bunch of young guys going on the road in a hostile environment. I wasn’t sure how we would react if something didn’t go right, but we stuck solid and put out a good performance.”
Ohio State jumped No. 2 in the polls, but a few team leaders knew it wouldn’t come that easy.
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Raekwon McMillan fielded those questions during winter workouts in February after being named a tri-captain along with Barrett and center Pat Elflein.
McMillan — a five-star recruit, second-team All-American and future first-round NFL Draft pick — exemplifies Ohio State’s success. He’s a player Meyer said “from day one when he walked on campus he was a grown man.” The Buckeyes are 37-3 in that stretch, yet McMillan seems to harp on the lessons learned from the three losses more than any of the victories.
He’s always looking for something more.
“We’re on an incredible run, but I wish we could’ve had a couple more Big Ten championships for my fingers,” McMillan said. “That’s why I wouldn’t call it the golden age, but we’ve done a good job staying the course.”
McMillan noticed changes in those two big games in October — back-to-back road games at No. 8 Wisconsin and unranked Penn State. He said Wisconsin schemed plays designed to stop him, and the 30-23 at Madison was huge. Yet, again, it’s the 24-21 loss to Penn State the following week that sticks out.
Those were lessons learned in 2014, when Ohio State lost 35-21 to Virginia Tech but didn’t lose again en route to a national championship.
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“We needed that gut shot to help us get back to our grind and get back to work and get back to our craft,” McMillan said. “Then come back here and show the world that we are one of the best teams in the nation.”
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Ohio State had that opportunity on Nov. 5 in primetime against No. 9 Nebraska. That’s when Meyer told his team, “This is your opportunity” before the game. At least that’s how Barrett tells it now. The Buckeyes had their most-convincing performance in a 62-3 victory that geared up for another November run through the Big Ten.
Barrett had one of his best nights, too. He hit 26 of 38 passes for 290 yards and four TDs in the victory. That’s part of a season in which he totaled 2,428 passing yards, 847 yards and 33 total TDs.
“We really started clicking I feel like with Nebraska,” Barrett said. “We had some tough away games, but I think that was where we really wanted to hit our stride going back into the season. November was when we wanted to be playing our best football.”
That led to the showdown against Michigan, which tied all those big games together in a de facto College Football playoff quarterfinal. All those players stepped up, too.
Baker had a game-tilting interception in the third quarter. Brown helped set up the game-tying field goal with a 14-yard catch. McMillan totaled 16 tackles. Barrett and Samuel accounted for the game-ending theatrics.
It all added up to another big-game win for the Buckeyes.
“Every time you go against a top team like that it’s definitely a playoff atmosphere,” Samuel said. “But we knew we were going up against a tough team. They’re probably as deserving of the playoff as anybody.”
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Now Samuel will get to experience the real thing. Ohio State is the first team without a conference championship to reach the College Football Playoff, but that’s a nod to that big-game reputation. McMillan said watching Penn State win the Big Ten championship created even more motivation.
“Just seeing (Penn State) win the Big Ten championship game kind of put a little fire under us,” McMillan said. “We wanted to be there.”
He’s one of the few players who played a large role in the Buckeyes’ last national championship run. Barrett watched from the sideline after being injured in the regular-season finale against Michigan.
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Elflein was there, too, as a starting guard. He remembers the atmosphere in those games against Alabama and Oregon. He’s one of two All-Americans on the offensive line along with Billy Price. That’s who the younger players can learn from now.
“A lot of that hype is before the game, but once you’re in the game and locked in you just resort back to your preparation and what you’ve done already,” Elflein said. “After the game when you realize what you just did and that feels really good, but during the game you can’t psyche yourself out too much.”
So ask about which big game shaped the Buckeyes season, and you’ll get a few different responses. Perhaps that’s because all of them shaped that run.
A big game means different things to different players, and Clemson is no exception. For Barrett, it’s a chance to be on the field this time. For Barrett, it’s a chance to go head-to-head against his friend Deshaun Watson. For Elflein, it’s the same approach. For Brown, it’s “us against the world.” Samuel, Baker and the rest of those young contributors will play a role.
McMillan, once again, is looking for something more.
“We have not played a perfect game and we will never play a perfect game,” he said. “But I still feel like there’s room for improvement.”
What about the next one — which would be against either No. 4 Washington or a rematch with No. 1 Alabama on an even bigger stage?
“We’re not really about what’s next after this game,” McMillan said flatly.
He’s just like Samuel. He insists nothing changed, too.
Maybe that’s the secret to the big-game experience.
