Ezekiel Elliott Shows He Is Key to Ohio State’s National Championship Hopes

At a pair of Sugar Bowl media day appearances earlier this week, Ohio State running back Ezekiel Elliott saw his name misspelled not once but twice, on name tags used to indicate his podium.

After his performance in the game, it’s safe to say that’s not a problem he’ll have to worry about for the foreseeable future.

The second part of the first-ever College Football Playoff certainly lived up to the hype, with Ohio State and Alabama slugging it out in a Sugar Bowl that Buckeyes head coach Urban Meyer described as a “sledgehammer game.” But in a matchup between two college football powers with no shortage of stars on either sideline, it was Elliott who shined the brightest, totaling 230 yards and two touchdowns in Ohio State’s 42-35 win over the Crimson Tide.

“We had momentum as an offense,” Elliott said in the Buckeyes’ postgame celebration. “I really had faith in my boys and I knew that they were going to pave for me.”

The OSU offense did that—and then some—with Elliott taking advantage of every opportunity that was given to him against Alabama’s top-ranked rushing defense. With that, the fourth-ranked Buckeyes advanced to the National Championship Game in Arlington, Texas, where No. 2 Oregon awaits.

“There’s a perception out there that we’re not good enough,” Meyer said. “We are good enough.”

The play of Elliott has given Meyer plenty of reason to believe that, as the sophomore running back has now rushed for 1,632 yards on the season—the…

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