How Ohio State football has prepared for winter weather ahead of its first home CFP game
The first December game at Ohio Stadium brings an inevitability.
It will be cold.
When Ohio State hosts Tennessee in the first round of the College Football Playoff on Saturday night, temperatures look to be below freezing.
The latest forecast from the National Weather Service calls for 25 degrees at the time of kickoff at 8 p.m. The wind chill is to be 19 degrees.
“Our guys are excited about it,” Buckeyes coach Ryan Day said this week.
The expansion of the playoff, bringing the first round to schools’ campuses, invites the possibility for cold weather, a contrast to the subsequent rounds held at neutral sites in Sunbelt regions.
While the Horseshoe is not expected to see the snowfall that could hit Notre Dame Stadium on Friday night, it still figures to be one of the coldest games in its history.
The Buckeyes have experience in the elements. Their last two games at the Horseshoe were below 50 degrees at kickoff, including 27 degrees when they met archrival Michigan at the end of the regular season. We practice in it every single day,” quarterback Will Howard said. “I’ve played in very cold conditions. It’s something we’re used to.”
In practices ahead of the playoff, the Buckeyes have remained outdoors rather than using the indoor field within the Woody Hayes Athletic Center.
“They’ve been pushing us outside of our comfort zone,” running back TreVeyon Henderson said, “to get accustomed to the weather.”
Henderson said it has helped them to adjust to the cold. Columbus has dipped below freezing over the last couple of weeks.
We truly are getting used to it,” Henderson said, “and we’ll be prepared.”
Added linebacker Cody Simon, “No matter what the weather is, we’re all going to be up for it.”
Day saw their acclimation in practices as a priority this month.
“Being outside, practicing outside and acclimating to the weather makes a big difference,” he said.
When Day addressed players earlier this week, he likened their postseason path to the NFL, where teams often navigate frigid weather in Kansas City or western New York deep into January.
“Not that growing up this is what they thought it would look like in college football,” Day said, “but here we are.”
Though Tennessee is heading north, it is not unfamiliar with cold weather.
It was 41 degrees at kickoff when the Volunteers visited Vanderbilt in Nashville at the end of the regular season. The average temperature in Knoxville during December is a high of 51 degrees with a low of 30.
Volunteers coach Josh Heupel said this week that have practiced outdoors in the mornings, the coldest part of the day.
“At the end of the day, you get between the white lines, weather doesn’t matter,” Heupel said. “The temperature doesn’t. We’ll be ready to go play. It’ll be a lot of fun.”
