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The longest college football season in history has just one game remaining. One hundred and thirty two Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) teams have seen their seasons come to an end, and now only two remain: Notre Dame and Ohio State.
The Fighting Irish will be looking to end a long drought, having not been national champions since 1988. The Buckeyes won the inaugural College Football Playoff (CFP) in 2014, but they will have been disappointed not to add at least one more title in the years since given their consistently solid teams.
Monday night offers the chance to change all of that. Here’s everything you need to know about the CFP National Championship.
The National Championship between Ohio State and Notre Dame begins at 7:30 p.m. ET on Monday at the Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta. It will be broadcast live on ESPN.
Recent results indicate that Ohio State is the strong favorite for the title. The Buckeyes have defeated the Fighting Irish in each of the last two seasons, have not lost to Notre Dame since before World War II, and have enjoyed a more straightforward postseason.
After comfortably overcoming Tennessee and Oregon in the first round and Rose Bowl, respectively, Ohio State beat an excellent Texas team 28-14 in the semifinal thanks to two touchdowns in the fourth quarter.
In Will Howard, the team has a quarterback whose rating is second only to Miami standout Cam Ward this season. The 23-year-old has racked up 3,779 passing yards, 33 passing touchdowns and 10 interceptions to add to his 169 yards and seven touchdowns on the ground.
Wide receiver Jeremiah Smith is often on the end of Howard’s passes – the true freshman has 71 receptions for 1,227 yards and 14 touchdowns.
On paper, the Buckeyes simply have more quality than their opponents. But the Fighting Irish’s postseason has been characterized by grit and determination, and head coach Marcus Freeman will be instilling the same never-say-die attitude in his players.
A comfortable 27-17 win over the Indiana Hoosiers was followed up by a 23-10 victory against the Georgia Bulldogs in testing circumstances – the Sugar Bowl was delayed by a day due to the New Orleans terror attack.
In the semifinal, the Fighting Irish found themselves 10-3 down to Penn State at halftime but a big second half from Riley Leonard and a field goal from Mitch Jeter with seven seconds remaining proved the difference as Notre Dame won 27-24.
Leonard will be crucial once again if ND is to get anything from this game. The senior has 2,606 passing yards, 19 passing touchdowns and just eight interceptions this season. Combined with his 16 rushing touchdowns and leadership skills which teammates and coaches routinely highlight, it is no surprise that Leonard was named the offensive MVP in both the Sugar Bowl and the Orange Bowl.
In a twist of fate, Leonard and Howard were roommates at the Manning Passing Academy last summer. The former revealed this week that he has even been texting Archie Manning every day ahead of the final.
Nonetheless, despite the offensive quality on the field, there is a good chance that Monday’s game will be decided by whichever team has the better defense.
Statistically, the Buckeyes have the best defense in college football this season, across a number of metrics. Never has that been more evident than in the semifinal, when Jack Sawyer took down Texas QB Quinn Ewers on fourth-and-goal with two minutes left, forcing a fumble before recovering the ball and running 83 yards for the touchdown to secure the win, as well as his own place as a school legend.
The Fighting Irish are also defensively excellent, second only to Ohio State in both average points allowed and average pass yards allowed. But Notre Dame fans will be hoping that long-term injuries to the likes of Benjamin Morrison, Jordan Botelho and Boubacar Traore do not finally catch up with their defense.
“We’ve got to play our best against Notre Dame. This is a very, very good team. They are a very resilient team. They play together. I think Riley Leonard is a tremendous leader and a tremendous player and a winner, and their coaching staff does a great job. Got a lot of respect for their players and their coaches. This is going to be a complete battle, and we know that. We’ve got to play our best game this season in the last one.”
“These are the types of games where that stage is set to become a legend. I think these guys know that. But again, all the focus, and I know I sound like a broken record when it comes to this, has got to be on the next game. If we think anything that we’ve done leading up to this point has anything to do with what’s going to happen in this game, we are dead wrong. So wipe that slate completely clean, and then we’ve got to go back and have the discipline to continue to do the work that we’ve done in the last three games going into this game right here.”
“There will be time to tell the story after the season, but the only way the story is told is if we win.”
“I do have to kind of pinch myself at times and be like ‘Man, I’m in the national championship.’ But at the same time, it is where we expected to be. We got ready for this season saying that if we were going to come out of it saying it was a success, we were going to have to play 16, 17 games, and here we are. So I’m just proud of our guys, that we got to this point. But like I said last week, the job’s not finished. It’s not finished until we win.”
“We’ve come all this way, but it means really nothing if we don’t finish it the right way and win this last one. It’s the national championship, I would hope that we don’t need much more motivation than that. All of our goals and aspirations are right here in front of us.”
“(Notre Dame’s defense) do a great job. They play a lot of men, and they want to challenge you. I think they do a really good job of being physical, but also being smart. They don’t get a lot of penalties. They shadow guys really well. Obviously, they’re missing their guy, Morrison, but I think 29 (cornerback Christian Gray) and 15 (cornerback Leonard Moore) both do a great job too. Number 1 (safety Jordan Clark) in the slot’s a solid player. Number 0’s (safety Xavier Watts) a stud. All across the board they’ve got guys. But we’ve got guys too.”
“If you need that (Notre Dame’s loss to Ohio State last year) to motivate you to get ready for this game, then you’re not the right person. That’s the reality of it. We don’t need motivation to be prepared for this game.”
“We’ve got a chance to play in the national championship game. This isn’t about the past. This is about this opportunity we have right in front of us, and we’ll continue to focus on this opportunity right in front of us.”
“It would be something special. Obviously, this place hasn’t won a national championship since 1988, and every year the aspirations are to win a national championship. That’s why all these players choose to come to Notre Dame, one of the reasons, is to be a part of a program that can win a national championship.”
“I think it’s something that they’ll be able to say for the rest of their lives is they were part of a national championship football team. There’s a lot of work that goes into getting to that outcome, and that’s what we’ve got to focus on, but it would be special for this university and for these players that have poured so much work into getting the results that we have.”
“I thought this (getting to the national championship) would happen. That’s why I came here. Even my girlfriend, I was talking to her the other day, and a bunch of people were texting her like, ‘Oh, my gosh, I can’t believe you guys made it, this is crazy.’ Even she was like, ‘Riley, this isn’t that surprising. We expected this.’”
“It’s really cool to have those late-night conversations with him (Ohio State QB Howard, while the two were roommates at the Manning Passing Academy) just about life and whatever. To see where we are now, it’s really cool because he’s a person I respect a lot, and obviously, I always try to root for other quarterbacks in college, especially after I meet them at that camp because you realize we’re all just dudes, all just kids trying to play the best for our teams and our universities. Any chance I can to see how he’s doing, I try to look.”
“Obviously, it would mean the world to me (to win). It’s kind of something I’ve dreamed of my whole life. To be at a school like this and be able to represent a school like this and lead them to a national championship so far, it’s truly an honor and something I don’t take for granted.”
“I take a lot of pride in wearing the blue and gold. I know our fans for a very long time have been very loyal to this program, through the ups and downs since 1988. It would be an honor to deliver them another one.”
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