Sports Al Dente

The pass seemed to hang in the air forever. Did it feel like seven weeks? Or ten years?

For Ohio State fans, this moment will always be a topic of debate.

When the teardrop throw from Buckeyes quarterback Will Howard on third-and-11 finally landed softly in the hands of receiver Jeremiah Smith late in the fourth quarter on Monday, Ohio State had secured a 34-23 victory over Notre Dame, earning its sixth national title and its first in ten years.

That 56-yard pass sealed Notre Dame’s comeback attempt and made Ohio State the champion of college football’s first 12-team playoff, just as they had been champions in the first four-team tournament a decade ago.

“They were running man coverage and I said, ‘Hey, I’m gonna let this loose and let him make a play on it,’” Howard said about the play, which felt far removed from Ohio State’s old-style, run-heavy offense.

This victory seemed impossible just seven weeks ago, on November 30, when a 13-10 loss to Michigan led to a near-riot on the field and raised questions about whether coach Ryan Day would keep his job heading into the next season.

“It’s a great story about a bunch of guys who have just overcome some really tough situations,” Day said. “At the point where there’s a lot of people that counted us out, they just kept swinging and kept fighting.”

The victory might have felt even sweeter due to how it unfolded in front of a packed stadium in the middle of SEC territory, filled with fans wearing Ohio State’s red on one side and Notre Dame’s green on the other.

With Ohio State leading 31-7, Notre Dame made a dramatic comeback, scoring two touchdowns and two 2-point conversions to close the gap to just one score late in the fourth quarter. The camera caught legendary Notre Dame coach Lou Holtz in his luxury box, giving a thumbs-up to his team despite the loud boos from Ohio State fans.

However, Notre Dame ran out of time. After stopping Ohio State on their first two plays and using up their timeouts, the Irish placed Christian Gray — who had secured the interception that helped Notre Dame win its semifinal against Penn State — in single coverage on Smith.

Smith got behind Gray on the right sideline, and Howard threw his best pass of the season into Smith’s hands.

That play set up a field goal and began the celebration, securing Ohio State’s victory and also helping the team cover the 8 1/2-point spread at BetMGM Sportsbook.

“It was do or die, it was that type of down,” Notre Dame coach Marcus Freeman said. “He’s a heck of a player. He’s difficult to cover.”

Howard, a transfer from Kansas State, threw for 231 yards and two touchdowns, but the game-changing play was his throw to Smith when the game was on the line.

Smith, who had been quiet for most of the game after being limited by Texas in the semifinals, finally broke free for the kind of play that had made him a standout all season. He finished with five catches for 88 yards.

“We felt at the end we wanted to give Jeremiah that shot,” Day said. “We really hadn’t thrown it all night, but I thought, ‘You know what, let’s be aggressive, let’s do this and lay it on the line.’”

Before that pass, Ohio State seemed to have the game under control, having scored touchdowns on its first four possessions and adding a field goal on the fifth.

When Quinshon Judkins, a transfer from Mississippi, ran for 100 yards on 11 carries, including a 70-yard run that set up a score to make it 28-7, the game appeared to be over.

But Notre Dame wasn’t done yet, and now Freeman faces tough questions. One is about the failed fake punt in the third quarter, which led to a field goal and a 31-7 Ohio State lead. Another concerns the decision to send Mitch Jeter in for a short field goal attempt while down 16 points and facing fourth-and-goal from the 9-yard line. It could have worked, but Jeter’s kick hit the left upright.

“I know it’s still a two-score game, but you have a better probability of getting 14 points than you do 16 points,” Freeman said.

Ohio State controlled much of the game and the entire playoff series. The Buckeyes were clearly the better team, outgaining Notre Dame by 445 yards to 308. Quarterback Will Howard completed his first 13 passes and was hardly ever stopped. Ohio State punted just once during the entire game.

The Buckeyes powered through the new expanded playoff format, which added more teams this year, with an average score of 36-21 across their four games. Despite being seeded eighth, the seedings didn’t really matter. In every quarterfinal and semifinal game, the lower seed won, and Ohio State dominated in this final showdown between the No. 7 and No. 8 teams.

This victory ended any lingering frustration from the previous November’s 13-10 loss to Michigan, which had been Ohio State’s fourth straight defeat to their rivals. That game had ended in a brawl after Michigan players tried to plant their flag at midfield.

Many wondered if coach Ryan Day, in his sixth season, had reached the end of his time at Ohio State, especially with no national titles in the past ten years.

But now, Ohio State can celebrate its national title. The Ohio State marching band will proudly dot the “I” with the national-title trophy, and Day will join a prestigious list of coaches who have won titles for the Buckeyes, including Urban Meyer (2014), Jim Tressel (2002), Woody Hayes, known for his “Three yards and a cloud of dust” style, and Paul Brown, the coach who later became the namesake of the NFL’s Cleveland Browns.

Day’s impressive .873 winning percentage coming into the game was the third-best among coaches with 50 or more games, trailing only Knute Rockne of Notre Dame, who is a legend in college football history.

The loss for Notre Dame also meant that college football still hasn’t had a Black coach win the national title. Marcus Freeman, Notre Dame’s coach, was trying to become the first, but it wasn’t meant to be this year.

However, another kind of history was made. This was the first time the Big Ten Conference won back-to-back national titles since 1942. Michigan, last year’s champion, watched the game from home but still played an important role in Ohio State’s redemption story, which no one really saw coming.