You ask, we answer. Sometimes we ask, others answer. And then other times, we ask, we answer.
Throughout the Ohio State football season, we will be asking and answering questions about the team, college football, and anything else on our collective minds of varying degrees of importance. If you have a question that you would like to ask, you can tweet us @LandGrant33 or if you need more than 280 characters, send an email HERE.
I don’t know about you, but coming out of the holidays, I have absolutely no idea what day it is. But what I do know is that the Ohio State Buckeyes will take on the Texas Longhorns in the Cotton Bowl on Friday night for a chance to play in the College Football Playoff National Championship Game.
Following blowout wins over the Tennessee Volunteers and Oregon Ducks, the Buckeyes are coming into the CFP semifinals as the prohibitive favorites to take home the title. So, we wanted to check in with the always-correct, ever-insightful fans of Buckeye Nation to see what you are thinking about the team’s run and Friday’s game.
So, we have two questions in this week’s fan survey. I run through them in the sections below and then you can vote in the survey at the bottom of the article. If the survey options don’t cover all of your bases, please feel free to write in your vote in the comments section at the bottom of the page. We will share the results of the survey before the game.
Question 1: Who has been the most important part of Ohio State’s postseason success?
There are a ton of people that I think deserve infinite amounts of credit for how well Ohio State has played during its first two games of the College Football Playoff; some of those individuals wear jerseys and some of them wear headsets.
From defensive stars like Caleb Downs, Jack Sawyer, and Cody Simon to offensive stars like Will Howard, Jeremiah Smith, and, heck, even the rebuilt offensive line. The Buckeye players have been extraordinary against Tennessee and Oregon.
However, the credit doesn’t stop there as Ryan Day and his coordinators Chip Kelly and Jim Knowles have been near flawless during the first two rounds. So, from your perspective, if you had to single one person out as being the most important to the success, who would you go with?
Would it be a coach because of how much influence they have over everything that happens, or would you go with a difference-making player? Hit the survey below to let us know.
Question 2: What will the margin of victory be in Friday’s game against Texas?
Following Ohio State’s dominant win over Oregon and Texas’ narrow overtime victory over the Arizona Sun Devils, Ohio State was installed as a 6.5-point favorite. The gold-standard college football analytics model SP+ projects the Buckeyes to win by a score of 26-22.
Through OSU’s first two games in the College Football Playoff, both Vegas and the analytics seemed to underestimate how well they were playing on both sides of the ball, so I would not be surprised if the Buckeyes end up exceeding both the oddsmakers and computers’ expectations.
I will have my official prediction on Friday, along with all of the other LGHL staff, but needless to say, I will be taking OSU to cover. In the meantime, let us know what you are thinking in the survey below.
Share your thoughts here:
Throughout the year we ask questions of the most plugged-in Ohio State fans and fans across the country. Sign up here to participate in the weekly emailed surveys.