MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. — Drew Allar’s first two interceptions didn’t count. Penalties wiped them out. His last one will sting Penn State fans for a long time and be remembered by Notre Dame fans forever.
Christian Gray’s diving catch of Allar’s errant throw with 37 seconds to play proved to be the pivotal play in No. 7 seed Notre Dame’s 27-24 victory over No. 6 seed Penn State in a College Football Playoff semifinal at the Orange Bowl on Thursday night. Notre Dame (14-1) will meet the winner of Friday’s Cotton Bowl between Ohio State and Texas in Atlanta on Jan. 20.
Mitch Jeter, who missed two field goals in Notre Dame’s only loss of the season to Northern Illinois, booted the game-winning 41-yard field goal to send the Irish back to the national championship game for the first time in 13 years with a chance to win it for the first time since 1988.
“He’s been clutch all year,” Notre Dame coach Marcus Freeman said. “Early in the season we decided to kick a game-winning field goal versus (Texas A&M) and he does it today.
“We knew this was going to be a heavyweight fight. This is a really good team that we just faced that wasn’t going to quit. But I told our guys – we’ve been here. We’ve been in this position before. They believed and they got the job done. Really proud of them.”
Freeman, who turns 39 on Friday, becomes the first Black head coach to reach the Football Bowl Subdivision national championship game. It was fitting the game took place at Hard Rock Stadium. Back in 2007, Tony Dungy and Lovie Smith became the first two Black head coaches to make the Super Bowl in this same stadium.
In a first edition of the 12-team College Football Playoff that has been filled with blowouts, Thursday’s back-and-forth thriller was a welcome change.
Penn State jumped out to a 10-0 lead and dominated the line of scrimmage early. Notre Dame answered with 17 consecutive points — with its backup left tackle and right guard in the game. The Nittany Lions scored the next 14 points with tailback Nicholas Singleton leading the way. Then Notre Dame’s Riley Leonard found a wide-open Jaden Greathouse for a 54-yard touchdown strike to tie it again with 4:38 remaining.
That all led to Allar’s costly mistake, which stunned half of the 66,881 fans in attendance. Penn State (13-3) forced nine turnovers during the Playoff — including two big ones Thursday to take the lead. But it was Allar’s eighth interception of the season that proved to be the difference. He finished 12 of 23 for 135 yards and the critical interception.
This story will be updated.
(Photo of Christian Gray: Rich Storry / Getty Images)
