Ohio State and Miami are both programs with proud histories. They have collided before on college football’s biggest stage, and they will do again Wednesday night, this time on the College Football Playoff stage in the Quarterfinals at the Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic.
Let’s look at some key numbers that could define this matchup.
2019
Since 2019, Ryan Day’s first season as Ohio State’s head coach, no school has been to more College Football Playoffs than the Buckeyes.
This is the Buckeyes’ fifth Playoff
appearance in the last seven seasons, and it’s also their seventh in the last 12 years.
25
Wednesday night will be the Buckeyes’ first game in 25 days, when they played Indiana in the Big Ten Championship.
4
Interestingly, the Buckeyes are one of just four teams to make the 12-team Playoff since its inception last season. Three of those teams are from the Big Ten, with Indiana and Oregon joining them.
Georgia is one of the teams, along with Ole Miss, that the Buckeyes could face in the Semifinals if both teams win this week’s Quarterfinals.
27-10
Ohio State is 27-10 (.730), with nine wins in the last 10 games, under Ryan Day in contests against nationally ranked teams, including a 16-9 record vs. Top 10 teams and an 8-7 record vs. Top 5 teams.
5
Ryan Day is one of five head coaches in Ohio State history to win a national championship.
The other four: Paul Brown, Woody Hayes, Jim Tressel, and Urban Meyer.
3
Interestingly, Day is one of three active head coaches to win a national championship. The other two are Kirby Smart and Dabo Swinney. Day will look to join Smart and Swinney as a head coach to win multiple national championships.
The No. 3 is also significant because this is the third straight season the Buckeyes are playing a bowl game at AT&T Stadium. Ohio State is 3-1 in the Cotton Bowl, and they also won the 2014 National Championship at AT&T Stadium.
4
The Buckeyes have four defensive touchdowns in three wins at the Cotton Bowl.
10
There are 10 players on the Buckeyes’ roster who have started a game in the College Football Playoff: Jeremiah Smith, Will Kacmarek, Carson Hinsman, Tegra Tshabola, Austin Siereveld, Luke Montgomery, Carnell Tate, Caleb Downs, Sonny Styles, and Davison Igbinosun.
Jeremiah Smith had 19 receptions for 381 yards and five touchdowns in four Playoff games in 2024. Sonny Styles had 26 tackles across the four games.
6
This is technically the sixth time Ohio State and Miami have played each other. The Buckeyes’ win over the Hurricanes in 2010, though, has since been vacated. That means the Buckeyes have beaten the Hurricanes twice previously, most notably in the 2002 National Championship.
The other win over Miami came in 1977, a 10-0 win at Ohio Stadium.
Miami, though, won the last meeting, 24-6 in 2011 at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami.
8
The Hurricanes are one of just eight teams in the country to start the same five offensive linemen in every game this season. From left to right, Markell Bell, Matt McCoy, James Brockermeyer, Anez Cooper, and Francis Mauigoa have combined to allow just 13 sacks in 13 games, and the Hurricanes have also had only 58 negative plays this season.
12
Miami has been lauded for its defensive performance this season. But that wasn’t the case in 2024. The Hurricanes have drastically improved on that side of the ball this season, and they’re one of just 12 teams in the country to shave their points per game average by over 10 points per game.
8
The Buckeyes have eight players from Florida, including, most notably, Jeremiah Smith.
7
Ohio State also has seven players from Texas, including, most notably, James Peoples.
