The sight of Notre Dame’s field goal team trotting out with fewer than 10 minutes left and the Fighting Irish trailing Ohio State by 16 was puzzling for many watching the College Football Playoff national championship game. Even if Mitch Jeter had made the kick — he missed, striking the left upright — Notre Dame would still have needed two touchdowns.
But one Power 4 coach watching the game from home on Monday night could see the logic.
“Fourth-and-goal from the 8 or 9 is tough for anybody,” the coach said. “And the only thing I can think is (Notre Dame coach Marcus Freeman’s) going, ‘If I get this, I make it a 13-point game, which is a little better psychologically for my team. We were on the ropes of getting blown out.’”
Another head coach thought differently.
“I would’ve thought to go for it.” the second coach said.
Coaches across the country could comfortably analyze such decisions with the benefit of hindsight while Freeman and Ryan Day battled for a ring. How did they see Ohio State’s 34-23 national title win over Notre Dame? The Athletic spoke to six FBS coaches — three head coaches, three assistants — and granted them anonymity in exchange for their candor on what transpired.
Head coach 1: Power 4 head coach
Head coach 2: Power 4 head coach
Head coach 3: Group of 5 head coach
Assistant coach 1: Power 4 special teams coordinator
Assistant coach 2: Group of 5 defensive coordinator
Assistant coach 3: Power 4 defensive assistant
How both teams started and adjusted
Notre Dame’s 18-play, 75-yard touchdown drive to open the game took nearly 10 minutes. But Ohio State responded with an extended scoring drive of its own.
Head coach 1: Notre Dame did such a good job of being good on first and second down that they had I think two or three third-and-1s or third-and-2s and a couple of fourth-and-1s, so they were able to just use the quarterback run game, and that’s hard to stop for a yard or two, no matter how good you are, especially when Notre Dame is so good at it.
Head coach 2: (Quarterback Riley Leonard) had nine carries on that drive. Unless you’re Cam Newton, that’s not sustainable.
Assistant coach 3: You could see that affected him early on. That’s a lot. What Ohio State did a great job of was, they made them earn it.
Assistant coach 1: Notre Dame physically took it to ’em. And it was like “OK, are they going to be able to do that the whole game?” I think the changes were more mental. When Ohio State went down and scored early second quarter and took six-plus minutes themselves, Ohio State’s defense was like “OK, we’re in for a game, we get it. It’s time to make them one-dimensional.”
Head coach 1: The biggest thing was Ohio State’s response.
Assistant coach 3: That was a great scheme up, the little touchdown play (to Jeremiah Smith). They did that return motion is what we call it. They saw that in the Super Bowl a couple years ago with the (Kansas City) Chiefs and the guy thinks he’s going to run across and so he runs across and comes back out of the front door for an easy touchdown. Again, that’s (offensive coordinator) Chip (Kelly) knowing they’re going to be in man coverage and having that dialed up.
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Notre Dame didn’t score for the remainder of the first half as Ohio State adjusted its defensive strategy.
Assistant coach 2: There was a lot more movement in the D-line on the first drive, and (Notre Dame) was killing them into the boundary with the QB run. … They kinda got out of that and stayed kinda base. They kept the rush lane integrity as it went on. They still did their stuff. … but I do think they kind of backed off the games up front, and I thought that helped.
Assistant coach 3: The first play of the second drive, they got to an eight-man front it looked like. … You could definitely see (Ohio State defensive coordinator Jim Knowles) made that adjustment to commit more bodies to it early on to get (Notre Dame) off schedule a bit.
Head coach 2: They really started squeezing their gaps to where it was fewer running lanes, and it got real crowded in there. I thought Riley Leonard was going to step through whatever they had there, but they tripped him up.
Head coach 1: The shocking thing to me was Notre Dame not really using (running back Jeremiyah) Love. I don’t know, maybe he was hurt. But he’s an elite player. Leonard had 15-plus carries and Love had four.
Meanwhile, the Buckeyes were rolling offensively, scoring touchdowns on their first four possessions. Notre Dame struggled to account for Ohio State’s wealth of offensive talent.
Head coach 1: They had good balance. They were able to run the football. I know (Quinshon) Judkins ended up having the big stat day, but those first two drives, (TreVeyon) Henderson really got them going. And once they established that, then it was a lot easier for Will Howard to play pitch and catch with those wideouts.
Assistant coach 3: This is Ohio State, man. The explosiveness. You see the matchup with the secondary. (Notre Dame) tried to play more zone (than they normally do). That’s not really their wheelhouse, but at the end of the day they weren’t affecting Will Howard enough and weren’t getting off the field on third down.
On Notre Dame’s failed fake punt and fourth-quarter field goal attempt
Trailing 28-7, the Fighting Irish faked a punt on fourth-and-2 from their own 33, but Steve Angeli’s pass to Jordan Faison was dropped, resulting in a turnover on downs. Ohio State later kicked a field goal to make it 31-7.
Assistant coach 1: It was pretty obvious that it was going to be a fake punt. The design was good. The guy drops it. But I think Ohio State knew.
Head coach 3: It wasn’t a fake where, “Oh, we’ve got this look and we like the fake here.” It was a hard call, predetermined and we’re going to do this just because. … I actually liked the timing of the call and the situation of the call. I thought it was funky because it really wasn’t a fake punt because it wasn’t a formation they had punted out of all game.
Head coach 2: If you’re going to be aggressive and go for it and that’s on your mind, then you need to sequence plays where you’ve got a better chance to get it with your offense rather than do that. Unless you know it’s a no-brainer fake call that you have.
Head coach 1: What can happen is, as a coach, you can start feeling like “Man, this game’s getting away from us. And I’ve got to do something to try to switch the momentum.” In hindsight, it probably wasn’t the best time to call the fake punt, but I understand why he did it.
Assistant coach 1: Just leave the offense back on the field. Let Riley Leonard throw the ball to your better players then have your upback throw the ball in punt formation. But they got (Faison) open, so you can’t argue with that.
Ohio State coach Ryan Day won his first national title as a head coach while Notre Dame coach Marcus Freeman will have to wait. (Kevin C. Cox / Getty Images)
After trimming Ohio State’s lead to 31-15, Notre Dame forced and recovered a fumble by Emeka Egbuka. Notre Dame drove inside the Buckeyes’ 10 but stalled, leading to the debated decision to try for a field goal rather than go for it on fourth-and-goal from the 9.
Head coach 3: Notre Dame probably should’ve run the ball the last play, to be honest. When Notre Dame’s been able to use Riley Leonard as a runner and stay on schedule, that’s when they were successful in this game more times than not. When they’ve been in obvious throw situations, that’s when you see the talent disparity, and I think Ohio State’s that much better.
On the performances of quarterback Will Howard and offensive coordinator Chip Kelly
Howard completed 14 of his first 15 passes and finished 17-for-21 for 231 yards and two touchdowns and he ran for 57 yards.
Assistant coach 2: He was letting the game come to Will Howard. I thought it was smart on his part not forcing the shots down the field. … Inside 20 yards, get the ball out of my hands, take what they’re giving us, especially with the man coverage. I thought he was just throwing some dimes. … It wasn’t like there were a lot of windows, he was just making them happen.
Assistant coach 3: If there’s one knock on Chip, it’s the passing game isn’t very elaborate. It’s very basic. Obviously, he has those three great receivers. You can get a handle on the passing game with Chip, but if he’s able to just do both and have his way and play puppet master, it’s tough.
Head coach 2: (Kelly) was a great hire, probably one of the biggest hires in college football.
Assistant coach 2: There’s just no margin for error against Ohio State. When (Howard) pulls it down and runs on third down and picks it up, it’s just killer.
On Notre Dame’s defensive strategy and its comeback attempt
The Fighting Irish are predominantly a man-to-man defensive team but mixed in zone to try to contain Ohio State’s receivers
Assistant coach 3: They were trying to play zone … you saw in that one touchdown to Judkins where (Howard) starts running around, and it’s like, “Who has that guy?” … If that’s not what you live in and do a lot, especially against a guy like Chip where he’s going to change that picture on you, getting different alignments, really trying to attack your rules and different movements with the wide receivers, that can be really tough.
Head coach 3: Every time you see Notre Dame on third down in two-man or play any kind of man coverage, it’s obvious that it’s not going to go well for Notre Dame in the back end. It’s really, really clear.
Head coach 1: Notre Dame — throughout the year and especially in the playoffs — their defense is so aggressive and they’re so, so good at creating negative plays and controlling the line of scrimmage. They’re almost in the offense’s face so much that they dictate to them. And Ohio State was able to control the line of scrimmage from the jump and run the football in a way that really negated all of that, which, to me, is Notre Dame’s superpower. And once (Ohio State) took that away, they could really do whatever they wanted.
Despite lacking a consistent running game, the Fighting Irish stayed in it thanks to big plays from receiver Jaden Greathouse, who caught six passes for 128 yards and two touchdowns.
Assistant coach 2: He was phenomenal. Maybe they look back and wonder why he wasn’t a bigger part of their game plan. He was the only guy on the field that could play at that level that Ohio State was playing all game.
Head coach 1: Notre Dame showed incredible grit, and I think it’s why they are who they are and why Marcus Freeman is a great coach.
On Ohio State’s win and the first year of the 12-team Playoff
Head coach 3: The speed and the athletic ability, I think going into it, you knew who the more talented team was.
Head coach 2: (Receiver Jeremiah Smith) is a freak. I haven’t seen many freshmen like him. He could probably could go play in the NFL at the end of this year or next year (if it were allowed). What he’s done is absolutely incredible.
Assistant coach 2: Ohio State was clearly playing the best football of anybody in the country, and that showed up (Monday). For all the complaining everyone’s doing — whether it’s the seeding or the selection committee — two years ago, Ohio State would have been at home on the couch watching, like me.
Assistant coach 1: There’s a formula to it. It’s not all transfer portal, it’s not all high school recruiting, and you’ve still got to have that culture. You can tell they’re playing together. They play hard. They started believing when they started the Playoff. Your hat’s off to their staff and their players because they never stopped believing even though they lost that Michigan game.
Head coach 1: Everybody who wanted to panic right out of the gates, you haven’t heard anything from them since the first round because of the way things went. … It’s good, it’s fun for college football. I hope we don’t overreact and change too much because at the end, I think the right teams got in and I think it’s obvious the best team won, and they earned it.
(Top photo: Notre Dame’s Adon Shuler tackles Ohio State’s Will Howard: Kevin C. Cox / Getty Images)
