The first 12 team playoff has come to an end as Ohio State wins its first National Championship since 2014 beating Notre Dame. Notre Dame scored first, but Ohio State took off from there, winning 34-23.
OSU quarterback Will Howard had a good game with 231 passing yards and two touchdowns. OSU star receiver Jeramiah Smith had five receptions for 88 yards and a touchdown, and star running back Quinshon Judkins had 11 carries for 100 yards and two touchdowns and he also had a receiving touchdown. He was the biggest factor in OSU’s successful offense and it came at the perfect time.
“OSU’s offense was unstoppable in every playoff game they played,” freshman Camden Geittmann said.
Notre Dame’s biggest problem came in the run game, with the team averaging 2 yards per carry compared to OSU’s 5.2 yards per carry. Their quarterback Riley Leonard ran 17 times for 40 yards and all the running backs combined for nine carries for 11 yards. Leonard threw for a solid 255 yards and two touchdowns.
Notre Dame’s star receiver Jaden Greathouse had a very good game with six catches for 128 yards and two touchdowns. Even though they made a good attempt to come back in the fourth quarter, a missed field goal led to an OSU victory.
“OSU’s run defense came in clutch in the most important game of the year,” Geittmann said.
There were a lot of concerns over OSU head coach Ryan Day being able to beat good teams, and he seriously proved himself during a dominant playoff run.
There were also a lot of fans mad about the teams selected to be in the playoff, such as Boise State, Arizona State, Indiana, and SMU who were selected and teams like Alabama, Ole Miss, and South Carolina that were not selected into the playoff.
“I don’t think it was fair to see SMU and Indiana make it but not an SEC team with a hard schedule,” freshman Eli Paul said.
Teams like Ohio State who were debatably the best team in College Football at the time had to play Tennessee, Oregon, Texas, then Notre Dame just to win the championship, while Penn State played SMU and Boise State to start the playoffs. The fans would much rather see Penn State versus Alabama or Ole Miss and not against teams that played against unranked teams all year.
