Ohio State dominates Notre Dame to cap the inaugural 12-team CFP with its first national title in 10 years

ATLANTA — Ohio State ushered in another new playoff system for college football by winning it all, emerging from the ruins of a devastating rivalry game loss and racing through a gauntlet of blue bloods to win a national title .

Will Howard completed his first 13 passes en route to 231 passing yards, Quinshon Judkins scored three touchdowns and the Buckeyes capped coach Ryan Day’s seven-week redemption tour with a 34-23 victory over Notre Dame during the College Football Playoff championship game. Monday evening.

The longest college football season ever, starting in August and ending on Inauguration Day, turned into a coronation at Ohio State.

The Buckeyes scored touchdowns on their first four possessions against a usually stingy Fighting Irish defense and came away with points on their first five, going up 31-7 midway through the third quarter. Notre Dame came alive after that, with three straight long drives that resulted in two touchdowns and a missed field goal.

With 4:10 left in the fourth quarter, the Irish had cut Ohio State’s lead to 31-23.

The Buckeyes needed some extra practice as the huge video board at Mercedes-Benz Stadium displayed an image of former Notre Dame coach Lou Holtz watching from a suite. That drew loud boos from Ohio State fans, who remembered how Holtz questioned the strength of their team before a 2023 regular-season meeting.

Howard ran for a first down, but facing third-and-11 from their own 34, the Buckeyes unleashed their ultimate weapon with a bold play call. Howard found fabulous freshman Jeremiah Smith down the right sideline and hit him perfectly in stride for a 57-yard gain to put the Buckeyes at the Notre Dame 10 with two minutes remaining.

With 26 seconds left, Jayden Fielding, who missed two field goals in November’s blowout loss to Michigan, took a 33-yard field goal and jumped to the other end of the field to celebrate .

By rolling through four rounds of the inaugural 12-team playoffs, Ohio State (14-2) won its seventh national title in the poll era (starting in 1936) and first since 2014, when Urban Meyer’s Buckeyes won the first four-team match. version of the CFP.

When Meyer stepped down after the 2018 season, he turned the powerhouse program over to Day. For six seasons, the Buckeyes have barely missed a beat, except in the game that matters most to their fans.

Virtually a pariah among Buckeyes fans after losing to their rival for the fourth straight time to end the regular season, Day now has as many national titles with Ohio State as Jim Tressel and Meyer. Day, 45, is now 70-10 as coach of the Buckeyes.

On the last Saturday of November, the Buckeyes left their field angry, frustrated and dejected after Michigan dived them again and planted a flag on their 50-yard line.

Ohio State has been playing football for over 125 years. The Buckeyes’ official record includes 335 losses. That 13-10 loss to “The Team Up North” as a 20-point favorite, capped by a post-game brawl, would make the short list of the worst in program history.

A group of talented Buckeyes — including defensive ends Jack Sawyer and JT Tuimoloau, receiver Emeka Egbuka and running back TreVeyon Henderson — had postponed cashing NFL checks in favor of name, image and resemblance this year for a chance to avenge their three previous disappointments. against the Wolverines. The mission: Win the Game, the Big Ten and the Natty.

They failed in the first two, increasing the pressure on Day. But this year, there was still a path to third place thanks to the 12-team Playoffs.

Make no mistake, losing to Michigan as a heavy favorite came at a cost: the new playoff format ensured that this season’s national champion would be the first in sports history to win at least three playoff games . A second regular-season loss for the Buckeyes, to Oregon in mid-October, meant they had to win four, navigating a road paved with traditional powers.

Ohio State made things look easy in a cathartic blowout against Tennessee and its 30,000 orange-clad fans at Ohio Stadium and while avenging its loss to the Big Ten champion Ducks in the Rose Bowl .

Texas provided a stiffer test in a semifinal contested in the Longhorns’ home state, but Sawyer — a product of the Buckeyes since birth — put the Longhorns away with a scoop-and-break -late score.

The Buckeyes finished the job against Notre Dame, the most storied program in college football history, with eight national titles, more than 900 wins and enough history to fill a bookshelf.

The Midwest’s first college football title game was played in the stadium that hosts the SEC championship game each year. The Northerners brought their weather to Atlanta, with temperatures in the 20s outside Mercedes-Benz Stadium around kickoff, making Ohio State and Notre Dame ski caps with pom poms on top a popular accessory in downtown Atlanta. To be fair, it barely broke the numbers in Columbus, Ohio, and South Bend, Indiana, on Monday.

Freezing temperatures caused fans to seek shelter in the stadium early on. More than two hours before kickoff, the concourses were packed, with Buckeyes shouting “OH, IO” and fans trading fist bumps and posing for photos with marching band members in full uniform.

The air-conditioned confinements provided a fast track for Ohio State’s star offense, even if it took a while to get on the field.

Marcus Freeman’s Fighting Irish, 8.5-point underdogs, opened with a statement: an 18-play, 75-yard touchdown run that was nearly 10 minutes late. Notre Dame converted two third downs and two short fourth downs, and Riley Leonard’s ninth run was a 1-yard walk-off touchdown to make it 7-0.

The Fighting Irish’s first national championship since 1988 seemed like a real possibility. For Freeman, 39, it would have been the first time for a black coach at the highest level of college football. But Ohio State responded with a 75-yard touchdown drive, capped by an 8-yard touchdown run from Howard to Smith to tie the game at 7.

Ohio State went two-for-two on touchdown drives on its second possession, driving 76 yards with Judkins, the transfer running back from Ole Miss, strong-arming a ground tackler en route to a 9-yard touchdown run. Then three-on-three, with Howard putting up the best pass defense in the country, especially on third down. The Kansas State transfer found Judkins alone in the middle of the end zone for a 6-yard score with 27 seconds left in the first half to make it 21-7 at the break.

It was a spectacular display from Howard and offensive coordinator Chip Kelly, spreading the ball to the Buckeyes’ array of weapons. Notre Dame’s pass defense came into the nation’s No. 1 game with a completion percentage allowed at 50.7 percent. Only Georgia in the quarterfinals shot 60 percent in any game against the Irish secondary from the no-fly zone.

Howard was 14 of 15 in the first half for 144 yards and two touchdowns to six different receivers.

Notre Dame, so effective in the middle eight (the last four minutes of the first half and the first four of the second), was dominated 14-0 by Ohio State.

Judkins broke free on the second play of the second half for a 70-yard run that put the Buckeyes out again. Three plays later, it was a hat trick for Judkins as the Ohio State offensive line, which lost its two top blockers to season-ending injuries, collapsed Notre Dame’s front for a score of one meter.

Howard celebrated with a fist bump. Notre Dame fans were left speechless and silent. With 12:46 left in the third quarter, Ohio State led 28-7, evoking memories of the 2012 BCS championship game when Alabama beat the Irish 42-14.

Not so fast. These Irish are built differently.

Leonard finished with 255 passing yards, including two touchdowns to Jaden Greathouse, and the second and accompanying two-point conversion made it a one-score game with 4:15 left in the fourth.

The Buckeyes would not be denied, with Smith delivering the knockout.

The era of super teams in college football may be fading, with the transfer portal and the introduction of honest payments to players creating smaller margins between the top teams.

The Buckeyes at their best, loaded with experienced veterans and bolstered by some star transfers such as Howard, Judkins and safety Caleb Downs, proved to be a super team, overcoming the pressure of a make-or-break season and delivering their coach into trouble. a national title that will remain as redemptive, relieving and historic.

(Photo: Rich von Biberstein/Sportswire Icon/Getty Images)