The College Football season ended with The Ohio State Buckeyes winning the first ever 12 team playoff bracket and being crowned the National Champions. They had a tough road facing Tennessee, Oregon, and Texas. The team faced many obstacles but ultimately came out on top. But that’s not the focus, let’s look back at this amazing season of college football.
While many teams like Texas, Oregon, and Georgia lived up to the hype they were given, there were also teams like Boise State who surprised many college football fans only losing one game to the number one ranked team, Oregon, by a tiny margin. Another surprise from Boise State was Ashton Jeanty who put together one of the greatest single seasons in college football history, almost breaking every major rushing record, but lost the Heisman to another player who had a generational season, Travis Hunter. Hunter’s ability to play both sides of the ball at a high level is remarkable. While bringing home the Heisman he also brought home the Biletnikoff, the award for the best receiver.
With surprise teams like Boise State being successful, there were also disappointments. The biggest disappointment being Florida State. Last season they went undefeated and won the ACC championship but did not make the college football playoff due to them losing their Heisman hopeful quarterback Jordan Travis due to injury. Coming into the season they were determined to prove why they deserved to be recognized as one of the best teams in the nation with their new quarterback, DJ Uiagalelei and being ranked 10th in the preseason top 25. Sadly they were one of the worst teams in college football this year only winning two games and DJ being one of the worst quarterbacks in the nation. Next season they look to revamp the team and get back to being one of the top teams in the nation.
This season was the first season that the 12 team playoff bracket was used and it did not disappoint. The seeding went with the first 4 seeds being the 4 best conference champions, they get first round byes, and the next 8 seeds being the next highest ranked teams in the top 25. The games were incredible and the final four ended up being Texas vs Ohio State, and Notre Dame vs Penn State. Both games came down to the wire with Penn State losing on an interception thrown by Drew Allar and Texas losing on a strip sack by Jack Sawyer that went 82 yards for a touchdown. The National Championship went like many people expected with Ohio State taking a three score lead in the first half but as the 4th quarter started Notre Dame climbed back within 10 points but on 3rd down with a chance to seal it, senior quarterback Will Howard threw a home run ball to true freshman standout wide receiver Jeremiah Smith to win the National Championship and gives Ohio State 9 total wins in the big game.