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4 Ohio State Buckeyes Headed to Super Bowl LX, Led by Coach Mike Vrabel

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This article was originally published on Total Pro Sports.

4 Ohio State Buckeyes Headed to Super Bowl LX, Led by Coach Mike Vrabel
Mike Vrabel (Image Credits: Imagn)

Ohio State doesn’t just send players to the NFL. It sends them to championships. Four former Buckeyes are heading to Super Bowl LX on February 8, and the setup couldn’t be better for fans in Columbus. Mike Vrabel has New England in the big game during his first season as head coach. Jaxon Smith-Njigba just put on a clinic in the NFC Championship Game. Someone with Scarlet and Gray roots is walking away with a ring, no matter what happens in Santa Clara.

Vrabel’s Patriots beat Denver 10-7 in a defensive slugfest that looked exactly like what you’d expect from a former Buckeye defensive end turned coach. This marks his fifth Super Bowl appearance overall. He won three as a player with New England. Now he’s back on the other sideline trying to join an exclusive club.

Only Don McCafferty, another former Ohio State player, has coached a team to the Super Bowl before. McCafferty won it with Baltimore in 1970. Mike Vrabel could become just the fifth coach ever to win the championship in his first year with a team.

TreVeyon Henderson and Thayer Munford Jr. are making the trip with Mike Vrabel. Henderson ran for 911 yards and nine touchdowns in the regular season and could become the first Buckeye ever to win a national title and Super Bowl in back-to-back years. Munford joined the Patriots in November off Cleveland’s practice squad and has worked as a sixth offensive lineman through the playoffs.

Smith-Njigba Reminds Everyone Why He Won MVP

Jaxon Smith-Njigba
Jaxon Smith-Njigba (Image Credits: Getty Images)

The NFC Championship Game belonged to JSN. Ten catches. 153 yards. One touchdown. The Seahawks beat the Rams 31-27, and Smith-Njigba made sure everyone remembered why he’s the NFL Offensive Player of the Year. His one-handed sideline grab in the first quarter went viral immediately. Then he caught a 42-yard bomb while getting hammered. Three plays later, he scored from 14 yards out.

Smith-Njigba finished the first half with 115 receiving yards. That’s a Seahawks playoff record for any half. When Seattle needed a first down late in the fourth quarter, he delivered a 14-yard catch with three minutes left. The Rams needed a stop. They didn’t get one.

He’s caught 132 passes for 1,965 yards and 12 touchdowns across 19 games this season. Those numbers speak for themselves. Buckeye fans get to watch him go against Henderson, Vrabel, and Munford with everything on the line. Jonathon Cooper almost crashed the party for Denver with a third-quarter sack that forced Mike Vrabel’s New England to kick a field goal instead of scoring a touchdown. Those three points held up. Cooper’s still a Buckeye, just on the wrong side of this one.

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