In what was a closely contested game early on, the Ohio State Buckeyes ran away with the first National Championship of the NCAA College Football Playoff era Monday night, defeating the Oregon Ducks 42-20. Here are the fun-filled facts you need to know.
Ohio State won the National Championship despite losing their first two starting quarterbacks to injury. Third-string QB Cardale Jones for went 16-for-23 for 242 yards in OSU’s win. Oregon QB Marcus Mariota won the Heisman Trophy.
Ohio State was the final No. 4 seed coming into the four team playoff, having not been ranked in the top 4 all season leading up the final rankings.
The win is OSU’s 6th title since the poll era began in 1936.
OSU head coach Urban Meyer is now just the second coach (during championship era) to win a title at two different schools (two at Florida). He matches Nick Saban as the only other active coach that has 3 championships to his resume.
Meyer has won 38 of 41 games at Ohio State.
Sophomore OSU running back Ezekiel Elliott finished with 696 yards rushing in his final three games, with 246 yards and 4 TDs Monday night.
Elliott is the 1st player in school history with 3 straight 200-yd rushing games.
Related: Why We Have A College Football Playoff – Explained
Elliott finished the season with 1,878 yards, the second-most in any season in Ohio State history. Only Eddie George had more – 1,927 en route to the 1995 Heisman Trophy.
Oregon converted 2-of-12 third down conversions and scored just 1 TD on four red zone appearances; they allowed 42 points in the game — all were season lows.
Oregon dropped three passes Monday, its most in a game this season. All three of the Ducks’ drops were on third down; they had five drops on third down coming into the game this season.
Marcus Mariota is the sixth Heisman winners to lose in the national championship game, the last three of which came at the hands of an Urban Meyer-coached opponent.
Marcus Mariota had a season-low 4.9 third-down Total QBR. Entering Monday, Mariota ranked 2nd in the FBS with a 91.9 third-down Total QBR.
This is Oregon’s 2nd national championship loss in four years. They lost in 2010 to Auburn.
Oregon has never won a national title.
Ohio State is 9-0 against Oregon, its best record against any school in program history.
Ohio State joins Alabama, Notre Dame, USC, and Oklahoma as the only schools with six national titles.
Ohio State is the first school in college football history to defeat the top three Heisman vote-getters in the same season.
Selected stats via ESPN Stats & Information
Photo Credit: Getty
Josh Helmuth is the editor of CraveOnline Sports.
