The numbers never lie, so we found interesting stats to illustrate why Ohio State was able to defeat Notre Dame in Atlanta on Monday night.
On Monday night Ohio State won their ninth national championship with a 34-23 victory over Notre Dame in Atlanta. The win was the third straight year the Buckeyes have beaten the Fighting Irish, and the seventh straight win over the team from South Bend. The victory capped off a memorable four-game run for Ohio State, which was fueled by the players and coaches digging deep following an embarrassing 13-10 loss to Michigan in Columbus in the final game of the regular season.
Along with a bunch of memorable moments from Monday night’s game for Buckeye fans to look back on, there were a number of interesting stats from the game that tell a lot of the story we saw on the field at Mercedes-Benz Stadium. Today we are going to revisit five of the most interesting stats to come out of the title game victory over the Fighting Irish, as well as the four-game run for Ohio State in the College Football Playoff.
16:37-13:23 time of possession in first half
Monday night’s game got off to a rough start for the Ohio State defense. Notre Dame received the opening kickoff and reeled off an 18-play touchdown drive that ate up 9:45 of the first-quarter clock. With the methodical drive down the field that included nine runs from quarterback Riley Leonard, the Fighting Irish became the first team in this year’s College Football Playoff to hold a lead over the Buckeyes.
Ohio State wouldn’t trail for long, as they responded with an 11-play drive that took 6:05 off the clock and ended with a Jeremiah Smith receiving touchdown. After Notre Dame looked like they had the early momentum after their touchdown drive, the Buckeyes came right back with a drive that was pretty much effortless. With the score back to even, Ohio State started to take control, only allowing the Fighting Irish to run seven more plays the rest of the first half.
Just imagine telling someone after Notre Dame’s first drive of the game that Ohio State would win the first-half time of possession battle by three minutes. The Fighting Irish took nearly a third of the first half off the clock with their first drive. Instead of getting rattled, Ryan Day’s team kept their composure and stuck to their game plan. Following their first drive that lasted 6:05, the next drive for the Buckeyes lasted 6:06, and their third possession of the half totaled 4:26.
Many teams might have seen their confidence take a big hit after Notre Dame opened the game with a nearly 10-minute touchdown drive. Instead, Ohio State not only responded to tie the game on the next drive, they got even stronger after.
13-of-13
The calming force for Ohio State in the title game, as well as throughout the CFP, was quarterback Will Howard. In the biggest game Howard has ever played, all the former Kansas State quarterback did was complete his first 13 passes, setting a record for most consecutive completions to start a College Football Playoff game. The performance was a stark contrast to what we saw from Howard to open the Penn State game in early November, when it was obvious nerves got the best of him on the first couple of series as he was playing the school he dreamed about playing for as a kid.
Photo by Rich von Biberstein/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images
Howard was one of the most accurate passers in college football this season. Of the 16 games Ohio State played, Howard completed at least 80 percent of his passes in half of those games. By comparison, Kyle McCord only completed 80 percent of his passes in one game as a Buckeye quarterback last year, which came in the 63-10 win over Western Kentucky. There were only three games this season where Howard missed on at least 10 passes in a game. The only one of those inaccurate games from Howard the Buckeyes lost was the Michigan game.
Heading into the regular season, as well as a good portion of the way through the 2024 season, there were numerous people who wondered if Ryan Day made the right decision in letting McCord hit the transfer portal and bringing in Howard. Even though McCord had a fun season throwing the football for the Orange, there is no question Howard was the right choice to lead the Buckeyes. Not only do the stats Howard posted speak for themselves, but his leadership of the team was massive. It’s hard to imagine Ohio State replicating their success this year if McCord was still in Columbus.
205
Entering Monday night’s game, Emeka Egbuka had caught 199 passes in his Ohio State career, putting him three shy of overtaking K.J. Hill for most receptions in school history. The title game against Notre Dame would be Egbuka’s final contest in the scarlet and gray, and he made sure to put his stamp on the school’s record book. By the midway point of the first half, Egbuka had already hauled in three passes to move past Hill’s mark. The wide receiver from Washington would catch three more passes during the game to finish with 205 career catches.
While Egbuka was able to set the school’s career receptions record, he fell just short of topping the career receiving yardage list. Egbuka finished with 64 yards receiving against the Fighting Irish, finishing his time as a Buckeye with 2,868 receiving yards. Despite his mark being threatened, Michael Jenkins still has the most receiving yards in a career in school history with 2,898 yards. At least Egbuka can hang his hat on moving past David Boston on Monday night, now sitting 13 yards ahead of Boston in the school’s all-time ranks.
Will Egbuka join the ranks of recent Ohio State receivers to be selected in the first round of the NFL Draft? That remains to be seen. Even though Egbuka might not be headed to the NFL with the hype of guys like Garrett Wilson, Jaxon Smith-Njigba, or Marvin Harrison Jr., what Egbuka has that those talented receivers he played with in Columbus doesn’t have is a national championship.
.875
Ohio State head coach Ryan Day improved his coaching record at Ohio State to 70-10 with Monday night’s win over Notre Dame. Day’s 87.5 winning percentage is not only the best among active college football coaches who have coached at least 50 games, Day has one of the top winning percentages of all-time in college football. Even crazier about Day’s coaching record is nearly half of the 10 losses he has suffered as a head coach have come to Michigan.
Photo by Todd Kirkland/Getty Images
The national title is vindication for the Buckeye head coach. Following the Michigan game, there were many Ohio State fans that would have gladly helped Day pack his bags so they would never have to see him coach another game for the Buckeyes. Now less than two months later Day is finally a national champion. Ohio State put together a four-game run that will never be forgotten in Columbus, and the first game of that stretch was a game against Tennessee where Buckeye Nation was on edge heading into the game since they didn’t know what they would see from the team following the deflating performance against Michigan.
Who knows what lies ahead for Day, whether he is head coach at Ohio State for a year or another decade. There still is the Michigan hurdle that Day has to find a way to clear, but it’s a lot easier to handle as a national champion. Who knows if Jim Harbaugh still thinks Ryan Day was born on third base?
It doesn’t matter, since Day now has as many national titles as Harbaugh, and at least Day can say what he did this year was clean, which is something Harbaugh certainly can’t say about Michigan’s title last season.
244
After rushing for over 40 yards on their opening touchdown drive, Notre Dame finished Monday’s game with just 53 yards rushing. By suffocating the rushing attack of the Fighting Irish, Ohio State secured their third game in the playoff where they held their opponent to less than 60 yards rushing. As a whole, Ohio State’s rush defense only gave up 244 yards rushing over their four CFP games. The only team that was able to find some success on the ground against the Buckeyes was Tennessee, who ran for 156 yards in the first-round game in Columbus. If we’re being honest though, the Volunteers were able to roll up most of those yards after the Buckeyes already had a healthy lead.
Defensive coordinator Jim Knowles pushed the right buttons following the first game against Oregon, as well as after the loss to Michigan. Just look at how the Buckeyes were able to bottle up Jordan James in the Rose Bowl after the Oregon running back was tough to tackle in the first game between the teams in Eugene back in October. It was obvious the defense was playing with a chip on their shoulder following the loss to the Ducks, and the chip got even bigger after Michigan ran for 172 yards at Ohio Stadium in late November.
Ohio State made Notre Dame one-dimensional after the first drive. Riley Leonard was stuffed in his next eight carries after the nine totes he had on the opening drive. What was most curious about the Fighting Irish on offense is they didn’t try to get Jeremiyah Love involved in the rushing attack, with the 1,000-yard rusher having just four carries in the game. Knowles will undoubtedly get head coaching interest next year, but it feels like if he hasn’t led a program by now, he might not have any designs on becoming a head coach. Here’s to Knowles sticking around in Columbus for as long as Ohio State can hold on to him.