Ohio State dominated the playoffs from start to finish, defeating every opponent on its way to the National Championship.
This was the first year that the NCAA implemented a 12-team bracket and Ohio State being the 8th seed wouldn’t have made it during prior years.
Ohio State came in as the underdogs, being the 8th seed, and made them play teams like No. 1 seeded Oregon.
Nevertheless, they beat Oregon along with Texas who was placed 5th seed so that they could go on as underdogs who wouldn’t have made the playoffs without the new bracket to winning the national championship.
In a thrilling playoff run, Ohio State won its first-round game against Tennessee by 25 points, scoring 42-17.
Then, it stayed on top of all the other teams to win the National Championship against Notre Dame with a score of 34-23 on January 20.
In the championship, Ohio State Quarterback Will Howard passed for 231 yards, going 17/21 in attempts and throwing for two touchdowns.
Ohio State Wide Receiver Jeremiah Smith had five catches, totaling 88 yards alongside a touchdown.
Ohio State Running Back Quinshon Junkins helped the team get two touchdowns with 11 carries for 100 yards and two receptions for 21 yards.
Ohio State Linebacker Cody Simon led the defense, getting eight tackles along with Ohio State Safety Sonny Styles who had six stops.
Notre Dame Quarterback Riley Leonard passed for 255 yards, going 22/31 in attempts, throwing for two touchdowns and rushing for one of them to get the game’s first touchdown.
Notre Dame Wide Receiver Jaden Greathouse had six catches, totaling 128 yards along with two touchdowns.
Notre Dame Linebacker Drayk Bowen helped the defense by getting seven tackles along with Xavier Watts who got six.
Ohio State Coach Ryan Day said, “I thought we responded in a big way. If you think about the run we’ve gone on here in the playoffs, the way the Texas game went and the way we responded early in that first quarter, and in the second half [of the final], continued fighting [for] momentum because Notre Dame was fighting back.”
His team answered big after Notre Dame opened the game with a touchdown by scoring three unanswered touchdowns in the 2nd quarter.
Day’s team didn’t give up even once Notre Dame started to make a comeback during the fourth quarter.
After the game Day talked about how they responded early in the first quarter by having the first touchdown during the semi-finals against Texas and how that swung momentum in their favor.
Freeman and his team were reasonably sad about the game’s outcome but he said how proud of his team he was and how far they made it.
“Tough moment, tough outcome. There’s reasons why we didn’t get the outcome we wanted. Credit to Ohio State and their ability to execute on both sides of the ball. Obviously, in the special teams, they made a field goal that mattered at the end of the game,” Coach Marcus Freeman said.
This was a big accomplishment for Freeman and his team since the last time Notre Dame made it to the championship was in 2013.
Even though the outcome may not have been what they wanted, they still played well from the first game of the tournament when they beat the University of Indiana 27-17 to the championship game where they almost came back and shortened the lead from 21-7 in the first half to 34-23 at the end of the game.
This is Ohio State’s 9th championship win whereas Notre Dame has 11 overall wins but hasn’t won since 1988.
Ohio had to beat Oregon, who was the number one seed and had a first-round bye and Notre Dame had to beat Penn State, who had previously beaten both teams by over 15 points.
Ohio ended up winning 41-21, destroying Oregon meanwhile Notre Dame just squeaked by with a field goal with seven seconds left in the game to beat Penn State 27-24.
Ultimately, as the confetti fell in Atlanta, Ohio State celebrated the first-ever national title win with a 12-team bracket, defying the odds stacked against them.
