Booger McFarland believes the path to success is Notre Dame is narrow but he sees a way. During an appearance on Andy and Ari-sur3ESPN analyst revealed how the Fighting Irish could pull off an upset Ohio State at the national championship on Monday.
“For me, it’s very simple” McFarland said. “It is Will Howardsome turnovers. It is Chip Kelly And Ryan Day kind of get away from the things that got them here, which is being explosive, getting the ball to these receivers, getting the ball to (Carnell)Tatebring the ball to (Emeka) Egbukabring the ball to (Jeremiah) Smith. For example, get the ball to your playmakers.
“If they show up and say, ‘OK, we want to present TreVeyon (Henderson) And Quinshon (Judkins) this game, and we want to restart it 40 times,” so if that’s the case, they’re playing into Notre Dame’s hands. I don’t think they will, but even then they’ll still need some turnovers. Notre Dame needs to get a defensive score. Notre Dame needs to get some explosive plays down the field from Riley Leonard, and if they can do that, then I think we could have a ball game.
It’s certainly not impossible. Ohio State quarterback Will Howard has thrown an interception in two of the Buckeyes’ three wins thus far. College Football Playoffs.
Get your team’s official College Football Playoff watch from AXIA by CLICKING HERE:Watches that tell much more than time. »
Alas, Ryan Day and Chip Kelly are much less likely to move away from the passing game. Ohio State’s Air Raid was key to its playoff success after the team threw for just 175 yards in its loss to Michigan during the regular season finale.
Of course, Notre Dame won’t make it easy for the Buckeyes. The Fighting Irish defense allows just 165.3 passing yards per game, second-to-last in the country. Still, with so many options in Ohio State’s arsenal, Booger McFarland doesn’t like Notre Dame’s chances.
“That’s a lot of things that they need because if this game is played straight, if this game is played with no turnovers, if this game is played with both teams playing to their potential, I think it’s a score of nine 10-point game where I favor Ohio State,” McFarland said. “Football is never played that way, so let’s see how the ball bounces on Monday night.”
Notre Dame and Ohio State will face off on Monday at 7:30 p.m. ET. The game will be broadcast live on ESPN.
