ARLINGTON, Texas — And now, 15 ideas from Notre Dame 27, Penn State 24 and Ohio State 28, Texas 14 — two much-needed, much-enjoyed fourth-quarter finishes within the School Soccer Playoff semifinals.
1. The digicam operators for the mammoth video board at AT&T Stadium love their crowd pictures. There have been a number of between each play. Friday evening’s Ohio State-Texas Cotton Bowl offered them with an countless provide of dudes in Buckeyes jerseys flashing the Block O and ladies in cowboy boots giving the Hook ’Em signal.
When Ohio State’s Jack Sawyer stripped Texas quarterback Quinn Ewers, picked up the ball and returned it for a game-sealing 83-yard landing, that board morphed into a protracted montage of euphoric Buckeyes followers blended with Longhorn give up cobras. Moments earlier, No. 5 seed Texas was on the 1-yard line, presumably about to ship this Playoff semifinal to additional time. Now, with one outstanding play, No. 8 seed Ohio State was on its approach to Atlanta.
A pair of dramatic semifinals on back-to-back nights give us a Jan. 20 conflict between the Buckeyes and No. 7 seed Notre Dame within the first all-Midwest nationwide championship sport since … nicely, ever.
JACK SAWYER SCOOP-AND-SCORE 😱
Ohio State is one step nearer to advancing to the nationwide championship! pic.twitter.com/BPoV5FBRGZ
— ESPN (@espn) January 11, 2025
2. I knew the primary 12-team Playoff can be compelling. I underestimated the extent.
Within the previous days, the four-team discipline was introduced in early December, then the groups went into hibernation for a month. They lastly got here again for New Yr’s to play a pair of semifinals that had been typically nice however typically anticlimactic.
This 12 months, by the point the groups acquired to the semis, we’d been invested of their tales for weeks. Like following an Olympic swimmer on his quest for gold, we turned Jeremiyah Love followers along with his 98-yard landing towards Indiana and marveled when he trucked 4 Penn State defenders on a 2-yard landing. We turned on that Dec. 21 Tennessee-Ohio State sport not realizing whether or not the Buckeyes nonetheless had a pulse post-Michigan. Three wins later, they’re getting ready to a nationwide championship.
Ohio State and Notre Dame will probably be enjoying for the third consecutive season, and but this appears like a completely contemporary matchup. A lot has occurred since then. Maybe Lou Holtz will carry out the coin toss.
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3. Generational freshman Jeremiah Smith had a mixed 13 catches for 290 yards and 4 touchdowns via the Buckeyes’ first two Playoff video games. The story of the Cotton Bowl figured to be whether or not Texas’s gifted protection might gradual him down. The Horns did, holding Smith to at least one first-quarter catch for 3 yards.
From begin to end, Texas made Ohio State earn this one. The Longhorns gave up one house run play, TreVeyon Henderson’s 75-yard catch and run landing to go up 14-7 within the second quarter. However the Buckeyes, which did themselves no favors with penalties, punted on 4 straight first-half possessions and didn’t rating within the third quarter, which started with quarterback Will Howard throwing a decide.
However come the fourth quarter, Howard and the Buckeyes confirmed they’re not all 50-yard TDs. They took over on their 12-yard line with 14:47 left and spent the following 7:45 grinding out an 88-yard drive. Dealing with a fourth-and-2 on the Texas 34, Howard stored on a delayed draw and ran 18 yards towards the tip zone (earlier than slipping). The drive culminated in a Quinshon Judkins 1-yard TD. Clearly, the sport was removed from over, but it surely was an vital second. They’ll want extra drives prefer it towards a fair stingier Notre Dame protection.
4. Fittingly, although, the Buckeyes sealed their victory with an enormous defensive play by considered one of their veteran stalwarts in Sawyer. For all of the star energy on the opposite facet of the ball, Ohio State’s protection has been its fixed, behind the likes of Sawyer, bookend JT Tuimoloau (1.5 sacks) and linebacker Cody Simon (9 tackles, three TFLs). It wasn’t flawless. Ewers, underneath heavy stress a lot of the evening, nonetheless threw for 287 yards and two TDs, one being a game-tying 26-yard throw to Jaydon Blue. And after falling behind 21-14, Texas drove from its personal 25 to the Buckeyes’ 1 with three minutes left.
However then Lathan Ransom snuffed out a second-down toss to Quintrevion Wisner for a 7-yard loss, Sawyer compelled an incompletion on third-and-goal after which … you noticed it.
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5. Day is one win away from finishing a world-record turnaround from probably the most hated man in Ohio to its conquering hero. His former rival, Jim Harbaugh, went from having to take a pay reduce to successful the primary of three straight Massive Ten titles in 2021. The man Day is about to face once more, Freeman, was capable of erase the stench of that loss to Northern Illinois all through this season. However Day has pulled this off within the span of 4 video games. Ohio State followers could by no means forgive him for the Michigan losses, even with a trophy, and so they’ll definitely be disenchanted if the Buckeyes fall quick subsequent Monday.
However nobody might presumably say the man doesn’t know what he’s doing/has been driving City Meyer’s coattails/can’t win the massive one, and so on. The SEC has been the nation’s measuring stick for 18 years, and Day’s staff defeated two of that league’s top-three groups since Dec. 21. In between, it walloped the No. 1 staff within the nation. Give the person his flowers.
6. America’s hottest backup quarterback, Arch Manning, acquired in for one play, a fourth-and-1 at midfield within the second quarter, and promptly ran for 8 yards on a keeper. A lot to the chagrin of some Horns followers, he got here proper again out.
Ewers, who presumably performed his final sport in a Texas uniform (whether or not he turns professional or enters the portal), ought to be nothing however recommended for what he did in three seasons at Texas. He led a program that had been down for almost 15 years to a Massive 12 title, an SEC title sport and back-to-back Playoffs. He saved the day towards Arizona State within the quarterfinals, and, for the second 12 months in a row, had the Horns on the cusp of a semifinal victory (final 12 months Texas misplaced near Washington) however couldn’t fairly get there. He went 21-5 because the starter over the previous two seasons.
He wasn’t Vince Younger or Colt McCoy. However he was the face of this system’s finest two-year run since these guys performed.
A 41-yard discipline aim by Mitch Jeter sealed Notre Dame’s 27-24 win towards Penn State within the CFP semifinals.(Sam Navarro / Imagn Photographs)
7. In 2012, when Notre Dame final reached a nationwide championship sport, the 12-0 Irish wrapped up their berth on Nov. 24. It could be 44 days earlier than they performed once more of their notorious 42-14 flop towards Alabama. The stigma from that sport fed the notion that Notre Dame had a free go to the BCS/CFP by not enjoying a thirteenth sport. It lingered for therefore lengthy that Penn State’s James Franklin inexplicably pulled the “everybody ought to be in a convention” card simply days earlier than dealing with the impartial Irish in a semifinal sport.
Due to the 12-team format, Notre Dame acquired to definitively show it belongs within the natty. Even when it loses 55-0 to Ohio State (it gained’t), Notre Dame needed to play 15 video games to get there, culminating with three top-10 groups in a row, together with SEC champion Georgia and 13-game winner Penn State.
If, in spite of everything that, you’re nonetheless hung up on “however they misplaced to NIU 4 months in the past,” congrats on changing into the real-life Debbie Downer character from “Saturday Evening Stay.”
8. My colleague Ralph Russo wrote this week about how Marcus Freeman did the unthinkable and made the Irish likable. Watching their last-second 27-24 semifinal win, I noticed his level. This Notre Dame staff shouldn’t be some little engine that would (the Preventing Irish closed as one-point underdogs towards the Nittany Lions) however they’ve a number of feel-good elements. The boyish-looking head coach who initially appeared in over his head. An unfathomable Week 2 loss to NIU that would have crushed them. Accidents. Thirty-plus years of “can’t win the massive one.” And extra accidents — like quarterback Riley Leonard briefly getting knocked out Thursday evening.
However they’ve additionally acquired a bunch of badasses. Like Love barreling via 4 defenders to achieve the tip zone. Or receiver Jaden Greathouse making two totally different DBs fall on his 54-yard TD catch. Or linebacker Jack Kiser grabbing an acrobatic interception that will have saved a landing if not for a phantom pass-interference name.
And but, even with all that going for them, the sport was very a lot unsure till …
9. Drew Allar has carried the burden of savior standing since arriving at Penn State. The junior led his staff to 13 wins this season. However when he met his largest second but, with 33 seconds left in a tie sport, he did the unforgivable and threw over the center underneath duress. Notre Dame’s Christian Grey intercepted it, giving Leonard the possibility to arrange Mitch Jeter’s game-winning 41-yard discipline aim. (Props to Leonard on that third-and-3 dart to Greathouse.) Allar owned it in his postgame information convention, throughout which Franklin might be seen making an attempt to cheer him up.
Franklin’s notorious top-five report dropped to 1-15 at Penn State, however there was no in-game choice in charge the coach for on this evening. He has, nonetheless, let his star QB down.
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10. It’s inconceivable how a staff might win 13 video games and attain the CFP semifinals with such a desolate receiver room. Not considered one of Allar’s 12 completions Thursday went to a large receiver. Star tight finish Tyler Warren and working backs Nicholas Singleton and Kaytron Allen did their regular issues, however receivers Harrison Wallace III and Omari Evans had been MIA. Franklin tried to plug the opening when he landed Ohio State’s Julian Fleming, a former top-five recruit, however he barely contributed.
No matter cash Penn State’s NIL collective needed to spend to maintain Allar in State School for an additional 12 months, it higher have sufficient left over to go on a large receiver procuring spree.
Within the meantime, right here’s one parting salute to Warren, who completed the 2024 season with 104 catches (tied for second nationally) for 1,233 yards (sixth) and eight TDs. These are spectacular numbers for any pass-catcher, a lot much less a decent finish. For perspective, Georgia’s Brock Bowers, himself an all-timer, topped out at 63 catches.
11. Whereas Franklin nonetheless has not shed his big-game rep, Penn State hasn’t come this near a nationwide championship since 2005, when it completed No. 3. Should you’re a Nittany Lions fan who’s been residing in “nearly” mode for the previous decade, it is best to really feel extra optimistic at this time than at any level since no less than the Saquon Barkley period. However Franklin will stay polarizing. In response to my colleague Pete Sampson, Freeman was ticked at Franklin after their pregame information convention, when the Penn State coach joked concerning the 39-year-old’s youth. “All of the anger went towards us and that anger went onto the sphere,” stated Notre Dame security Xavier Watts.
Penn State: Now much less likable than Notre Dame.
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12. Notre Dame quarterback Steve Angeli performed only one sequence after Leonard went out shortly earlier than halftime, but it surely was an enormous one. The Irish trailed 10-0 and had proven little life on offense. Angeli took over at his personal 40 and accomplished his first 4 passes, and 6-of-7 on the drive. He took two sacks, the second by Abdul Carter, ending any likelihood of a landing. However the Irish acquired three factors, and extra importantly, went into the half on a optimistic word. When Leonard returned for the second half, Notre Dame — which holds a ridiculous 155-10 edge within the “center eight” this season — promptly drove for a game-tying landing.
Who is aware of if it ever will get to that time if Angeli hadn’t lived up to date?
13. I’ve now lived via a quarter-century of “Will THIS be the factor that forces Notre Dame to hitch a convention?” The latest version was the 12-team wrinkle the place the Irish can by no means earn a first-round bye. Effectively, it took one season to show that is in truth a great system for them.
Within the four-team CFP, it was assumed Notre Dame must go undefeated to make it, because it did in 2018 and 2020, and positive sufficient, this 12 months’s 11-1 staff completed No. 5. No, they don’t get a bye, however they’d the identical period of time off as first-round opponent Indiana. And maybe most significantly, Notre Dame earned the utmost $20 million in payouts from the CFP for reaching the title sport. In contrast to faculties in most conferences, they don’t need to share any of it.
The college arguably has much less incentive at this time to hitch a convention than it did when it first struck its NBC deal 34 years in the past.
14. Right here’s one other factor I used to be flawed about: Each the Orange and Cotton Bowls had been packed. It didn’t matter that the Miami Gardens sport was performed on a Thursday within the first full work week of the 12 months. Notre Dame and Penn State followers figured it out and stuffed Arduous Rock Stadium. Even a snowstorm within the Dallas space that triggered greater than 1,000 canceled flights the day earlier than the Cotton Bowl didn’t cease Ohio State followers from occupying roughly 45 p.c of AT&T Stadium, and Texas followers the remainder. (The official attendance of 74,527 was about 5,000 in need of a sellout however empties had been hardly noticeable.)
I ought to know higher by this level: School soccer followers at all times discover a manner.
15. Lastly, CFP and ESPN officers should be giddy past perception on the Ohio State-Notre Dame matchup. The previous is the most important TV draw within the sport, and the opposite probably the most prestigious model. As I stated off the highest, individuals may have been following their respective tales for a month by the point we get to Jan. 20.
The CFP TV report for a nationwide championship was 33.4 million for Ohio State-Oregon in 2014. That’s … so much. By comparability, final 12 months’s Michigan-Washington sport drew 25 million. My guess is that this one falls someplace between the 2.
However I’ve underestimated a number of issues all through this CFP — together with each Ohio State and Notre Dame.
(High picture: Ron Jenkins / Getty Photographs)