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Ohio State vs. Notre Dame: First impressions of the national championship game
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Ohio State vs. Notre Dame.
It’s every Michigan fan’s worst nightmare come true. For the rest of us, it’s a dream matchup for the national championship.
Two traditional college football blue-bloods. One game. Winner take all. The perfect ending for the debut of a new College Football Playoff format that got off to a rocky start, but has delivered in a big way since.
The Buckeyes and Irish were seeded 8th and 7th, respectively, in the 12-team field on paper. But they’ve been the 2 best teams on the field by far over the past 4 weeks.
And they’ll meet for the title on Jan. 20 in Atlanta.
Ohio State advanced to the title showdown with a 28-14 victory against Texas at the Cotton Bowl on Friday in a game that was more dramatic than the final 14-point margin suggests. Notre Dame earned its ticket to the final a day earlier at the Orange Bowl by beating Penn State 27-24 in a game that was decided in the final 7 seconds.
The early line set by both DraftKings and FanDuel sportsbooks has the Buckeyes as a 9.5-point favorite.
Statistically, however, the difference between the teams is minimal.
They rank 1-2 nationally in scoring defense with the Buckeyes holding opponents to a minuscule 12.1 points per game and the Irish not far behind at 14.3. And they’re both among the FBS leaders in scoring offense with an average of around 37 points per game.
Everything else about them is a study in contrasts.
Ohio State is a team loaded with a stable of thoroughbreds – athletic playmakers including wide receiver Jeremiah Smith, the running back duo of Quinshon Judkins and TreVeyon Henderson, and safety Caleb Downs.
While the Irish also have their share of big-play talent, their personality has more of a throwback quality. It’s a physical, resilient style that has helped them play through the adversity of an ugly early loss to Northern Illinois and keep finding ways to win despite a late rash of injuries.
Their coaches are equally dissimilar.
While Notre Dame’s Marcus Freeman is a 39-year-old wunderkind whose star is shining brighter than ever because of this Playoff run, Ohio State’s Ryan Day is still battling to convince his detractors that he’s the right man for the job despite having lost only 6 games in 6 seasons against everyone not named Michigan.
Friday’s win was a big step in that direction.
Unlike the Buckeyes’ previous victories, 20-plus point blowouts of Tennessee and top-seeded Oregon, they were forced to grind out a win against a Texas team that refused to go away. They got the job done by driving 88 yards on 13 plays for the go-ahead score midway through the 4th quarter, then sealed the deal with a goal-line stand punctuated by Jack Sawyer’s 83-yard strip-sack/scoop and score dagger.
It was the gritty kind of effort that was lacking in Ohio State’s regular-season-ending loss to rival Michigan. And it showed the heart of a champion, even though in the process it may have provided Notre Dame with an effective blueprint to follow once they meet in the final.
It starts with getting early stops to prevent the Buckeyes from blowing the game open by halftime and centers around limiting the kind of explosive plays that became their trademark through the first 2 rounds of the Playoff.
Texas achieved that goal by bracketing top receiving threat Smith with a cornerback and a safety, effectively taking him out of the offense by limiting him to a single catch for just 3 yards. The Longhorns put enough pressure on quarterback Will Howard to force him into the kind of mistakes he’s avoided since the debacle against the Wolverines.
Although the defensive game plan and the success with which it was executed weren’t enough to beat the Buckeyes, it did keep the game close enough for Texas to have a chance at the end.
Now, Ohio State is 1 win from its first national title since 2014. In Notre Dame, it gets a a team still angry about a mistake that cost them the game the last time these teams met during the 2023 regular season.
Ohio State won that game 17-14 in South Bend on a 1-yard run as time expired on a play in which Notre Dame was caught with only 10 defenders on the field. That ending is still fresh in the memory of Irish running back Jeremiyah Love, who openly admitted to rooting for the Buckeyes against Texas in hopes of getting a measure of payback.
“We want to play Ohio State,” Love told On3 Sports after his team earned its spot in the Playoff finale. “We lost to them last year in a game we should have won. I feel like Ohio State is better than Texas. I want to play the best and win.”
Love and his teammates will get their wish — this time with a title on the line.
It’s a dream matchup in which everyone, with the possible exception of Michigan fans who dislike both traditional rivals, will be the winner. Regardless of who raises the trophy at the end.
Award-winning columnist Brett Friedlander has covered the ACC and college basketball since the 1980s.
