Ohio State's Christmas Day began in Columbus and concluded in Atlanta.

The Buckeyes ventured south on Sunday, arriving in the Peach State for Saturday's College Football Playoff showdown with Georgia. The arrival featured a team dinner and a Santa Claus handing out gifts to the families on the trip.

While there are still bowl festivities to come, the Buckeyes are now ready to get down to business.

"It's going to be a typical week. Went over there (Mercedes-Benz Stadium) and practiced today, and we'll keep our routine our routine," Ohio State head coach Ryan Day said. "We're going to try to do the best we can to make the hotel here our Woody Hayes Athletic Center and make Mercedes-Benz our Woody Hayes Practice Facility, and I think that's part of the process of being at the bowl site. So try to keep things as normal as possible."

Flashing back to a month ago, the Buckeyes weren't sure they would be in this situation.

Michigan throttled Ohio State in the season finale, putting playoff hopes in jeopardy for the team in Columbus. The Buckeyes hit the practice field the next week anyway, a jumpstart that tight end Cade Stover called "very beneficial" at this point.

Like most teams, Day and his team focused on fundamentals in the early part of bowl prep. He's seen plenty of energy from his players in recent weeks as the bowl game draws closer.

"I think that there's been a focus on really high levels of execution," Day said. "I think there's been a focus on just overall physicality at practice. I think, as we finished our work in Columbus, you could see there was just an energy as we headed off down here to Atlanta and then that continued today. So we'll see as we get towards Saturday, but I can say that our guys have been working hard, the staff's been working hard. There's a level of urgency that we know we have to play our best football here in this game."

Ohio State also featured plenty of "good-on-good" reps during those fundamental stages of practice. Day believes that helps his team keep its edge and plans to continue utilizing those periods this week as he would in a normal game week.

Day isn't shying away from the fact that his team is in for a huge challenge on Saturday night. But after the uncertainty following the Michigan loss, the Buckeyes are embracing the second chance placed in front of them.

"Coach Day was telling us we're in a bowl and things like that, but we're down here to play a game and beat Georgia," linebacker Tommy Eichenberg said. "I think we've got to do all these events and stuff, but we've got one goal, and it's to beat Georgia."