Ohio State players celebrated a Rose Bowl victory on Jan. 1. The commanding 41-21 win not only secured a place in the College Football Playoff semifinal at the Cotton Bowl, but also avenged one of their two regular-season losses.
“We came out and we played angry, and I think that showed,” quarterback Will Howard said after the game. “We jumped out to an early lead and it was hard for them to come back. We knew they would come back and do some things. They are too good of a team not to.
“It’s unbelievable. A younger me would be in awe right now. I just have to take it all in and enjoy this with my boys.”
While the Scarlet and Gray enjoyed the win in the locker room and on the flight back to Columbus, the Ducks returned to Eugene disappointed.
Two and a half months earlier, Oregon won one of the season’s key games in college football by narrowly defeating Ohio State 32-31 at Autzen Stadium. This top-three victory was part of the Ducks’ first undefeated regular season since 2010, and Oregon entered the postseason as the No. 1 seed in the Playoff.
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“Obviously, it didn’t end how we planned, but you can’t really take away from what we did during the regular season,” Duck defensive end Matayo Uiagalelei said last week at Big Ten Media Days. “But just looking for growth and to build on what we had and learn from our mistakes.”
After a back-and-forth in Eugene in mid-October that saw seven lead changes and no advantage larger than eight points, the Rose Bowl was dominated by the Buckeyes. The Scarlet and Gray scored three plays into the contest and led 34-0 with just under three minutes remaining in the first half. An Oregon touchdown and two-point conversion just before halftime closed the gap but did not lessen the disappointment in the locker room.
The Ducks outscored their opponents 13-7 in the second half, but the damage was already done.
“I think they had a chip on their shoulder,” Oregon linebacker Bryce Boettcher said. “I think after losing to us the first time and then losing to Michigan, they had something to prove. And when you have a talented team with something to prove in football, that’s a dangerous mix. I’m not saying that we didn’t have something to prove. We were 13-0, fresh off of a (conference) championship. And they just came out hungrier with better players and better scheme, and they beat us.”
Boettcher admitted that he was “pretty shocked” at the final score, a feeling shared by those dressed in green and yellow on New Year’s Day.
“You wouldn’t expect it to go that way, given that we’d already beat them,” Boettcher. “But they just came out with their hair on fire and played a better football game than we did. And that’s the way the game goes sometimes.”
Bryce Boettcher was disappointed after the Rose Bowl loss. (Photo: Ben Lonergan/The Register-Guard, USA TODAY Sports)
Although they face each other twice during the 2024 season, there seems to be little animosity between the two Big Ten teams. Echoing their head coaches, who spent time together this offseason on the Nike trip, both groups of players have been complimentary of each other.
That does not mean the Ducks have avoided using the Playoff loss and the way the season ended as motivation in 2025.
“For sure,” Boettcher responded when asked about Oregon’s approach. “To have the season we had and then to go out with that performance, it’s just right up embarrassing. And even the guys that weren’t on the team and transferred, they understand it. It’s a culture aspect. It’s something that we preach and everyone’s picking it up, so we should be good.”
Ohio State and Oregon are not scheduled to play each other this fall. If they do meet, it will be during the postseason, either in the Big Ten Championship Game or again in the Playoff.
However, the memory of that Rose Bowl loss has stayed with the Ducks, and aiming to outperform one of the program’s best seasons is a goal for 2025.
“For me as a coach – I think every coach probably feels this way – but we always remember the losses over the wins,” Oregon head coach Dan Lanning said. “I think you can learn from that. It doesn’t take away from what we were able to accomplish, but we lost to a great team. Coach Day did an unbelievable job last year of having his team in a position to have success there, and there’s some things that I feel like I could have done better there at the end. I don’t think we played our best football.”
The Ducks hope to learn from that loss. Not only what it takes to beat a top team away from Autzen Stadium but also how to prepare for a similar Playoff scenario. The Buckeyes adopted an NFL-like approach to the 2025 season, recognizing that a 12-team Playoff could mean a longer season that needs to be managed differently than in past years, and they won a national championship because of it. Oregon is proud of going 13-0 and winning the Big Ten, but ultimately, the Ducks fell short of their main goal.
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While Penn State and Ohio State were picked to win the Big Ten, and both teams have better odds of securing the national championship, Oregon hopes its players and coaches now have that edge that can lead to an even better 2025.
“It definitely motivated us,” Uigalelei said. “Obviously, it’s not really healthy to just dwell on it and just go back to it every moment. But I’d be lying to say our team isn’t fueled by that, and us as players, maybe even coaches. But at the same time, you don’t want to just dwell on that, you want to be in the present and move forward from it and just see what you did wrong and make changes.”