Ohio State is a 6.5-point underdog to No. 1 Georgia in Saturday’s Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl national semifinal at Mercedes-Benz Stadium.
This is the first time this season that the No. 4 Buckeyes aren’t favored, and they say they don’t care.
“I don’t want to say that I feel like the underdog,” Ohio State quarterback C.J. Stroud said Tuesday. “... I do feel like they are counting us out. That’s fine. We’ve been counted out plenty of times. I think this is the path that God wanted us on. And I’m just rocking with that. That means we’re the underdog, I’m cool with it, and it’s time to mask up and go play football.”
There are things working against the Buckeyes. The game will be their first time playing at Mercedes-Benz Stadium; it will be Georgia’s third time this season and 11th overall. Ohio State has one loss, coming against Michigan in its regular-season finale; Georgia, the defending national champ, is unbeaten.
But, again, the Buckeyes don’t care.
“There’s never been a time where I stepped on the field that I felt a severe disadvantage to a player across from me,” Ohio State wide receiver Emeka Egbuka said. “So I haven’t played Georgia yet, but I feel like with the confidence that we have as a team and our ability. Like C.J. said, we’ve been counted out before, so it’s not nothing new to us. So we’re going to go out there and play football on Saturday like we know how to play football.”
The Buckeyes, who are appearing in their fifth College Football Playoff semifinal, have been underdogs in semifinals twice in their history. The first occurred in 2014 against Alabama. Ohio State won. The second came in 2020 against Clemson. Ohio State won that one, too. So, being an underdog does have one advantage, according to running back Chip Trayanum.
“At this point, we have nothing to lose,” he said. “So we’re just here for a reason. I think everybody counts us out, but at the same time, it’s what you take on the Buckeye name for. So we’re all here to put our best foot forward and go win the whole thing.”
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