Ohio State quarterback C.J. Stroud was left heartbroken after the Buckeyes lost 45-23 to Michigan.
“Honestly, I don’t know how I feel right now,” he said. “It happened quickly.”
Stroud’s numbers against the Wolverines—31-for-48 passing, 349 yards, two touchdowns, two interceptions—were good, but opposite signal caller JJ McCarthy was arguably more impressive with 263 yards and three touchdowns on 12-for-24 passing plus an extra rushing touchdown. TD.
So, how did Stroud think he performed?
“That’s a great question,” he said. “I think I definitely played as heartily as possible. I definitely tried to do anything I could do to win this game. But at the end of the day, man, it’s on me. I’m the quarterback.”
He’s well aware that he was also the starting quarterback during last season’s 42-27 defeat at Ann Arbor, Michigan, when he completed 34 of his 49 attempts for 394 yards and two touchdowns. This is especially true given the very real possibility that this was Stroud’s last run against the Wolverines. During post-game media availability, the third-year quarterback in his sophomore year as a starter at OSU made this look like it was.
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“People will say I never won The Game, and I understand that,” Stroud said. “People will say I’ve never won a Big Ten championship. I understand. When it comes down to it, I just have to take it.”
However, he believes he has come a long way since “his first game of boot booed me, and people don’t say very nice things about me.”
In fact this season, he has a record completion percentage (66% on 235-for-355 passes) and touchdown-to-intercept percentage (37:6) that has him in the Heisman conversation. His 3,340 yards is down from last year’s total of 4,435, when he also threw 44 touchdown passes, but in 2021 he had Garrett Wilson and Chris Olaf to throw before they went in the first round of the NFL Draft. Stroud has played the majority of this season without star player Jackson Smith-Njegba.
It is for this reason that Stroud is still listed as one of the best, if not the best, scoring-eligible players out there making such projections.
Counting coach Ryan Day is among Stroud believers.
“I thought it was competition,” Day said. “I thought he played solid until the end, made some good throws, and nobody wanted to win more than CJ Stroud today.”
This is not to say that the coach and quarterback were on the same page all afternoon. At one point, OSU’s Donovan Jackson was called up for retention, and after the play Gee Scott Jr. was tagged. For his unsportsmanlike behavior, leaving the Buckeyes with a first-and-35 situation in the third quarter.
The Buckeyes fought back to the Michigan 43-yard line, facing fourth-and-five. When Day sent for a punt, Stroud stayed on the field heading toward the sideline, looking frustrated.
“I wanted to,” Stroud said. “I wanted to do it really badly. I think I’m still one of the best players in the country, and I think I can make that play. In those moments, I want the ball.”
It is unlikely that more of those moments will happen in Columbus. OSU now awaits its post-season fate, and Stroud’s last words on the podium on Saturday sounded very much like farewell.
He said, “It was a blessing.” “I love you all.”