With the confetti falling around them, Ohio State’s players surrounded coach Ryan Day and waited to raise the trophy with their beloved coach.
Emeka Egbuka, standing behind Day, tried to wedge his arm in to touch it. The anticipation was almost too much to bear for the former five-star in the 2021 class who became the program’s all-time leader in receptions on a night when the Buckeyes claimed their first national title since 2014.
“It was surreal,” Egbuka said. “It’s something I’ll remember for the rest of my life.”
When the words were finally said, “It is my honor to present to you the 2024 national champions, coach Ryan Day and the Ohio State Buckeyes,” there was pure joy on the players’ faces who surrounded their coach as they hoisted the trophy.
On the left were J.T. Tuimoloau and Jack Sawyer, five-star defensive linemen from the Class of 2021 and two of the highest-rated recruits in program history, who have been under a microscope during their time on campus.
On the right were running back TreVeyon Henderson, tight end Gee Scott Jr. and cornerback Denzel Burke, seniors who have struggled at times in big moments throughout their careers.
But at this moment all that mattered was the trophy because Ohio State had just solidified itself as the best team in the country. It beat Notre Dame 34-23 to cap a four-game College Football Playoff run with a fourth straight double-digit win.
YOUR 2024 NATIONAL CHAMPIONS ‼️ pic.twitter.com/5blYflHaJb
— Ohio State Football (@OhioStateFB) January 21, 2025
This wasn’t just a national championship — it was domination from start to finish.
With that, all of the hypotheticals about the talent went out of the window. There will be no more “what if” conversations. This team had done it.
And it was due in large part to the play of the seniors who flooded the stage for the trophy presentation. The ones who lost to Georgia, on the same field, in 2022. The ones who lost to Michigan in 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2024.
Those years ended in sorrow for a talented group. But not this one.
This time the seniors celebrated on the stage and in a locker room filled with music and cigar smoke. A fitting ending for a group that refused to quit when things got tough.
“There really weren’t a lot of people that maybe saw this vision, right here, right now, but this group of guys did,” Day said on the stage after the game. “This group of seniors is very, very special, and now they’re going to be able to tell their story.”
The story of the national championship didn’t start on Friday night, but that’s when Burke started dreaming about it. He envisioned himself — surrounded by his teammates and coaches — on the stage raising the national championship trophy after a one-point win over Notre Dame.
He had the dream again on Saturday night.
The Arizona native and former three-star recruit in the 2021 class was the first player to go on record and claim this season was “natty or bust” for the Buckeyes. Expectations are easy to set, but living up to them is not. It required difficult conversations — and not just the ones that came after a loss to Michigan.
Once many of the seniors decided to return, Ohio State’s team met last winter to set expectations for the season.
“We didn’t want to get ahead of ourselves, but we also wanted to have a picture and put goals down, and the national championship was one of them,” Tuimoloau said.
They knew, though, that reaching the highest point in the sport wasn’t going to be done by talking about it in January. Or by winning the offseason by adding talented transfers to the loaded roster already in place.
In those early meetings, they realized they each had a common feeling: a chip on their shoulder.
“Coming off the loss to Missouri (in the Cotton Bowl) we had to come in here and regroup,” defensive tackle Ty Hamilton said. “It started with us saying we can come back, but we have something to prove still.”
And while it may sound like a cliche that the preseason No. 2 team had something to prove, they were right.
The 2020 class was ranked No. 5 in the country in the 247Sports Composite, headlined by players like Scott and Cody Simon. The 2021 class was a step above, ranked No. 2 nationally. And with the high ranking came high expectations, something the players dealt with since they arrived on campus.
Their first season, in 2021, was a developmental year for the class. The Buckeyes went 11-2 and ended the season with a win over Utah in the Rose Bowl.
Many in the group played significant snaps as sophomores in 2022.
Burke battled injuries and wasn’t as good as he was as a freshman. Tuimoloau had a big day against Penn State but had just four sacks on the season. Sawyer, learning a new position — the hybrid “jack” spot defensive coordinator Jim Knowles is known for — had only 4.5 sacks.
Egbuka shined, as did Donovan Jackson, a former five-star, at guard, but Ohio State’s 2022 season came to an end with a painful loss to Georgia in the CFP semifinals.
The 2023 season was a step back, with no Playoff appearance and another loss to Michigan to end the regular season.
The 2024 team was different. The Buckeyes were talented but also experienced, a group built to overcome adversity in every way.
“Those losses got us ready for this,” Tuimoloau said. “Then boom, there was the Oregon loss. And the team up north. We understood we had to take control and make sure this team doesn’t splinter.”
The players had to learn how to block out the criticism and just play football. They heard the noise but had to ignore the comments about the $20 million roster that were thrown out after each loss.
Offensive coordinator Chip Kelly believes the strong bond in the locker room played a role in the late-season turnaround.
“Ohio State is known for the brotherhood, and while other programs talk about it, here it’s real,” Kelly said. “These players love each other. Love is the greatest motivator in the world. It took these guys from places they weren’t very happy where they were at to national champions.”
Those relationships showed up in the biggest moments and after the heartbreaking losses. They helped create a storybook ending for this senior class.
One that felt poetic for Jackson.
The first-round win was redemption from the Michigan loss. The Rose Bowl victory was at the site of the first major win for this class, the victory over Utah to cap the 2021 season. The Cotton Bowl win erased the memories from the loss to Missouri last December. The win on Monday night was about more than just the 2022 Peach Bowl loss. It was everything wrapped in one.
“It’s just kind of like all four years were just in this Playoff run, and a lot of guys just poured everything out there,” Jackson said. “We knew that. We knew that we wanted to keep this team together. That was the whole goal. … And now we’re together in history, man. Now, when you look up at the rafters, you see the (2024) Buckeyes, and just the hard work and the resilience.”
As the confetti continued to fall at Mercedes-Benz Stadium, Egbuka took a moment to look up and embrace the moment. He began to cry, and Day turned around to hug him.
His football career isn’t over, but he and the rest of the senior class etched their names into Ohio State history as winners.
They may not have gold pants, but they will soon have rings and a gold trophy.
“Just to deal with the adversity that we fought through as a senior class, everything we’ve been through, the hard work we put in, the love I have for them, this victory bonds us for life,” Egbuka said. “We’re going to be able to come back 30 or 40 years from now and be able to point at the banner and tell our story.”
(Photo of Emeka Ebuka: Mark J. Rebilas / Imagn Images)
