Monday, January 20 the Notre Dame Fighting Irish will take on the feisty Ohio State Buckeyes in a College Football Championship clash for the ages. Our prediction is that Notre Dame will dismantle the Buckeyes 24-23 and take home their first championship in over 30 years, and the first ever of the 12-team playoff format.
Starting with the most prevalent part of the Notre Dame offense, the quarterback. Star transfer Riley Leonard has proven he belongs in the conversation at the top of the NFL draft. Starting to gain traction at Duke last year, Leonard has shown up in tough competition until getting injured by his soon to be future team, Notre Dame. Unfortunately his season was over but the following year, with the exception of one ugly loss to Northern Illinois University, Leonard went undefeated and took down some heavyweights of the college football landscape. He has shown he can pick apart any defense with the help of his NFL-fit coach, Marcus Freeman. Riley Leonard has rushed for 16 touchdowns and passed for 19. In addition to that, he has only put up 8 interceptions over the whole season.
Jeremiyah Love is Notre Dame’s explosive running back and has shown it on the field throughout the season. Posted with a stat line of 1122 rush yards and 17 rush TD’s, Love has 7.1 yards per carry, which is second among RB’s with 150+ attempts. Notre Dame looks to use him heavily for the Ohio State matchup along their receivers out wide.
Looking to put a halt to all of the high power on the team from South Bend, Indiana is Caleb Love and the Ohio State defense. Undoubtedly one of the best defenses we have seen this decade, this group of players is first in points allowed (12.2), first in total yards per game (251.1), first in pass yards per game (161.1), third in rush yards per game (90.0), and with 51 total sacks on the season, they rank third in that category. Starting with their defensive front, the tackles get to the opposing quarterback in a very short amount of time, forcing the throw potentially too early or off schedule, allowing the defensive backs or linebackers to make a play. Defensive back Caleb Love helps out tremendously for them and also sealed the game in the semi final round against Texas with a late pick on Quinn Ewers. All the parts are moving efficiently as the buckeyes aim to continue to fire on all cylinders against Notre Dame.
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On the other end of the Irish team, the defense will look to continue asserting its dominance by pounding the opposition. Notre Dame’s defense has been one of the best in CFB this year and has continuously sent a fierce pass rush and destroyed the pass. However, the Irish have struggled to hold down the fort in the interior against the rush versus top-end running backs. This season the Irish have allowed only 14.3 ppg making them the 2nd best defense against scoring after Ohio State. Additionally, they have allowed only 298.3 ypg which is 9th in the country with 165.3 being pass ypg (2nd in the country) and 133 rush ypg (41st in the country.) Looking at the numbers the only weak spot for the Irish is their run defense, however, this has been one of the weaker points of the strong Ohio State offense as they are 66th in the country in rushing yards per game this season with 163 yards and 29th in yards per attempt with five yards. For this reason, Notre Dame should win the battle up front and force Ohio State to play into the Notre Dame Pass Defense which is the Fighting Irish biggest strength.
With Notre Dame’s pass defense, Ohio State should face some challenges. Notre Dame has been a lockdown force in the secondary and should create some opportunities for turnovers as Ohio State was 54th in the country to interceptions with Will Howard throwing 10 interceptions and Notre Dame was 5th in the country to forcing interceptions with 19 interceptions. Additionally, Notre Dame was 3rd in the country for yards per attempt allowing only 5.8. Lastly, Notre Dame has been the most efficient pass defense in the league ranking 1st in that category.
Overall, while Ohio State has great receivers like Jeremiah Smith, Emeka Egbuka and Carnell Tate, the Notre Dame pass defense is so good it should create problems and force Ohio State to try and run the ball some with running backs Quinshon Judkins and TreyVeyon Henderson and Notre Dame should have the edge there as well. Notre Dame’s defense will have the edge over Ohio State.
