C.J. Stroud came into Saturday’s Peach Bowl game with a chance to rewrite his legacy in what was likely to be his last or second-to-last game at Ohio State. With a win, he would do something that not many Buckeye quarterbacks have done: play for a national championship.
The Buckeyes came up short, however, losing to top-ranked Georgia 42-41. Stroud played arguably the best game of his career against a difficult Bulldogs defense but it was not quite enough.
This has been the story of Stroud’s career with the Scarlet and Gray. Coming into Saturday, Ohio State had lost three games with Stroud as the starting quarterback and in those three games, the Inland Empire, California native completed 66.3 percent of his passes, throwing for an average of 409 yards and just over two touchdowns.
Stroud played well enough in his two seasons as a Buckeye starter to be a Heisman Trophy finalist each year, but he also came up short in New York City. Back-to-back losses to Michigan, the first Scarlet and Gray quarterback to do that since Steve Bellisari at the start of the century, kept Stroud from playing for a Big Ten title in his career. It almost kept him from playing in the College Football Playoff this season.
But after Utah beat USC in the Pac-12 Championship Game in early December, Stroud and Ohio State were given a second chance, an opportunity to make history.
Once again, Stroud was not the reason the Buckeyes lost to Georgia. The quarterback finished the game 23-of-34 passing for 348 yards. He led five scoring drives, including tossing four touchdown passes.
“I think, at the end of the day, we had the mindset of we were going to let everything hang,” Stroud said postgame. “We were going to go out and fight as hard as we can and swing as hard as we can. I felt we did that. We were very efficient in the pass game. In the run game, started rolling a little bit, got a lot of positive runs. I felt we were very efficient. Just a couple of those drives where I maybe missed a read or protection broke down and I got sacked, whatever the case may be, maybe those were the reasons why we lost.”
After hearing that he needed to use his legs more throughout his career, and pushing back against that idea at times, Stroud showed he can be a playmaker. While he was credited with just 34 rushing yards on 12 carries, taking out sacks, the quarterback actually scrambled for 70 yards on eight rushes.
“I was definitely proud of every play that he had today,” offensive lineman Paris Johnson Jr. said of Stroud. “He put his body out there and he was running and like I said in the media before, he's a fast player but if he doesn't feel like he needs to run, he's not gonna run. But I feel like everybody got to see just how athletic he is and what he can do when he wants to run it.”
It wasn’t just the statistics either that were impressive, but how Stroud made some of the plays he did. On each of his first two touchdown passes, both to wide receiver Marvin Harrison Jr., Stroud was forced to use his legs, particularly on the second pass, but kept his eyes downfield and made NFL-level throws while on the run, putting the ball where only his receiver could catch it.
“If he's not the best player in the country right now, then I don't know who is,” Harrison said of his quarterback. “He gave it his all. I saw a lot of things where, ‘He can't run,’ or, ‘He's not tough enough to run,’ and I think he showed today that he can do anything he wants on the football field. And he's such a great leader for this team.”
Stroud took advantage of any errors in the Bulldog secondary and even made Georgia pay when they were in tight coverage. On Ohio State’s final drive of the first half, Stroud went 4-for-4, leading the Buckeyes on a four-play, 75-yard drive that ended when he found an open Xavier Johnson, who beat his linebacker defender out of the backfield with speed, for a 37-yard touchdown.
Out of the halftime locker room, Stroud was again masterful, going 3-for-3 on a six-play, 70-yard drive. This one ended with the quarterback connecting with open receiver Emeka Egbuka for a 10-yard score on a well-designed play action call by head coach Ryan Day.
“What this guy did and the way he competed in the second half with all those things coming at him, I just can't say enough,” Day said of Stroud. “I'm so proud of the way he played. He's not the only one, but he's sitting right here, and he's the quarterback of this team. Just the way he attacked this game, I couldn't be any prouder of the way he did that.”
The Egbuka touchdown gave the Scarlet and Gray a 35-24 lead. Ohio State extended that advantage to 38-24 before the end of the third quarter. That should have been enough for Stroud and the Buckeyes to lift the Peach Bowl trophy and head to Los Angeles for the national championship game.
But as has been the case in the past, things out of Stroud’s control prevented the quarterback from getting a win in the biggest of game. After adjusting and playing well after halftime, the Scarlet and Gray defense wilted in the fourth quarter, allowing 187 yards and 18 points.
Additionally, a hit in the back of the endzone on a potential touchdown pass late in the third quarter knocked Harrison, Stroud’s top receiver all year, from the game. This meant Ohio State was without Harrison, tight end Cade Stover, who left the game with back spasms in the first half, and running backs TreVeyon Henderson – injury – and Miyan Williams – illness – all players who could have helped Stroud win the game.
While the quarterback was just 4-of-8 passing for 29 yards in the fourth quarter, Stroud still did enough good for the Buckeyes to win.
With 54 seconds on the clock after Georgia quarterback Stetson Bennett led a quick go-ahead scoring drive, Stroud drove the Scarlet and Gray 43 yards in seven plays. The quarterback completed just one pass on the drive – a 12-yard strike to receiver Julian Fleming – but rushed for 44 yards, including a 27-yarder that, the Scarlet and Gray believed, was enough distance to kick the game-winning field goal.
Kicker Noah Ruggles had the leg but missed what would have been a career-long attempt wide left.
“I just tried to leave it all on the line,” Stroud said. “I honestly – games like this, it's a loss for words when it comes down to one play. Honestly, it doesn't come down to one play, so many things that line up to those plays. The last drive, man, I seen how much time we had with timeouts, and I knew we could do it. I tried my hardest to get us down here. I got to maybe split somebody else, make another move, just try to get a little more, but I tried my hardest. I think I left my heart out on that field. Of course, it's something that's heavy on the heart. It's going to be tough.”
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As of this publishing, Stroud has not officially declared for the 2023 NFL Draft, but that’s only a matter of time. Everyone in the locker room postgame knew it was the final time they would see Stroud in an Ohio State uniform.
With his college career complete, Stroud will now head to the NFL where he is expected to be the first Buckeye quarterback selected in the top 10 of the draft since Art Schlichter in 1982. He has shown time and again what a talented player he is, even if the results didn’t always go his way, and that should be Stroud’s Scarlet and Gray legacy.
“I'm gonna miss him, personally,” Harrison said. “This whole team's gonna miss him. He's just such a great player. I was blessed to be able to play a whole year with him. I got the chance to start with him this year and seeing him last year too at the Rose Bowl. I'm just definitely blessed to play with a quarterback like him and also have a friend, at the end of the day, on and off the field.”
