{"id":188723,"date":"2025-01-21T09:56:29","date_gmt":"2025-01-21T14:56:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/?p=188723"},"modified":"2025-01-21T09:56:32","modified_gmt":"2025-01-21T14:56:32","slug":"random-thoughts-the-day-after","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/2025\/01\/21\/random-thoughts-the-day-after\/","title":{"rendered":"Random Thoughts: the day after"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

SCOTT TRUXELL\/<\/strong>independent sports<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This week\u2019s installment of Random Thoughts centers solely around Ohio State, Notre Dame and the College Football Playoff.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Will Howard<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s time for me to admit I was wrong about Will Howard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When the season began and as it went along, I wasn\u2019t exactly a Will Howard fan. I thought he was average, maybe a bit above it. He seemed to be good for at least one interception\/crucial mistake per game. I didn\u2019t think he was much of an upgrade over Kyle McCord. Don\u2019t get me wrong, I wasn\u2019t a huge McCord fan. In the end, his departure worked out best for all concerned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But Will Howard was the difference in the College Football Playoff. He made a difference with his arm and his legs. Against Notre Dame, he made plays with his legs that McCord couldn\u2019t do. Yes, it can be argued that he had a stable full of NFL talent around him, but he was still the catalyst to the title. Plus, his teammates seemed to love him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He was the right quarterback for this team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Notre Dame<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ll tip my cap to Notre Dame. The Fighting Irish shook off an early season loss to Northern Illinois and advanced all the way to the national title game and they did it with an old school style, both offensively and defensively.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the end, the margin of error on Monday night was very small. The opening drive of the game (18 plays, 75 yards) simply wasn\u2019t sustainable, not against a team the caliber of Ohio State. Still, Notre Dame trailed by 24 but made things very interesting late into the fourth quarter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This team has nothing to be ashamed of.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Make it three straight<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ohio State\u2019s last three full time head coaches \u2013 Jim Tressel, Urban Meyer and now Ryan Day have each won a national championship. I\u2019m not counting Luke Fickell, because his title was interim head coach during the 2011 season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Not many programs can make the claim that three consecutive head coaches have each one a national championship. Off the top of my head, the last time that happened was at the University of Miami \u2013 Howard Schnellenberger, Jimmy Johnson and Dennis Erickson. \u2018<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How many national titles?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

So how many national championships does Ohio State actually have? Some sources list seven, some list nine. Which is correct? Both, sort of.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Seven of them are from the Associated Press and\/or the old UPI\/Coaches Poll: 1942 (AP), 1954 (AP), 1957 (UPI\/Coaches Poll), 1968 (AP and UPI\/Coaches Poll), 2002 (AP\/Coaches Poll\/BCS), 2014 (College Football Playoff, AP and Coaches Poll) and 2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The other two national championships claimed are from 1961 (National Football Foundation) and 1970 (Football Writers Association of America). Those aren\u2019t as widely recognized as the others, so it depends who you ask when talking about national championships.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

12 teams<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As it turns out, the 12 team playoff was very entertaining. Sure, there were some clunkers in there, but there were also some great games. Is 12 teams too many? Probably, but regardless, it was quite a ride.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Desmond Howard<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ohio State fans know Desmond Howard loves to troll the Buckeyes. He does it any chance he can get. I say this to people who take issue with it \u2013 you realize he\u2019s paid to be the heavy, right? Someone has to do it and in this case, it\u2019s him. How many OSU fans remember ESPN\u2019s Mark May? He used to do the same thing. It\u2019s all show business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Michigan fans<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

To the Michigan fans trolling Ohio State (lost to the Wolverines, finished fourth in the conference, no conference championship game, therefore fraudulent title, etc.) \u2013 okay, fine. When your team finishes fourth in the conference, loses to Ohio State, etc. but still qualifies for the playoff, I think you should urge them to decline the berth. After all, it\u2019d be meaningless, right?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As always, if you have thoughts on any of the above comments, feel free to email me at sports@thevwindependent.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SCOTT TRUXELL\/independent sports This week\u2019s installment of Random Thoughts centers solely around Ohio State, Notre Dame and the College Football Playoff. Will Howard It\u2019s time for me to admit I was wrong about Will Howard. When the season began and as it went along, I wasn\u2019t exactly a Will Howard fan. I thought he was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-188723","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-03 11:10:45","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188723","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=188723"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188723\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":188724,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188723\/revisions\/188724"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=188723"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=188723"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=188723"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}