Ohio State's Caleb Downs is quite the CFP veteran heading into the quarterfinals against Miami

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ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) — Caleb Downs had to be reminded that he was getting ready for his sixth College Football Playoff game, which probably won't be rare a decade from now but is unique in just the second year of the expanded 12-team format.

The Ohio State safety smiled at the thought and figured it couldn't hurt to have played in the CFP as a freshman at Alabama, losing 27-20 to Michigan in overtime before transferring to the Wolverines' biggest rival and winning four postseason games and a national championship with the Buckeyes a year ago.

“That could be a positive, just knowing that I’ve been in this situation so many times,” said Downs, a two-time Associated Press All-American. “At the end of the day, it’s not about me. It’s about everybody else feeling confident during the game. Really just trying to push that to all my teammates.”

He's talking younger teammates such as freshman Devin Sanchez, a backup cornerback who has tried to imagine the nerves and emotions in the hours before kickoff Wednesday night in a Cotton Bowl quarterfinal against No. 10 Miami.

The Hurricanes (11-2, CFP No. 10 seed) are first-time CFP qualifiers, but got a start on those nerves with the 10-3 first-round victory at Texas A&M on Dec. 20.

The third-ranked Buckeyes (12-1, CFP No. 2) got a first-round bye despite losing to top-ranked Indiana in the Big Ten championship game.

“Lean on them a lot, more than you think,” Sanchez said. “They’re guys that have been here a lot of times, a couple of guys have been to the Cotton Bowl for the third straight year in a row. So this is not a new place for them. As a new guy, there’s nothing I can do but lean on them. The speed will be a little different. The intensity will be up a little bit more. Just lean on those guys, and when my number’s called just be able to go out there and make sure that they trust me to be out there.”

Downs remembers the nerves from his CFP debut with the Crimson Tide. He was in the Rose Bowl, a spectacle he had seen on TV as a kid.

“That was probably the biggest game I had played at the time,” said Downs, one of the top players in the 2024 portal as the first freshman to lead the storied Alabama program in tackles. “Knowing that, it was a little bit of nerves.”

The Buckeyes were in the Cotton Bowl for last season's semifinals, beating Texas 28-14 after comfortable wins over Tennessee at home and No. 1 Oregon in a Rose Bowl quarterfinal.

Downs found a way to leave the Rose Bowl with a better feeling. Now he'll be back on the field where he intercepted Texas' Quinn Ewers almost a year ago, in what will be his 44th game in just three seasons.

“I think just in general with Caleb, just the amount of experience he has playing football is probably the most important thing,” first-year defensive coordinator Matt Patricia said. “His professionalism and how he prepares is probably the best example that I can point to for all the players.”

Downs, a projected first-round pick should he decide to enter the NFL draft in April, isn't the only experienced defensive back. Davison Igbinosun and Jermaine Matthews Jr., the starting cornerbacks in front of Sanchez, have been around awhile.

Igbinosun was on the 2023 Ohio State team that also played in the Cotton Bowl, a 14-3 loss to Missouri after missing out on the last four-team playoff.

A year later, Downs was with him, believing the experience of being in the playoff didn't matter as much as losing in the playoff.

“It definitely added a little bit of fuel to the fire because I lost my freshman year,” Downs said. “It made me want to come back and play better. I think that was a lot of what everybody else on the team felt because they didn’t have the success they wanted to earlier in their career. I think that was a hungry team. And we’ve got to be the same way this year.”

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