Ohio State vs Notre Dame

Notre Dame’s Marcus Freeman, Ohio State’s Ryan Day’s Similar Paths Converge The two internal promotions are trying to follow successful coaches in some of CFB’s most high-pressure jobs. The result of Saturday’s matchup could be pivotal for both. PAT FORDE Agreat si.com read from Pat Forde on the 2 Coaches from OHio State and Notre Dame Places like Ohio State and Notre Dame rarely hire head football coaches from within. Conservatively, those are two of the 10 best jobs in the sport, and as such they customarily draw some of the most established head coaches in the country as applicants. Between 1946 and 2018, Ohio State had one internal promotion and Notre Dame had two. Yet when the Buckeyes and Fighting Irish play Saturday in South Bend, the men leading both teams out of the tunnel got those plum positions after serving as coordinators at the schools. They replaced hugely successful former bosses and were tasked with maintaining the machines—if not improving them. Their first college head-coaching jobs came at garden sports in their 30s. (Born on third base, a certain coach in Ann Arbor might say.) They also had mountains of pressure dropped on their relatively young shoulders the minute they took over. Ryan Day, in his fifth season at Ohio State, has done everything but the two things the fan base ultimately demands from its head coach: dominate Michigan and win a national championship. Urban Meyer, Jim Tressel and Woody Hayes did both. Earle Bruce and John Cooper, who coached the 266 games between Hayes and Tressel, did neither and were tolerated more than revered before ultimately being dismissed. Day replaced Meyer, who merely had a 7–0 record against the Wolverines and won the Big Ten’s only national title of the past two decades (in 2014). Former Ohio State coach Urban Meyer and current coach Ryan Day speak at a press conference. Meyer’s (left) Ohio State teams lost just nine games in seven years before Day took over in 2019. Joe Maiorana/USA TODAY Sports Marcus Freeman, in his second season at Notre Dame, has won over the fan base by being a nicer man than Brian Kelly and doing well in recruiting. His first season was a mixed bag of bad losses and big wins, resulting in a 9–4 record. In due time he will be expected to take the Irish to the College Football Playoff, something predecessor Kelly did in 2018 and ’20, in addition to an appearance in the BCS Championship Game in 2012. (“Due time” roughly translates to pretty damn soon.) Both Day and Freeman appear to have very good teams this season—teams with a chance to fulfill towering expectations. Ohio State is 3–0 and ranked No. 6 in the country, with a road win over Big Ten opponent Indiana and a couple of walkovers against outmanned opponents. Notre Dame is 4–0 and ranked No. 9, with a three-touchdown win at North Carolina State and a trio of victories over lesser competition. Winner takes the biggest step forward to date nationally in terms of playoff résumé. Loser is by no means out of playoff contention, but might have to win out the rest of the way against stiff competition. Winning coach has fed the beast for another week. Losing coach is subjected to fan criticism, pessimism and fatalism—he’ll never live up to the last guy. In terms of being built to win national championships, Day has the better job than Freeman. Ohio State will spare no expense in pursuit of that goal and the football program has fewer constraints placed upon it by campus administration. Coaches use the word “alignment” a lot—loosely translated as the school’s willingness to do whatever the coach asks for—and few places are better aligned than Ohio State. Yet Day also has a harder job than Freeman when things go poorly. The man’s record is 48–6, which is preposterous, and none of the six losses has come to a team ranked worse than 12th at the time. He’s yet to have a spit-the-bit game against an inferior opponent the way Meyer did against Purdue in 2018, Iowa in ’17 and Michigan State in ’15. He’s also kept the Urbanesque off-field drama at bay, which should count for something. But his critics are louder than Freeman’s critics so far. Day is 1–2 against Michigan, with two losses in a row—and both of them were emasculating second-half beatdowns that spurred fan outrage. Day’s Buckeyes were blown out of the 2020 national championship game by Alabama. And they lost a 14-point fourth quarter lead in the CFP semifinals last season to Georgia. If Ohio State loses to Notre Dame Saturday, Day will have lost his last three big games—Michigan, Georgia and the Irish. Day actually proved more about his coaching and leadership in a loss than at any other point in his tenure with the Buckeyes. His game plan was brilliant against Georgia last season, and his team played with an inspiration and tenacity that had been called into question. That game came down to about four 50-50 plays, and all of them went the Bulldogs’ way. Otherwise, Ohio State would have won the game and almost certainly the national title against TCU. Even consecutive losses to Michigan by a combined 37 points would have been forgiven in that instance. (By most of the fans.) Day was that close—a few inches, a few seconds—to being on easy street in Columbus. As it is, he’s still hearing from the He’s No Urban Meyer segment of the faithful. Freeman is fighting up a slightly steeper hill to title contention. Notre Dame hasn’t been able to recruit quite at the level of Georgia and Alabama—and, yes, Ohio State. The school loves being good at football, but loves other things more. (Crazy concept in higher education, I know.) “Alignment” is a slightly tougher fit beneath the Golden Dome. But Freeman also was allowed to grow through a debut season that might have caused active meltdowns if it happened at his alma mater, Ohio State. Kelly went 44–6 in his final 50 games at Notre Dame, and Freeman took it down a notch from there. Ohio State coach Ryan Day shakes hands with Notre Dame coach Marcus Freeman. Freeman’s Fighting Irish fell 21–10 in last year’s season-opening loss to the Buckeyes. Adam Cairns/USA TODAY Sports He started 0–2 last year, following a loss to the Buckeyes in the Horseshoe with a stunning debacle against Marshall, which went on to lose to Bowling Green and Troy in its next two games. A few weeks later Notre Dame lost at home to the worst Stanford team of the past 16 years. With the exception of Tyrone Willingham, who was fired after three seasons on the job after an 10–3 record in his first year, Notre Dame has been more patient with its coaches than most elite football schools. Charlie Weis and Bob Davie each got five years, despite pretty clear evidence after their third season that they weren’t up to Notre Dame standards. Gerry Faust even got five, despite never winning more than seven games and following a national champion in Dan Devine. (The fact that Notre Dame hired the coach of Cincinnati Moeller High School to replace Devine remains one of the weirdest things that ever happened in college football.) Freeman did the one thing he needed to do during the offseason to set himself up for a better second year: landed a big-time quarterback who could step in right away. Wake Forest transfer Sam Hartman has been everything that was expected, ranking third nationally in pass efficiency despite breaking in a group of largely unproven receivers. Hartman might actually be the best Fighting Irish quarterback since Joe Montana in the late 1970s. (The historical competition is surprisingly slim: option QB Tony Rice, Rick Mirer, Brady Quinn and Jimmy Clausen.) So the internal promotion coaches face off Saturday night in a fascinating game that will vault one of them forward and send the other into damage control. Born on third base but under the constant pressure of a pickoff throw, they can see home plate from here—can either of them get there?

When Ohio State coach Ryan Day and offensive coordinator Brian Hartline made the decision to not make a decision on their starting quarterback as the season began, they likely did so with the idea a conclusion must be reached before the Week 4 matchup with Notre Dame. That's why I wasn't surprised when the Buckeyes pulled the plug on the competition before the Western Kentucky game and named Kyle McCord as starter. That decision, however, should've been made before the season began. I don't say that because McCord and the Buckeyes offense were terrific in a 63-10 drubbing of the Hilltoppers. I say that because Ohio State was already saddled with plenty more transition coming into the season, so delaying the QB decision was an unnecessary distraction. Plenty have compared Ohio State's decision to have the QB competition linger into the season to what Jim Harbaugh and Michigan did last year, but that comparison misses a lot of key differences in the situation. Last year, Michigan was dealing with two players who had plenty of experience in Cade McNamara and J.J. McCarthy. McNamara was the 2021 starter but McCarthy played in 11 games during the season and had a portion of the Michigan playbook dedicated to him. McCord appeared in 12 games and threw 58 passes in two seasons as C.J. Stroud's backup at Ohio State, while Devin Brown hadn't thrown a pass in college. Michigan also had Sherrone Moore at offensive coordinator. He'd been the co-offensive coordinator at Michigan in 2021 alongside Josh Gattis and worked with both McNamara and McCarthy. Hartline has been a phenomenal wide receivers coach at Ohio State, but this is his first year calling plays. It doesn't matter how good a coach you are; there's an art to calling plays in a game that can only be learned through reps, the same way a QB improves. Hartline learning on the fly with two different quarterbacks, both of whom have unique strengths and weaknesses, was a lot to ask of the rising assistant. Perhaps that's why the Ohio State offense didn't look like it was firing on all cylinders in its first two games. While Indiana's defense deserves a lot of credit (it has continued to be salty since and has been excellent on the defensive line), the lack of clarity in the plan clearly hurt. In the first two games, Ohio State had a success rate of 47.1% -- which, to be clear, is still very good -- and scored 2.90 points per possession (also good). It averaged 0.22 EPA per snap (we're grading on an Ohio State scale here, all right?) and had an explosive play rate of 14.2%. Those numbers increased to a 48.4% success rate, 4.08 points per drive, 0.43 EPA per snap and an explosive play rate of 20% (!) against Western Kentucky. You can write some of it off as being against Western Kentucky, but that ignores that the first two games were against Indiana and Youngstown State. Still, I have no concerns about this offense moving forward; McCord will prove to be the correct choice. But if Ohio State's offense struggles against Notre Dame this week and looks a bit out of sync, it'll be hard not to wonder if things might have looked a crisper had McCord been named the starter from Day 1.

Game of the Week No. 6 Ohio State at No. 9 Notre Dame: Remember how excited you were for last year's game between these two and how quickly it disappeared? Ohio State lost Jaxon Smith-Njigba to a hamstring injury, and Notre Dame's offense struggled in an omen of what was to come all season for the Irish. In the end, Ohio State won 21-10. Well, good news! I expect this year's meeting to be a lot more exciting! While both the defenses in this game have been outstanding this year, neither team has faced an incredible offense. Sure, you can argue Western Kentucky is prolific, but it's prolific against Group of Five teams, not CFP contenders like Ohio State. This will be the first time we see either defense truly tested, and they will be tested. Notre Dame has made an incredible upgrade at QB with Sam Hartman, and Audric Estime is impossible to tackle. Ohio State has an NFL WR corps. We've seen many instances of talented, explosive offenses overcoming great defense in the past. I expect we'll see another example on Saturday night. The Pick: Over 55.5 (-110) Ohio State and Notre Dame: Ohio State and Notre Dame met in the 2022 season opener, the first regular-season game for former Buckeyes linebacker Marcus Freeman as Fighting Irish coach. Both teams have knocked off the rust entering Saturday's contest at Notre Dame Stadium, although neither has faced an opponent close to as talented as the other. Buckeyes coach Ryan Day describes clashes where the talent gap is negligible as "matchup games," and plenty should be revealed about both squads. "I'm glad that we went through those three games to get to this point, with some of the new faces that we had," Day said. "We did work out some of the issues, and so [I'm] excited to get on the field and go play this one. We have a pretty good idea of who our team is and where we're at, so now it's time to go play." Ohio State heads to South Bend feeling better about its offensive backfield, where quarterback Kyle McCord responded well last week after being named the starter, and running back TreVeyon Henderson is starting to recapture his 2021 form. But the Buckeyes still don't know how McCord will perform in a difficult road setting, or whether new starting tackles will protect him, or whether a talented defensive line can start making more impact plays. Notre Dame knows a bit more about itself after four games, including a tricky Week 2 trip to NC State. Quarterback Sam Hartman has been excellent so far -- 13 touchdowns, 0 interceptions, 71.1 percent completion rate -- and the wide receiver group, a weakness for years, is showing promise with Jayden Thomas and Jaden Greathouse. The Irish regain veteran defenders JD Bertrand and DJ Brown from injury, and have the cornerback talent with Benjamin Morrison and Cam Hart to cover Buckeyes star wideouts Marvin Harrison Jr. and Emeka Egbuka. Freeman, whose team limited Ohio State's offense last year but generated only 10 points of its own, is stressing complementary football this week. "For our defense, what we want to do is make sure that we limit the big plays," he said. "We want them to have to truly drive down the field. Offensively, we want to have success. We're not going to throw deep balls every play. We still want to win time-of-possession and those types of things that really factor into your success. But the mindset is different, because you know more about your team this year than you did last year for Game 1." -- Adam Rittenberg