ARLINGTON, Texas — The ball clunked off the upright and fell into Jeffrey Okudah’s hands, and without thinking about it, the cornerback who has making his first extended, meaningful action in the Cotton Bowl went with his instincts and tried to return the football.



“I just went with it,” Okudah said in the locker room after the game. “I thought if I got into the open field I could make something happen, kind of like in my high school days.”



Instincts. It doesn’t matter whether Okudah temporarily forgot that this isn’t Arena Football. He was just trying to make a play.



Before the former five-star cornerback flashed in Ohio State’s 24-7 win over USC, the door to that extended time was opened by a controversial decision from starter and future first-round NFL Draft selection Denzel Ward. In attempt to preserve his body and avoid the risk of injury, Ward decided to skip the Cotton Bowl, becoming the latest high-profile player to not play in his team’s bowl game. It was done last year by Stanford running back Christian McCaffery and LSU running back Leonard Fournette, both of whom were still taken in the top eight.



‌‌‌ The Cotton...