ATLANTA —Ohio State scored on its first five possessions and beat Notre Dame 34-23 in the College Football Playoff championship game to complete a remarkable run through the inaugural 12-team tournament.
The national championship is Ohio State’s first since 2014 and ninth overall.
Less than two months after hitting the lowest point of coach Ryan Day’s tenure with another rivalry loss to Michigan, the Buckeyes find themselves back atop the Bowl Subdivision thanks to near-perfect quarterback play, a series of explosive gains on offense and a run defense that controlled the line of scrimmage after a slow start.
The star was quarterback Will Howard, a senior transfer from Kansas State who had one of the most efficient performances by a passer in title game history. He set a playoff record with 13 completions in a row to open the game, not throwing an incompletion until missing running back TreVeyon Henderson on a swing pass with just over a minute to go in the first half.
Playing against the nation’s second-best pass defense in yards allowed per game, he went 17 of 21 for 231 yards and two touchdowns along with 57 yards on 16 carries.
Another headliner was running back Quinshon Judkins, a transfer from Mississippi, who had 100 rushing yards, 21 yards receiving and three combined touchdowns. Freshman wide receiver Jeremiah Smith had 88 yards and a score. Defensive lineman JT Tuimoloau had five tackles, two for loss, and a sack.
For the Fighting Irish, quarterback Riley Leonard completed 22 of 31 attempts for 255 yards and two passing touchdowns with a team-high 40 yards and a score on the ground. Leonard’s rushing touchdown was his 17th of the year, setting the program’s single-season record for a quarterback.
Wide receiver Jaden Greathouse continued his strong run through the playoff with a team-high 128 receiving yards and caught both of Leonard’s scores. But running backs Jeremiyah Love and Jadarian Price made no impact, combining for just 16 yards on only seven carries.
Overall, OSU had 445 yards on 7.2 yards per play. Notre Dame finished with 308 yards on 5.3 yards per snap.
Notre Dame delivered an epic 18-play, 75-yard drive on the game’s opening possession that featured a pair of fourth-down conversions, chewed up nearly 10 minutes of clock and ended with a 2-yard touchdown run from Leonard. The drive was the longest by total plays in playoff championship game history and featured just one gain of more than 10 yards, a 14-yard completion to tight end Eli Raridon.
The Buckeyes’ more explosive offense had an immediate response, going 75 yards in 11 plays with three gains of at least 12 yards and scoring on an 8-yard touchdown pass to Smith to tie the score at 7-7 with 14:10 to play in the second quarter.
That drive seemed to lay the foundation for a game that began to steadily slip away from the Fighting Irish.
After Notre Dame committed two penalties and went three-and-out on the ensuing possession, the Buckeyes took over on their 24-yard line and needed 10 plays to take the lead. Judkins’ 9-yard touchdown run made it 14-7 with 6:15 remaining in the opening half.
Once again, the rattled Irish failed to gain a single first down and punted again. Starting at their own 20-yard line, the Buckeyes had two key third-down conversions by Howard to Smith and wide receiver Brandon Inniss to set up his 6-yard touchdown pass to Judkins. That gave the Ohio State a 21-7 lead at the break.
The knockout blow came right out of the gate to open the second half. On the second play of the Buckeyes’ first drive, Judkins went 70 yards down to the Notre Dame 5-yard line, weaving through the line of scrimmage and then breaking toward the left sideline as he neared midfield. Three plays later, Judkins scored from a yard out to make it 28-7 just over two minutes into the half.
That made Ohio State the first team in the history of the championship game to score touchdowns on its first four possessions.
Notre Dame then gambled with a fake punt on fourth-and-2 from its own 33-yard line, but the pass to the right side by backup quarterback Steve Angeli was incomplete. The Buckeyes capitalized with a 45-yard field goal by kicker Jayden Fielding to go ahead 31-7 roughly midway through the third quarter.
The Irish stirred to life with a nice scoring drive and two-point conversion to make it 31-15 entering the fourth quarter, and then after recovering a fumble by Ohio State receiver Emeka Egbuka less than a minute into the final frame had a chance to make it a one-possession game.
But after Notre Dame advanced to the Buckeyes’ 9-yard line, Leonard threw incomplete on third down to set up kicker Mitch Jeter for a 27-yard field goal attempt that bonked off the left upright. Notre Dame was one of the worst kicking teams in the country entering Monday night, ranking 128th in the FBS by making just 57.7% of its 26 attempts.
The Irish still wouldn’t go away. After forcing the Buckeyes’ first punt, Notre Dame connected on a 30-yard touchdown pass to Greathouse and then converted the two-point try on a trick pass by receiver Jordan Faison to make it 31-23 with 4:15 left.
The Buckeyes were able to ice the game with one of the most memorable completions in program history. Facing third-and-10 from his own 34-yard line with 2:45 remaining, Howard stepped back to pass and delivering an arcing strike down the right side to Smith, who made the catch and ran down to the Notre Dame 10-yard line for a 57-yard gain.
Fielding made a 33-yard attempt with 26 seconds left for the game’s final points.
Even as the loss to the Wolverines continues to hang over the program, the Buckeyes’ unmatched march through this postseason will earn this team a place in FBS history.
While the four-team playoff, which ran from 2014-23, forced teams to win twice to bring home the national championship, the expanded field that debuted this season made the Buckeyes the first to win four postseason games.
OSU opened with a 42-17 rout of Tennessee at home in the playoff’s first round. Next, the Buckeyes avenged a regular-season loss to Big Ten champion Oregon by taking a 34-0 lead in the first half and cruising to a 41-21 win. Defensive end Jack Sawyer’s long fumble return for a touchdown in the fourth quarter keyed a 28-14 win against Texas in the Cotton Bowl and sent the Buckeyes into the matchup with the Irish.
Monday night’s win also relieves the pressure on Day, who has come under intense scrutiny for the Buckeyes’ losing streak against Michigan. Day becomes the fifth Ohio State coach to deliver a national championship, following Paul Brown (one), Woody Hayes (five), Jim Tressel (one) and his predecessor Urban Meyer (one).