Justin Fields had a job to take care of on Monday night.
So, too, did Jameson Williams, Greg Mattison, Jeremy Ruckert, Jerron Cage, Mookie Cooper, Matt Barnes, Master Teague, Amir Riep, Marcus Crowley, Brian Hartline, Zach Harrison, Harry Miller, Antwuan Jackson, Greg Studrawa, Noah Potter, Wyatt Davis and every other player or coach at Ohio State. The description of what they had to do just wasn’t the one any of them preferred.
As recently as 16 days before Monday, they had preliminary plans to spend that evening in New Orleans playing for a national championship. They bought in, fully believing that would happen.