×
×
homepage logo
LOGIN
SUBSCRIBE

The NH connection continues with national title game

By Tom King - Staff Writer | Jan 11, 2021

Yes, Monday night football is back – briefly.

Didn’t it feel strange last Monday without a game?

But tonight is the College Football Championship Game, with Alabama taking on Ohio State. It’s the final Monday night until next August or September we get to see football.

And lately this college trophy game always seems to have a local or New Hampshire angle.

And tonight’s tilt is no different.

Back in 2016, an aspiring broadcaster Cam Rogers, a Nashua South alum who at the time was at the University of Maryland, won a contest to join the media at the January, 2016 title game. Alabama won that won, 45-40, over Clemson. Rogers got to go to the game week and post game pressers, etc., which is a fabulous experience.

Last year, the morning after LSU’s big 42-25 win over Clemson, you saw on social media photos of then Bishop Guertin senior quarterback Hayden Moses celebrating with some Tigers quarterback named Joe Burrow, who just happened to also have won the Heisman Trophy. Burrow was sucking on a victory cigar and going out on top all the way to the NFL as the No. 1 pick. Unfortunately, Burrow – ironically like Moses – suffered a knee injury that cut his season short.

Moses got the trip to New Orleans and the title game as a Christmas present from his father and an influential alum got them into all the press happenings, and Moses was able to get into the locker room as well and saw Burrow. Great stuff.

And then there’s tonight. No, there’s no wide-eyed local attending the game in Miami and its media happenings.

Ohio State football coach Ryan Day is anything but wide-eyed. The Manchester native and former Manchester Central and Univerisity of New Hampshire quarterback standout – he was Gatorade Player of the Year his senior year in high school, 1997 – is accomplished on the sidelines.

After he set four career records at UNH, including completion percentage and touchdowns, he coached there for a year at 2002. He’s coached at Florida, Temple, Boston College, and in the NFL with Philadelphia and San Francisco as a disciple of Manchester’s Chip Kelly, his offensive coordinator at UNH.

Day will always have a job in football, he’s made plenty of connections but he’s also known plenty of success and is in the national title game in his second year as Ohio State’s head coach. He was the natural choice when Urban Meyer stepped down back in 2019.

Day was outspoken that the Big Ten should play this year despite the coronavirus, and the conference bigwigs eventually changed their mind and the Buckeyes got a few games in – they’ve played seven. Hey, good enough.

Day could eventually find himself back in the NFL, but he also likely will find himself back in this title game, win or lose.

The Buckeyes are a decided underdog, but once again we’ve got a reason around here to watch the final Monday night game of the season.

Enjoy.

Tom King can be reached at tking@nashuatelegraph.com, or on twitter @Telegraph _TomK.

Newsletter

Join thousands already receiving our daily newsletter.

Interests
Are you a paying subscriber to the newspaper? *