Skip to content

Ad Disclosure

Notre Dame rallied but came up short in the national title game against Ohio State.

Notre Dame Fighting Irish

Notre Dame can win a championship under Marcus Freeman, but Monday showed the Irish must upgrade offensively

Neil Blackmon

By Neil Blackmon

Published:


ATLANTA — Ohio State won its first national championship in a decade on Monday night in Atlanta, defeating Notre Dame 34-23 to cap a magnificent 4-win redemption arc of a march through the inaugural 12-team College Football Playoff field after a crushing loss to Michigan in Columbus on Nov. 30.

The Buckeyes won with stout defense and big-play offense, the winning formula for the bulk of the College Football Playoff’s champions since the same Ohio State program won the maiden edition of the 4-team tournament in 2014. Notre Dame rallied from a 31-7 deficit to make the game competitive late, but just when it seemed like the Fighting Irish would get the ball with a chance to tie, the Buckeyes made one more explosive play.

The formula that left Notre Dame second-best all night in Atlanta is one Marcus Freeman’s rising Notre Dame program knows it can follow as it hunts he first Fighting Irish national title since 1988.

Ohio State’s recipe to snap Notre Dame’s 13-game win streak and national championship hopes?

An elite defense to build a lead.

An explosive offense to keep it.

Stout defense put Notre Dame in a 24-point hole to begin with.

After an impressive 18-play, 75-yard touchdown drive to open the game, Notre Dame gained just 11 yards on their next 11 plays from scrimmage, a span that covered nearly 2 quarters. To limit the Fighting Irish, Ohio State stuffed Notre Dame’s powerful run game, limiting the 2-headed monster of Jadarian Price and Jeremiyah Love to just 17 yards on 7 attempts. The duo rushed for over 1,800 yards this season entering Monday night’s game. With Price and Love missing, Notre Dame was forced to rely on Riley Leonard to make plays in the passing game and lead the running game as well. That wasn’t going to cut it for the Fighting Irish.

“We obviously weren’t able to sustain the success we needed offensively,” Freeman said after the loss. “We can’t run Riley every play. That’s not what the formula for success is.”

In the meantime, Ohio State’s Will Howard completed 14 of his first 15 passes in helping the Buckeyes build a 3-score lead. Howard connected with an array of weapons, from route-running machine Emeka Egbuka (6 catches on 6 targets, 64 yards) to freshman sensation Jeremiah Smith, who scored Ohio State’s first touchdown and delivered the dagger (yes, we’re getting to that) to the Fighting Irish late. Howard also made plays with his legs, taking advantage of Notre Dame’s aggressive man-to-man scheme by scrambling to pick up multiple first downs. Ohio State converted its first 7 3rd downs — including 3 on Howard scrambles. When the dust cleared, Notre Dame failed to score on 4 consecutive possessions and Ohio State poured in an avalanche of 5 scores on their opening 5.

Only Notre Dame’s championship resolve kept the game from becoming a laugher.

“We knew the type of fight they would play with, no question,” Ohio State’s Howard said after the game. “Those guys don’t give an inch. They finish every play. We expected 60 minutes and we got it, to be sure.”

To get it, Notre Dame relied on a brilliant Lenard, who led drives of 80, 70, and 75 yards in a 14-minute stretch that helped the Fighting Irish claw within 8 points. The margin could have been smaller, but Mitch Jeter, excellent throughout the Playoff, missed a chip shot kick that would have cut the lead to 31-18 with 9 minutes remaining in the 4th quarter. Pounded on run plays and harassed in the pass rush by the physical Buckeyes all evening, Leonard stood tall, accumulating 309 total yards of offense (255 passing, 54 rushing) while accounting for 3 touchdowns (2 passing, 1 rushing) and playing turnover-free football.

“It’s difficult to quantify the level of toughness Riley showed,” Notre Dame linebacker and co-captain Jack Kiser said following the defeat. “I think you saw tonight why we had so much faith in him. People kept doubting us and him. You saw what happened tonight. There’s no quit in Riley Leonard. He just keeps playing and making plays. That’s a testament to him and the culture we’re building here.”

The culture Notre Dame is building is one that is getting closer to winning a national championship.

Of course, Ohio State won one because it made more plays and had the type of player the Fighting Irish simply don’t have.

Smith, the high-priced NIL investment from South Florida who is the best freshman wide receiver college football’s seen since Alabama’s Julio Jones, got single coverage against Notre Dame corner Christian Gray against Al Golden’s classic single high safety look. Thinking Ohio State might try something short near the sticks on 3rd down, Freeman and Golden elected not to bring All-American safety Xavier Watts over to help on the freshman sensation.

“At some point, we have to make a play,” Freeman said of the decision to play single coverage after the game. “If they run or get something at the sticks and get a first down, the game is also probably over. We covered him downfield 2 or 3 times in the second half, but he’s a heck of a player.”

He’s the type of player that almost every program lacks, but he also plays in an offense with enough weapons to aggressively stress a defense down the field. Freeman, ever mindful of program building, recognized that Monday night.

“It’s a talented offense,” Freeman said. “They stress you. You want to play zone, they have enough talent everywhere to pick you apart. You play man, they get their best player the ball. They have an answer for every situation.”

Elite talent on the perimeter creates answers. Julio Jones was the type of answer for every situation that helped transform Alabama under Nick Saban.

But talent without scheme can be wasted. When Alabama shifted away from the run-first, plodding offense of the early Saban era to the aggressive downfield passing offenses that defined the 2010s, that’s when the Crimson Tide became a nearly inevitable force of nature. Ditto Clemson and the downfield throwing of Deshaun Watson and Trevor Lawrence, and Georgia, which became multiple in the passing game thanks to the innovative Todd Monken.

Freeman has upgraded the talent in South Bend in ways that should make future Playoff appearances almost certain. This was not lost on the Fighting Irish locker room.

“People believe we’ll be back, at least the ones in this locker room,” All-American defensive lineman Howard Cross III said after the loss. “We just beat 3 straight great teams to get here and rallied tonight without ever giving up. We couldn’t finish. But look at where we are. Before the season, did anyone think Notre Dame would play for the national championship? After the NIU loss, did anyone think Notre Dame would win a single Playoff game? We’ve changed the narrative.”

The narrative certainly has changed for anyone actually paying attention.

This isn’t Brian Kelly‘s Notre Dame.

The Fighting Irish have better talent and are better on both sides of the ball, as evidenced by the program’s first top 5 finish in offensive and defensive efficiency this century.

“I told these guys, they’ve left this program better — I don’t care if you were here for 1 year or you’ve been here for 6 years,” Freeman said. “The outlook of Notre Dame football is extremely high. As long as the people in that locker room that come back understand what it takes, the work these guys have put in, there’s a lot of success in our future.”

The question now is what Freeman does on the margins, where championships are truly won.

An elite recruiter, can Freeman convince more 5-star talent to consider South Bend?

Does Notre Dame have the institutional commitment to NIL needed in the new era of the sport?

Will the Fighting Irish build a football team with an answer to every situation?

The consummate competitor, Freeman sounded determined Monday night.

“We didn’t get it done, and it hurts. My job is to figure out why, and I will.”

There’s no reason to doubt that.

Ohio State just left him the blueprint.

Neil Blackmon

Neil Blackmon covers Florida football and the SEC for SaturdayDownSouth.com. An attorney, he is also a member of the Football and Basketball Writers Associations of America. He also coaches basketball.

You might also like...

2024 RANKINGS

presented by rankings

Read our Privacy Policy, Terms and Conditions, Cookie Policy and

© 2025 Saturday Down South. All rights reserved

We do not target any individuals under the age of 21. We support responsible gambling. If you feel like you're losing control over your gambling experience, call 1-800-GAMBLER (NJ, PA, WV), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-BETS-OFF (IA), 1-888- 532-3500(Virginia) 1-800-522-4700 (NV, TN), 1-800-522-4700 (CO, TN), 1-855-2CALLGA (IL), 1-800-270-7117 (MI). global.footer.legal