Notre Dame football freshman LB Kyngstonn Viliamu-Asa on his CFP return
Notre Dame football freshman LB Kyngstonn Viliamu-Asa on his return to play in the CFP after suffering a knee injury on Nov. 23 vs. Army.
ATLANTA — Fourth down has been the friend of Notre Dame football all year, and it was again at times in Monday’s 34-23 loss to Ohio State in the CFP national championship.
It just wasn’t in the second half on two occasions when the Irish needed it to be.
Trailing 28-7 with more than 11 minutes left in the third quarter, Notre Dame opted to run a fake punt on fourth-and-2 from its 33-yard-line. Backup quarterback Steve Angeli entered as the stealthy upback and took a direct snap.
Rolling to his right, Angeli fired a low pass to a sliding Jordan Faison along the sideline. The sure-handed Faison couldn’t make the play, and Ohio State was able to stretch its lead to 31-7 with a 46-yard field goal on the ensuing series.
Earlier, Irish quarterback Riley Leonard ran for a pair of fourth-and-1 conversions on the 18-play game-opening touchdown drive that milked nearly 10 minutes off the clock.
Leonard also found Jaden Greathouse for 11 yards on a fourth-and-5 play from the Buckeyes’ 33 early in the fourth quarter.
Trailing 31-15, Notre Dame stalled on that same drive after reaching the plus-8. On fourth-and-goal from the 9, Irish coach Marcus Freeman opted for a 27-yard field goal with Mitch Jeter, who hit the left upright on a miss.
“I just thought instead of being down 16, let’s try to go down 13,” Freeman said. “I know it’s still a two-score game, but you have a better probability of getting 14 points than you do 16 points.”
Injured Notre Dame football LT Anthonie Knapp on his bittersweet homecoming
Injured Notre Dame football LT Anthonie Knapp, missing the CFP title game after 15 straight starts, on the disappointment in his hometown of Roswell, Ga.
Notre Dame’s offense entered eighth in FBS with a 73.1% conversion rate (19 of 26) on fourth down. Ohio State’s defense came in tied for 16th nationally in fourth-down conversions allowed (41.4%).
“If it was a shorter fourth-and-goal situation, I probably would have gone for it,” Freeman said. “But I just felt fourt-and-9 was not a great chance for us to make that and decided to kick it, and we didn’t make it.”
Jeter, who struggled most of the regular season with hip and groin injuries, had been 7-of-8 on field goals in the playoffs before Monday’s miss.
As for 14 points being easier to achieve than 16, Notre Dame converted both two-point attempts in the title game.
Leonard flipped to running back Jeremiyah Love for the conversion that made it a 31-15 game with 3:03 left in the third quarter, and Faison hit fellow receiver Beaux Collins in the end zone on a flea-flicker to make it 31-23 with 4:15 remaining.
Those were the first two-point attempts of the year for either of the finalists, who combined for 152 touchdowns during their 16-game seasons, including seven total touchdowns in the title game.
Notre Dame was 2-of-5 combined on two-point attempts in Freeman’s first two seasons. The successful tries were at Duke in 2023 (Sam Hartman pass to Rico Flores Jr.) and in the 2022 home loss to Marshall (Tyler Buchner run).
Mike Berardino covers Notre Dame football for the South Bend Tribune and NDInsider.com. Follow him on social media @MikeBerardino.
Emotions were high for everyone who had their team playing in the college football national championship on Monday night, even on the ESPN broadcast team. Kir
Ohio State wins the College Football National ChampionshipThe Ohio State Buckeyes take home their ninth national championship win in the new 12-team College Foo
Ohio State wins the College Football National ChampionshipThe Ohio State Buckeyes take home their ninth national championship win in the new 12-team College Foo
Ohio State wins the College Football National ChampionshipThe Ohio State Buckeyes take home their ninth national championship win in the new 12-team College Foo