The Ohio State Buckeyes are THE champions of college football.
The Buckeyes ended Atlanta’s second time hosting the sport’s marquee event with a 34-23 victory over Notre Dame on Monday at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in front of an announced attendance of 77,660. It was the second-largest crowd for a championship game in College Football Playoff history and surpassed the 77,430 when the game was played here in 2018.
The win gave eighth-seeded Ohio State its ninth national title and the Big Ten its second consecutive. The SEC, whose teams won the previous four, are on notice for next season.
“Now the stories of these guys will be told because they’ve cemented themselves in Ohio State history, the ninth national champion and the third really, the last 50 years,” Ohio State coach Ryan Day said. “There’s been some great teams the last 50-some odd years at Ohio State, great teams, great players. Only three of them are national champs.”
Notre Dame’s 14th title and first since 1988 will have to wait until at least next season when the game is scheduled to move to Miami.
“Tough moment, tough outcome,” Notre Dame coach Marcus Freeman said. “There are reasons why we didn’t get the outcome we wanted. Credit to Ohio State, their ability to execute on both sides of the ball.”
Though the playoff this season expanded to 12 teams, which figured to deepen the field and create more competitive games, the title game was more competitive than the previous two. It followed Georgia’s 58-point thrashing of TCU in 2023 in Los Angeles and Michigan’s 21-point walloping of Washington last season in Houston.
Notre Dame, whose supporters traveled almost as well as Ohio State’s, tried to make the game exciting.
Trailing 31-7, Notre Dame scored two touchdowns with 2-point conversions in the second half to cut Ohio State’s lead to 31-23 with 4:15 remaining.
Both touchdowns were passes from Riley Leonard to Jaden Greathouse. The first went for 34 yards in the third quarter and the second for 30 in the fourth. Between those drives, Notre Dame missed a 27-yard field goal on fourth-and-goal at Ohio State’s nine with 9:27 remaining. Freeman said he elected to attempt the field goal because he said it would be easier to possibly get 14 points than 16 points.
After being battered in the first half and most of the third quarter, the Irish finally had momentum.
Ohio State didn’t flinch.
Notre Dame pushed Ohio State to third down. The Irish blitzed. Freeman said they needed to do something to try to win the game. Day promised the players that he would coach aggressively. They had yet to try to hit Jeremiah Smith down the field. The call was made. The offensive line absorbed the pressure and Will Howard hit Smith down the right sideline for 56 yards on third down to set up first and goal at the 9-yard line with 2 minutes remaining.
“A great play in Ohio State history,” Day said.
Credit: Jason Getz / Jason.Getz@ajc.com
Credit: Jason Getz / Jason.Getz@ajc.com
Ohio State squeezed the clock down to 29 seconds before successfully kicking a 33-yard field goal for the final 11-point margin.
“We went into the season, we knew that we had a lot of chips in the pot,” said Ohio State’s Cody Simon, who was named the defensive MVP. “The expectation was really high. We knew that our foundation was meant to survive for this game. I just appreciate that all the guys were up for the challenge, and then we all stuck together, because there was times where we could have really frayed apart. And I’m just, I’m so proud of all the guys on our team.”
Ohio State was favored so the result wasn’t surprising. That it ended up reasonably close, particularly after the first half, was.
Though blessed with NFL draft picks throughout its roster, Ohio State wasn’t flashy in taking a 21-7 lead into halftime. Instead, the Buckeyes bludgeoned the Irish with three drives of 11, 10 and 12 plays that lasted 16 minutes, 37 minutes.
The first drive ended with Smith catching an 8-yard pass. The second ended with Quinshon Judkins breaking a tackle near the goal line to finish an 8-yard run. The third ended with Howard rolling right, stopping and then throwing back across the field to Judkins, who was open in the back of the end zone, just before the end of the half.
Three drives. Three touchdowns. The efficiency was evident in Howard completing his first 13 passes for 138 yards. The Buckeyes didn’t punt and converted all six of their third downs in the half.
Notre Dame’s only solace was taking a 7-0 lead on its first drive. It took 18 plays and lasted 9 minutes, 45 seconds. It was the first time that Ohio State trailed in this season’s playoff. Ohio State bounced back to hold the Irish without a first down on their next three drives. Notre Dame’s second drive was impacted by two penalties. The second was affected by a bad snap.
Then came the Ohio State flash.
Judkins busted a 70-yard run on the Buckeyes’ second play of the second half to set up first and goal at the 5. Judkins went up the middle again from a yard out on third down to increase Ohio State’s lead to 28-7 with 12:46 remaining in the third quarter.
After Notre Dame went out on downs without a first down for the fourth consecutive drive, Ohio State kicked a 46-yard field goal to take a 31-7 lead.
It would be a margin that Notre Dame couldn’t overcome.
Ohio State is the champion of college football.
“When that got tagged on us early, there was a lot of pressure put on our players,” Day said. “But that’s nothing new at Ohio State. I think the difference is that, we finished the season the right way, and we grew, we built, and we responded to tough times. Isn’t that what life’s all about? These guys can learn a bunch of life lessons, but they’re going to go down in Ohio State history.”
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