COLUMBUS, Ohio -- As confetti rained down on the football field at Mercedes-Benz Superdome in New Orleans last Friday, Ohio State head coach Ryan Day beamed a smile under his mask.
The third-ranked Buckeyes earned redemption in a 49-28 Sugar Bowl victory over No. 2 Clemson one year following a game that stuck in the minds of many.
But upon entering the 2020 season, Day's goal for Ohio State wasn't just to earn the program's first win over the Tigers.
“The goal was never just to beat Clemson; the goal was to win the national championship," Day said Monday. "This is everything on the line, everything we wanted."
It's been a road to college football's national championship like no other for the Buckeyes, who were faced with not playing a season at all in August and watching other conferences such as Alabama's SEC and Clemson's ACC from their couches.
Monday's game against the Crimson Tide will mark five months to the day that the Big Ten Conference announced the fall season would be postponed, but after leadership from quarterback Justin Fields, a rally coordinated by Buckeyes parents and many more across the country, all of their effort has culminated in a chance to play on college football's grandest stage.
"We didn’t have a season, and they were fighting to get back to play for a national championship," Day said. "Our guys fought so hard to have this opportunity, and now we’re here.”
Day called the win over Clemson "emotional" for the program, but the focus now turns to No. 1 Alabama.
Fourteenth-year head coach Nick Saban will coach his eighth national championship game at the helm of the Crimson Tide, who enter with a 12-0 record behind two Heisman Trophy finalists in junior quarterback Mac Jones and senior wide receiver DeVonta Smith.
The task looks mighty tall for the Buckeyes, but Day said success against the Crimson Tide will hinge on preparation.
"The most prepared team is going to win the game," Day said. "We have to prepare like we did the week before. The good news is I think we have a little confidence going into the game.
"I’ll be disappointed if we didn’t play well in this game."
Day said Monday that Fields is expected to play in the national championship game after getting hit in the second quarter of the Sugar Bowl by Tigers linebacker James Skalski, who was ejected for targeting on the play.
Buckeyes captain and fifth-year senior linebacker Tuf Borland, who earned Defensive MVP honors following the Sugar Bowl, said Monday that Alabama will offer a challenge with the talent of its players.
As Borland and the Buckeyes prepare for practice this week, he also said confidence in his team has been present throughout the challenging season, and Friday's win over Clemson showed what Ohio State is capable of doing.
"I think we’ve always had confidence in ourselves," Borland said. "We’ve always believed we can compete with anybody in the country. We practice against the best offense in the country every week, so we have confidence we can compete with everyone.”
Red-hot Buckeyes graduate-transfer running back Trey Sermon has previous experience against Alabama.
While at Oklahoma, Sermon and the Sooners played the Crimson Tide in the Orange Bowl in 2018 with a shot at the national championship on the line. Sermon rushed for 19 yards and a touchdown.
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After finding his footing in recent weeks, totaling 636 rushing yards over his last three games, Sermon said Monday that playing in the national championship will be special.
“This team, this program, we’ve persevered through so much," Sermon said. "To have the opportunity to play on such a big stage means a lot to us. We’ve been through a lot. We fought to just play. We know the job isn’t finished yet.”
Sermon's tenure at Ohio State has been shorter than most, but he's been ingrained in the culture to know how much the win over Clemson and a shot at the national championship means.
“We have a pretty big chip on our shoulder," Sermon said. "We just feel like we’re one of the best teams in the country. We just try to go prove that every time we step on the field. We all believe in each other.
"We have that chip, and we play with it."
Day said the 10-day lead-up time from the Sugar Bowl to the national championship time will allow for the Buckeyes to rest and heal prior to getting back to practice.
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The second-year head coach also added the challenge with COVID-19 is still present as the Buckeyes were without 16 players against Clemson.
"The virus still hasn’t gone away, so we got to make sure we’re really vigilant in that area, which is still a struggle day in, and day out," Day said. "The preparation is going to continue to go on. I think we’ll be fresh and ready to roll."
Ohio State has played Alabama four times in the past and last contested the Crimson Tide on its way to winning its recent national championship in 2014.
Even after defeating Clemson and dispelling the notion the Buckeyes don't belong in the College Football Playoff, Day isn't ready to stop there.
"We said it going into last game, we were going to have to play our best game," Day said. "Well, we’re going to even play better than we did last week to beat Alabama.
"We’ve shown what we can do, now we’ve got to go do it again."
