Jan. 17—Four comments on message boards when Ohio State lost 13-10 to Michigan on Nov. 30 which haven’t aged well:
… “They need to stay home (from the playoff) and stop embarrassing the university.”
… “I’m done with this version of the Buckeyes.”
… “Day is pathetic and so is Chip Kelly.”
… “Fire Day.”
Four comments on message boards when Notre Dame lost 16-14 to Northern Illinois on Sept. 7 which also haven’t aged well:
… “Riley Leonard is trash.”
… “RIP Notre Dame playoff run 8/31 to 9/7.”
… “Once again we are the laughingstock of college football.”
… “Notre Dame needs to stop taking shots on coaches with no head coaching experience.”
Ohio State was favored by 20 points over Michigan and Notre Dame was a 28-point favorite over Northern Illinois, a Mid-American Conference team that lost to Buffalo, North Carolina State, Toledo, Ball State and Miami (Ohio).
So, did those bad losses bring clarity, focus and a greater sense of purpose to the Buckeyes and the Fighting Irish, who will play for the College Football Playoff national championship on Monday night in Atlanta?
That’s hard to say for sure. But OSU (13-2) has looked pretty close to unbeatable in decisive wins over Tennessee, Oregon, and at times against Texas in its three playoff games. And Notre Dame (14-1) has won 13 games in a row since losing to Northern Illinois. It beat Indiana, Georgia and Penn State in the playoff to get to the championship game.
Maybe a more certain message is that the first year of the 12-team College Football Playoff has shown that even though by the semifinal round the four remaining teams were blue bloods — Ohio State, Texas, Notre Dame and Penn State — there is obviously more opportunity to get to the championship game with 12 teams instead of four.
Instead of comparing the new playoff set-up to the old four-team College Football Playoff, maybe it should be viewed more like the Final Four, the NFL playoffs and the major league baseball playoffs.
A loss is now survivable in college football. Maybe even two of them.
Some people have criticized the OSU-Notre Dame matchup because neither team played in a league championship game and neither team won a league title.
But eight World Series-winning teams since 1997 have come from the ranks of the wild cards. Eleven wild card teams have played in the Super Bowl and seven of them have won it and nobody seems to have a problem with that.
It’s unlikely a 12-team College Football Playoff will produce something like Loyola of Chicago and Sister Jean going to the Final Four in 2018 but that’s not impossible.
So who will win Monday night’s game? Will Ohio State get its first national championship since the 2014 season? Or will it be Notre Dame celebrating a national championship for the first time since the 1988 season?
Four things to watch in the championship game:
… Ohio State’s receivers against Notre Dame’s defensive backs.
Defense is the strength of Notre Dame’s team and the secondary is the strength of the Fighting Irish’s defense.
Jeremiah Smith, Emeka Egbuka and Carnell Tate need no introduction. They’re the best group of receivers in college football or they’re close to the best.
Notre Dame plays mostly man-to-man pass coverage, something Ohio State hasn’t seen a lot of this year because most teams don’t have the cornerbacks and safeties to play OSU straight up. After the success Texas had sending more than one defender at Smith last week the Irish could play less man-to-man than usual.
Free safety Xavier Watts (6 interceptions) and cornerbacks Leonard Moore and Christian Gray are the leaders of this position group for ND.
… Riley Leonard vs. Ohio State’s defense. Notre Dame’s quarterback has passed for 2,606 yards and 19 touchdowns but the matchup to watch might be Ohio State’s defense against his ability to run the ball.
He averages 11 carries a game and has 866 yards rushing and 16 rushing touchdowns, one behind No. 1 running back Jeremiyah Love’s 17 touchdowns on the ground.
Leonard has rushed for 50 yards or more in nine of Notre Dame’s 15 games. In the loss against Northern Illinois, he had two passes intercepted and no touchdown passes and ran for only 16 yards on 11 carries.
… Can Ohio State open up some space for its running game either by getting some big hits early in its passing game or by winning the line of scrimmage consistently on running plays?
OSU does not want to see a repeat of the two games this season when it averaged the fewest yards per carry — Nebraska (2.1) and Michigan (3.0).
… Twenty-one might be the magic number. If Ohio State scores more than 21 points or holds Notre Dame to fewer than 21 points you have to like its chances to win the national championship.
The prediction: Ohio State 28, Notre Dame 17.
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