With the NFC and AFC championship games officially in the books, the stage is set for a “Buckeye Bowl” at Super Bowl 60. The New England Patriots and Seattle Seahawks are heading to Santa Clara on the 8th of next month, and it’s partly an Ohio State reunion.

On the Patriots’ side, head coach Mike Vrabel is the big story. He was a beast as a player for the Buckeyes and New England, and now he’s returned to lead the team back to the Super Bowl in just his first year as head coach. It was one heck of a gritty postseason road for Vrabel, particularly the conference title game. The AFC Championship was a total “ice bowl” in Denver, where Mike Vrabel showed why he’s a defensive genius.

The turning point came when New England’s defense forced a huge fumble in the second quarter, allowing quarterback Drake Maye to punch in a short touchdown run before the snow really set in. Vrabel then decided to play it safer with a nine-minute stall drive and ended the game with a game-winning field goal.

But it was Christian Gonzalez’s interception that wrapped up the game. So far, he has pulled off an insane turnaround, taking a team that won only four games last year to a 14–3 record this season. He’s not alone in New England, though. Rookie running back TreVeyon Henderson has been a total game-changer. He’s had a huge debut season with 911 rushing yards and 10 total touchdowns, making him a front-runner for Rookie of the Year. Helping clear the way for him on the offensive line is another former Buckeye captain, Thayer Munford Jr., who joined the team mid-season and has been a reliable force during this playoff run.

Then on the other side of the fence, you have Jaxon Smith-Njigba over in Seattle. Arguably the best receiver in the NFL alongside Puka Nacua of the Rams. He led the whole league with 1,793 receiving yards this year and just put on a clinic in the NFC Championship game with 153 yards and a touchdown. But what really saved the game for the Seahawks was their “Legion of Boom” style defense making a heroic stand at the very end to stop Matthew Stafford from putting the pigskin in the end-zone.

That said, JSN is Sam Darnold’s favorite target, and if the Seahawks win it all, there’s a good chance JSN walks away with the MVP trophy. The game kicks off at 6:30 p.m. ET on NBC, and it’s going to be a fun one for Ohio State fans and for Mike Vrabel, as he’s on the verge of making history.

Mike Vrabel’s historical feat

If Mike Vrabel leads the Patriots to a win in Super Bowl 60, he could become the first person ever to win a Super Bowl as both a player and a head coach for the same team. When Jim Nantz of CBS Sports mentioned it after the game, Vrabel brushed it off.

“I won’t win it. It’ll be the players that’ll win the game,” Mike Vrabel said right after the game. “I promise you. It won’t be me that’ll win it, and I promise I’ll do everything that I can, and our staff, to have them ready for the game.”

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He already has three rings, 12 receptions, and 12 touchdowns from his days playing linebacker for New England in the 2000s. Now, he’s just one win away from completing the set as their coach. While a few legendary names like Mike Ditka and Tony Dungy have won rings as both players and coaches, they all did it with different teams. Even Gary Kubiak, who played for and coached the Broncos, didn’t win it both ways for them.

He’s already joined a tiny group of coaches who made the Super Bowl in their debut season, but pulling off the win would be the ultimate bragging rights. For Buckeye Nation. Seeing one of their own potentially become the first to achieve this “same-team” double is just another reason to be jacked about Super Bowl 60.