Get a kick out of this, Notre Dame football headed to CFP championship game.

Posted by Admin January 10, 2025 Football

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Next stop, Atlanta, where Notre Dame (14-1) will play a national championship for the first time since 2012 against the winner of Friday’s Cotton Bowl between Ohio State and Texas.

MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. − Of course, Notre Dame found a way out of this one.

This is what this team does. Finds ways to win. To believe. To deliver. Finds its way into the light when it seems darkest. It seemed dark often Thursday.

Notre Dame just turns the tables and turns games on their collective heads and just wins. Any doubt?

Three postseason wins down, one more to go.

Notre Dame beat Penn State in one of the more improbable ways it could beat a College Football Playoff semifinal opponent. Christian Gray intercepted Drew Allar with 33 seconds remaining before Mitch Jeter banged through a 41-yard field goal with 12 seconds remaining.

Notre Dame 27, Penn State 24. Final. Believe it. Few will.

For most of the final four, five minutes, no Irish wanted to go near Jeter. Leave him alone. Don’t jinx it. Don’t rattle him. When he botted his field goal, Jeter couldn’t get away from anyone. Mobbed. Swarmed. Emotions flowing all over Hard Rock Stadium.

This one had more drama than a high school hallway during a passing period. Drama? This one absolutely had it. Tie score with 10 minutes and change remaining. One team was going home, the other, on to Atlanta.

Make sense of that second half. Dare you. No one will believe it. Even if you saw it all unfold, the momentum swings, the touchdowns, the ups and the downs and everything else, few would believe it.

Dropped into its largest deficit of the season — 10 points late in the second half — it looked like this dream season was done. Maybe the Notre Dame tank had indeed hit empty. Just when it looked darkest, back into the light the Irish stepped.

Seventeen unanswered points flipped the Capital One Orange Bowl upside down and set Notre Dame right side up at Hard Rock Stadium.

Make it seven games against ranked teams this season for Notre Dame — and seven wins. Staggering.

Next stop, Atlanta, where Notre Dame (14-1) will play a national championship for the first time since 2012 against the winner of Friday’s Cotton Bowl between Ohio State and Texas. Are we sure this season will end after that one?

One half away from possibly going home for good, the Irish stand one win away from their first national championship since 1988. How did that happen? How has anything happened for this team this season? A wing and a prayer and resolve and a refusal to roll over when they could/should roll over.

To think that it felt like this one was slipping away late in the second quarter after Penn State tossed together a 15-play, 90-yard scoring drive that chewed 7:17 of clock and ended with a Nicholas Singleton 5-yard TD run. That made it 10-0 and tossed the Irish into their largest hole of the season, 10-0.

The Irish defense looked nothing like the Irish defense on that drive. Usually, they deliver a big play. Usually, they find a way to get off the field. Penn State did as it pleased, while the Irish defense looked out of answers.

It had to find some at intermission. Fast.

Notre Dame never had to do this fall what it absolutely had to do on this night — figure a way back after being pushed around — and pushed back in the first half. The Irish were forced to figure it out trailing 10-0 without starting quarterback Riley Leonard. Pressure from the pocket on the drive’s third play, Leonard was hit and smacked his head on the ground. Notre Dame also lost right guard Rocco Spindler on the same play.

Enter Steve Angeli, who directed a drive that ended with a field goal. That drive and those points were the first-half highlight for the Irish. It offered a sliver of second-half hope.

Marcus Freeman told TV as he left the field at halftime that he didn’t have an answer on Leonard in terms of his second-half availability. Same might’ve been said for Penn State. One team was the better team that first half. That team wasn’t Notre Dame.

Whatever button Freeman needed to push at the break, he pushed it. Hard. Even after all that, the Irish only trailed 10-3. They were right there. The question was, could they get there? They got there. Leonard was well and the Irish were alive after an eight-play, 75-yard scoring drive that tied it at 10.

This first half wasn’t a fluke. Notre Dame was manhandled in a half it couldn’t afford to be manhandled. You wondered if the Irish had finally met their match. And were overmatched. It seemed that way when the Irish lost starting left tackle Anthonie Knapp early to injury. Then they lost starting right guard Rocco Spindler to injury.

Next man up yet again in a season for a team that has lost a key contributor at nearly every key position. One guy goes down, someone steps in and the Irish just keep on keeping on.

Follow South Bend Tribune and NDInsider columnist Tom Noie on X (formerly Twitter): @tnoieNDI. Contact Noie at tnoie@sbtinfo.com