The first year of the 12-team-playoff produced a storm of blowouts and classic games, ultimately leaving Ohio State and Notre Dame as the last two teams standing. On January 20, the two teams will meet in Atlanta at the Mercedes-Benz stadium for the final game of the season. Both Notre Dame and Ohio State come in as a seven and eight seed respectively, but neither team classifies as a typical Cinderella story.
Notre Dame
In his third year, Marcus Freeman faces his alma mater in his first playoff run as the Notre Dame head coach. After suffering a week two defeat at the hands of Northern Illinois, of all teams, the Irish breezed through the rest of their schedule with no real problem. The real test for this team lay ahead in the playoffs. Going into the playoff as the five seed, the reseeding placed the Fighting Irish as the seventh seed matched up with number 10 Indiana. Notre Dame dominated this game with a final score of 27-17 making the game look closer than it actually was.
This win set the stage for a matchup with the Georgia Bulldogs at the Sugar Bowl. Initially pushed back a day due to the terrorist attack that occurred in New Orleans on January 1, the Irish marched into the game as a one-point favorite and at halftime led the Bulldogs 13-3. Coming out of halftime, the Irish rode their wave of momentum with Jayden Harrison returning the opening kickoff for a touchdown. Notre Dame commanded the rest of that game with Marcus Freeman outcoaching Kirby Smart in the final drive to seal the game for Notre Dame. Just like that Freeman disbanded a powerhouse, albeit with a backup quarterback, the win remained impressive.
The red-hot Penn State Nittany Lions awaited Notre Dame in the Orange Bowl for a spot in the national championship game. In one of the best games of this 12-team playoff, the Irish came away with a 27-24 win off of a last-minute field goal. The game experienced three ties and four lead changes setting the stage for the 41-yard Mitch Jeter field goal.
Notre Dame’s quarterback, Riley Leonard, highlights the offense with the dual-threat ability to run the ball efficiently while also throwing the ball to his offensive weapons. In the passing game, Jaden Greathouse and Jordan Faison premier as the wide receivers one and two with tight end Mitchell Evans being a reliable target. Jeremiyah Love ranks as one of the best sophomore running backs in all of college football rushing for over 1,000 yards this season. Defensively this season, Notre Dame stacks up as one of the best as they typically do. Talent marks the entire defense with Junior Tuihalamaka is the standout on the defensive line and Xavier Watts and Christian Gray being the stars of the secondary. Notre Dame comes into the national championship red hot. I like their chances.
Ohio State
Then you have Ohio State. Their road to the natty was arguably way more impressive. Starting off with their first game against number nine-seeded Tennessee, this game should have been the best of the first round. But it wasn’t. Ohio State routed Tennessee 42-17 in a game that was never remotely close.
In their next game Ohio State and the number one Oregon Ducks lined up for a meeting in the Rose Bowl. Prior to Ohio State’s demoralizing week 12 loss to Michigan, their only other loss was to this number-one Oregon team. Ohio State started this game with two straight 40+ yard touchdowns from freshman phenom Jeremiah Smith and Emeka Egbuka. At halftime, Ohio State held a 34-8 lead. The aforementioned Jeremiah Smith had 161 receiving yards at this point to go with two touchdowns. The Buckeye’s defense held one of the most high powered offenses in the country to eight points in the first half. They would close the game only giving up 21. With a 41-21 dismantling of Oregon, only one team stood in the way of Ohio State’s National Championship. The Texas Longhorns.
Coming off of an intense battle with the Arizona State Sundevils, the Longhorns scraped their way to the Cotton Bowl. In this game, both teams regressed to the mean in a way with the struggling Longhorns playing the red-hot Buckeyes well through the game. Ohio State took the lead in the fourth putting them up 21-14, but Texas steadily drove down the field eventually ending up on the one-yard-line. In what some named as an extremely questionable move, Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian called a halfback toss play with Quintrevion Wisner who never had a chance against Ohio State’s defensive line, suffering a loss of seven yards. After an incomplete third-down pass, the ensuing fourth-down play led to Ewers getting strip-sacked and his former roommate at Ohio State, Jack Sawyer, returning the fumble for an 83-yard touchdown. The win set the stage for the National Championship.
This run for Ohio State was rather unlikely with the stigma around their head coach Ryan Day not being able to win big games. Day hasn’t beaten Michigan in the past four years and sure that doesn’t all fall on him, but Ohio State possessed the more superior team this year and they played scared of Michigan. That falls on Day. The negative headlines around Day and big games got flipped on its head with the wins he’s pulled off this playoff run. Headlined by true freshman receiver Jeremiah Smith, the Buckeye’s offense hit its biggest strides at the best time. Pairing with a star duo of running backs TreVeyon Henderson and Quinshon Judkins and quality quarterback Will Howard, Ohio State can go off on any given night as evidenced by the explosive performances against Tennessee and Oregon. As I mentioned, their defense is loaded with talent to shut down any team.
This national championship projects to be everything we’ve hoped for. Two doubted coaches are getting their chance at the big stage with two red-hot teams gunning for the title. Personally I’ve got the Buckeyes even though my heart wants Notre Dame to win.
Staff Picks:
Ian Irwin, 10: Ohio State
Callon Rhoden, 10: Ohio State
Jadon Crumpton, 12: Ohio State
Kati Waguespack, 11: Ohio State
Preston Bledsoe, 10: Ohio State
Katie Keating, 11: Ohio State
Emily Gandy, 10: Ohio State
Ryan Neef, 10: Ohio State
Stephen Southern, 11: Ohio State