Notre Dame narrowly missed out on another College Football Playoff bid and as expected was given a berth in the Fiesta Bowl where they’ll face Big 12 runner-up Oklahoma State to start the New Year.
The Cowboys won 11 out of their first 12 games this season with only a blemish road loss at Iowa State. This past weekend they came within literal inches of coming from behind to beat Baylor in the Big 12 Championship. However, a 4th down run was stopped just short of the pylon and Baylor held on for the win.
Playstation Fiesta Bowl
Oklahoma State (+2.5) vs. Notre Dame
State Farm Stadium
Glendale, Arizona
Saturday, January 1, 2022
Time: 1:00 PM ET
TV: ESPN
Here are 5 quick notes as Notre Dame prepares to win its first major bowl since 1993:
First Meeting
Despite a solid history with their in-state rival Oklahoma, this will be the first-ever meeting between Notre Dame and Oklahoma State. If you remember, back in late October we ranked a trip to Boone Pickens Stadium in Stillwater as the #25 top road trip that should be scheduled by the Irish.
Instead, the teams will meet inside the home of the Arizona Cardinals.
This will be the Cowboys’ 4th appearance in a major bowl game since 2011 with previous outcomes:
41-38 Win over Stanford, 2011 Fiesta Bowl
41-31 Loss to Missouri, 2014 Cotton Bowl
48-20 Loss to Ole Miss, 2016 Sugar Bowl
I’m a Man, I’m 40
The viral rant from Oklahoma State head coach Mike Gundy happened 14 years ago. He’s now 54 years old.
This is the last game of the season in Gundy’s incredible 17-year run with the Cowboys, a school where except for a 4-year stop at Maryland–he has been a player or coach at since 1986.
Okie State was this close to a Big 12 title.Â
Gundy is 148-69 in his career and has already notched his 1st double-digit winning season since 2017. He promoted long-time receivers coach Kasey Dunn to offensive coordinator last year while defensive coordinator Jim Knowles is in his 4th season with Oklahoma State.
Spencer Sanders
Oklahoma State has been hoping for quarterback Spencer Sanders to break out but it hasn’t happened yet. The former top 200 recruit is finishing his 3rd season of starting and as a redshirt junior heads into bowl season with the 2nd worse passer rating among qualifying Big 12 signals callers.
I wouldn’t describe Sanders as a dangerous runner exactly but he’s been productive in his career on the ground. In 32 games, Sanders has rushed for 1,440 yards and 10 touchdowns at 3.9 per carry.
the mission is set #GoIrish pic.twitter.com/D6b1y20nGE
— Notre Dame Football (@NDFootball) December 5, 2021
If you think of a high-flying passing offense when you talk about Oklahoma State that isn’t exactly what they look like these days. Sanders only threw for more than 300 yards once this year and in the 3 games against ranked opponents (Baylor 2x, Oklahoma) threw 9 out of his 12 interceptions on the season.
Warren Injury
Oklahoma State became very one-dimensional in production during the Big 12 Championship as star running back Jaylen Warren did not play with an ankle injury. I am presuming he will be healthy enough for the bowl game, but we’ll see.
Warren rushed for 1,13 yards and 11 touchdowns in 11 games.
Without him, their rushing offense came to a halt this past weekend totaling just 66 yards on 40 carries.
Tough Defense
This does not appear to be much of a classic Big 12 or Oklahoma State team. We already mentioned their offense which is only averaging 30.6 points per game. However, the defense has been stout this year.
Prior to this weekend’s action, the Cowboys ranked 5th in national defense according to SP+ and 2nd nationally according to FEI. They’ve allowed just 16.8 points per game while only Georgia and Wisconsin have allowed fewer yards per game.
The Irish open as a slight favorite in the opening line. Only 27 more days until we meet on the field.
Bring it on!
I can’t wait for this game and the Freeman era to begin.
Pumped up as well. Last time I attended a ND Fiesta Bowl game was at the end of the ’88 season, we played West Virginia. Some kind of resemblance between their mountain man and the Okie cowboy? Eric will know. I hope and trust this team will bring the same energy and passion as we did back then.
Is that why Jack interviewed Matt Campbell, to pick his brain for how to beat Ok State?
“Jack, I’d really like to talk about my vision for the ND program.”
(While texting Freeman about contract details) “Yeah, yeah, whatever. Listen, you think we should bring the blitz against Sanders or trust our secondary?”
I feel like this kinda “yadda yadda’d” the best part, to quickly mention the Ok St defense. 4th best in YPP this season, with Cincy and Wisconsin being top-3 groups. That will make the challenge of how to attack them very interesting for Tommy Rees. I really thought Fickell and Cincy ate Rees’ lunch on the day they played, and I generally am impressed with the games and strategy Tommy uses.
That’s going to be a very fascinating matchup to see with BK gone, how does Rees look on his own with a very strong test ahead of him? It’s been the Jack Coan show the past month or so until garbage time, but I really hope they mix in more Buchner to give that added running QB dimension. Idk if you can nickel or dime 30+ points against the defense just doing quick and short passes for 10 play drives.
Yeah I want this win badly, but I hope a significant portion of the extra practices are focused on getting Buchner more up to speed on the entirety of the playbook. Freeman can’t afford a major drop off in his first season, and Buchner being ready to go next year is the biggest thing that could raise the floor of this team. Getting him a ton of reps in practice could payoff in the short term (Fiesta Bowl) and long run (next season) if they play their cards right.
If Buchner gets extra reps, I think it’ll be more due to the fear of OSU’s pass rush than hoping it gets him ready for next year. I share your concern on getting him ready, I’d guess we all do.
Right. The focus is and has to be winning a NY6 bowl game and starting out right with Freeman, not having a freshman QB learn a playbook. They will have plenty of time for that this off-season. It’ll be an added benefit that Buchner can continue to learn and gain more experience but that can’t be what the team is worried about in this moment.
Wish we had gotten MSU, to be honest
It’s always good to beat Sparty, but I’m fine with an opponent that ND has never faced before
I’m fine with not playing Walker too, tbh.
Just looked at the SP+ rankings, and Michigan State is #35! The numbers imply ND would be a 9-point favorite. That would have been an incredible NY6 opponent.
I don’t fully understand the wanting of a fairly common opponent. I don’t know that beating MSU moves the needle any, from a national perspective. OSU is interesting. Isn’t that part of the point of bowl season – to get exposed to teams you’d otherwise not play? (That’s maybe 1% – $$ is the other 99%) Lose to MSU and you’ll hear about it for years from the MSU fans you know. Lose to OSU – ever met an OSU fan outside of Garth Brooks? Plus, that paisley black trim on the collar and sleeves. ::Chef’s kiss:: Giant Pistol Pete better be all over the OSU helmets.
I don’t really think OSU is any more nationally interesting than MSU – the more I think about it, they’re actually very comparable programs perception-wise – and MSU is a rival. I value that more than novelty. Was beating Iowa State a few years ago all that fun, or at least any more fun than beating LSU in a bowl game for the second time in a few years? Not really.
Plus, per above, Okie State is notably more likely to beat us than MSU would be. The most important thing is that we actually win this first game of the Freeman era.
Anyways, too late now; beat Okie State.
I’d be equally as jazzed about ND playing MSU in a bowl game as I would about seeing ND play Navy in a bowl game – excluding playoffs. And yes, living in Iowa, it was very fun to see ND pants ISU.
Novelty is precisely what bowl games were made for. We play B1G teams all the time and very rarely anyone from the Big XII. It’s not quite as winnable but considerably more interesting in my book. I mean, if we just wanted to win then we could screw off to Shreveport and play North Texas or somebody.
This will be a tough matchup for us. Okl. st. is a legit playoff team (they lost by a few inches and multiple turnovers and without their top RB playing – who I would think would play against us).
We will finally see if our OL has improved or if we just played a lot weaker defenses later in the year.
I assume Hamilton will not play but our D needs to have a big game for us to have a chance. Though I don’t think their WRs are scary and not sure their OL is above average. So I would think we do have a chance on D to play well against them.
Agree it will be a challenging game. But I’m planning to attend anyway! And with my brother, an OSU grad!
Awesome, enjoy!
Not sure I agree on them being a legit playoff team. To be fair today was by far the most ok state football I had watched all year but they were underwhelming today. With their season in the line they got pretty thoroughly outplayed (SP+ had baylor at 88% win probability) by a backup qb. I was really just mostly relived michigan didn’t get to cakewalk into the championship. Go irish, go dawgs.
Couldn’t agree more with your last sentence. The only silver lining to Bama Bama-ing again is it ensured Michigan has to play a big boy in the CFP rather than Cincinnati, who no disrespect, is not Georgia or Alabama.
This is a really good test to see how Rees adapts in what will certainly be a tough test for the offense. It will also be a good test to see if the OL really improved or was it an illusion. While I tend to doubt Jeff Quinn actually stays around, if the line looks good it makes me more likely to want him to do so. Personally, I am torn.
As for Hamilton, given the choice was Freeman, I have a feeling if his knee is 95% or better he will play. I think he will want to say he helped him win his first game as HC. Personally, I wouldn’t blame him for not playing in what is essentially an exhibition game, but I can see him wanting too.
Am I the only one who feels kind of giddy about playing this game without Brian Kelly around? I could never advocate for firing him after his good work in building up the ND program from the shambles it was in after the Bob Davieweisingham/KevinWhite debacle, but it seems like he self-fired himself and gave us an opportunity.
The things that bugged me about him, even during these five seasons of winning 10+ games were twofold. First, when I was at ND, I saw us come out of the tunnel on multiple occasions all crazy and excited about the game and jumping around. Kelly’s teams always came out looking like they were on a business trip. I’m looking forward to seeing an excited team again. Secondly, it seemed that Kelly always had to try something to prove that he was the smartest man in the room. I understand trying to get Buchner reps this season in preparation for next year, but sometimes he’d come in for only one play! How does the offense get into a rhythm that way? I was at the 2011 USC game when Rees started marching us down the field, with the score 17-10, and when we got within the USC five yard line, Kelly brought in Dayne Crist who fumbled and they ran it back for 99 yards. Remember the Rees interception against Tulsa in Kelly’s first year when all we had to do was not give the ball away and we had a reasonably decent chance at a game winning field goal? Kelly always has to do something different to prove how smart he is. I won’t miss that.
God, I hope Marcus Freeman is the man.
The contrast between Bama in the tunnel and ND in the tunnel in January of 2013 comes to mind. There is certainly something to be said for the “it is a business trip” type of approach but sometimes it leaves you looking scared
I remember writers saying after that 2013 game that it didn’t look like it was going to be a fair fight while the two teams warmed up. Maybe ND was intimidated.
i was young when the game happened so i didn’t really notice it but in rewatching the game recently it was…noticeable https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4WViU3hSAzA
You didn’t have to see the tunnel to know it wasn’t going to be a fair fight. You just had to look at the rosters.
I’ll be a bit of a wet blanket here (although I’m very excited about Freeman’s potential).
The business trip mentality may not be very exciting, but I think that’s a big part of why we haven’t lost to an unranked opponent in five seasons. Excitement is great, but it wears off pretty quickly. Miami is often bouncing all over the place before a game and dancing and whatnot and then they get punched in the mouth and that’s that. Of course, maybe an injection of pregame energy is what we need for big games like this one.
Most of Kelly’s major game management blunders were pre-2017. Frankly, this is one thing I’m worried about with Freeman — a lot of DCs who become HCs seem to really struggle with the game management stuff.
I agree with you that Kelly basically fired himself, and he’s certainly looked like a complete ass this whole past week. Hope Freeman is the man too, but right now, we’re mostly running on feelgood stuff and potential.
I think the “getting hype” before a game thing is stupid. Just as stupid as not wearing sleeves in cold weather and putting eye black all over your face. But, whatever works for that team, works for that team.
I agree with you re: no unranked losses being a product of that mentality
But I also think there exists a good medium between the two and it exists in something like (and i know you will hate this) Clemson’s program. I’m not campaigning for ND to become Clemson 2 or for Freeman to even be like Dabo (GOD no) but I think he will bring about a similar atmosphere that leads to a lot of fun, winning, and success in every facet
I don’t know about the ‘business trip’ angle, that doesn’t change much for me, but I do think Kelly leaving might be exactly what this program needed. I emphasize ‘might’ because we obviously don’t know if Freeman is the caliber of head coach literally everyone who’s worked with him says he will be. But if it were possible for 10+ win seasons to get stale, where we were with Kelly was about as close as it comes. I’m very grateful that he got us to a point where that many wins seemed almost meh, but the jolt of excitement Freeman has brought (really going back to when he was hired at DC) is making me very excited about the future.
I am looking forward to it more. That said, I think it will tell us very little. There could be changes at the margins on offense, but we basically are what we are now. We can’t become a power running team or a full spread team overnight. Same on defense. The extra 20 practices probably means we can better acclimate to Freeman’s system, but there won’t be dramatic changes. I don’t really think the OSU offense will challenge us all that much, but their defense will.
The Northwestern game. ND scores to go up 11 and Kelly goes for 2 to go up 13- made zero sense.
Northwestern then comes back with a FG and TD with a 2 pointer to tie it and then wins in OT. Also bringing in a cold Cam McDaniel because he was worried about the other RB (Folston IIRC) fumbling and McDaniel fumbles. It was also at the point in the game where ND could have taken a knee or had Golson run around for a few seconds and by the time they punted there would have been very little time left (20 seconds maybe). I was furious after that debacle.
Good call on that. Kelly’s go for 1 or 2 decisions used to drive me absolutely insane with how he would chase points when he didn’t need it, and it never worked, and always came back to bite them. It would be one thing if they were actually effective with the 2 pt plays..
Did a similar thing against Clemson in 2015 if you remember – ND scores a TD to make it 21-9, down 12 went for two early in 4th. Didn’t get it so that resulted in needing to go for 2 at the end of the game, Kizer stopped short, ND loses by 2. Could have kicked 2 PAT’s and been going to OT…
I was at a hockey game and following the score on my phone. I just shook my head when he did that. You don’t go for 2 then. You wait until you have to go for 2. Like when it is 21-13 or much later in the quarter. He had to realize that 24-10 was possible and that put 2 TD’s needed back in play.
As bad as that was the NW game was worse as there was a big difference between 11 and 12, where as there was no difference between 12 and 13 (as NW was not going to score a TD and 2 FG’s).
Crappy 1pm kickoff…wait is that EST or MST?
eastern. 11 am local kick. speaking as a local it kind of sucks
Makes for a lousy tailgate but, a better time for the post game celebration.
The French solution — Champagne brunch tailgate!
yup…ugh
Any chance at all Hamilton makes the game?
I would highly doubt it but there has been no word besides the news that he was trending to being available for a *playoff* game.
Freeman just was asked and said “his health is the #1 importance”, directly said that no decision has been made yet but Freeman will have his full support no matter what.
That does make sense to me that they don’t officially know as of now. Maybe a good sign that Kyle hasn’t gone to Freeman and gave the news he can’t/won’t play right off the bat? Kinda grasping on my part, I guess we’ll see.
You could def see Freeman is authentic and cares though about the players. Expected but cool to see him.
Yeah, that was a real genuine answer. “Genuine” is a word I keep coming back to when I hear his remarks on a lot of things. Not always polished, but that’s part of what makes it genuine. He certainly doesn’t come off like a Boston politician.
I wouldn’t get my hopes up that Kyle plays. If I were his adviser I’d probably tell him not to. But if he decides he wants to, you certainly don’t stand in his way.
Hamilton was #7 in The Athletic’s mock draft last week with a note “the medical evaluations will be important” being as he missed a lot of time with a “minor” knee injury.
Playing the game would be one way to answer that question before the process even begins. I’m sure teams with high picks will still be interested in his medicals and all that’s a big investment to make (especially in a safety, who usually don’t get drafted super high)…But it would at least be one consideration in the column of why he could get something out of playing.
Then again, naturally the flip side for risk management would be to not even bother on a college field and just answer those questions in the pre-draft process. Might not get past the point of completely ensuring he’s not Jaylon 2.0, which obviously I can’t find fault in.
Like you, I don’t think he really will play, but just trying to stay hopeful and see a broad view.
Medical examinations are a far less risky way to answer the question.
True, but just football culture speaking, there’s value in seeing Hamilton back on the field and able to show he’s 100% coming out of the season. I do agree the risk/reward probably makes it not worth pursuing with so much money on the line, but like if his knee truly is 100% (which is an assumption), it wouldn’t be a negative for him to show that and probably adds stock to his draft value as “the guy who went back out on the field” feather in his cap.
I think proving that you’ll actually take the field again and not simply sign an NFL contract and sit in a bubble on the sidelines holding the clipboard for the next five years would be useful to Hamilton’s cause. It’s not like NFL teams have been climbing over one another to take safeties with top-10 picks.
Hamilton at safety is much less likely to be rolled up by an OL goon such as Taylor Decker.
I could see him wanting to play, even insisting on it. Then Freeman holding him out for his own good.
Really? I don’t see it like that. If I’m the HC and Kyle gets fully cleared from the docs and he wants to play, I don’t see why the coach wouldn’t also want him out there. You could get hit by a bus or tear a knee or achilles in training pre-draft, can’t bubble wrap him forever.
Obviously, flip side, you can’t pressure him into playing if his heart isn’t in it or he has any doubts or if he isn’t 100%, he clearly can’t and won’t be playing. But it’s not the coach’s job or call if the player wants to play and is fit to do so, IMO.
On the other hand, THIS head coach was an NFL linebacker until a health issue (not an injury, but an enlarged heart condition) forced him to medically retire. I could see Freeman telling Hamilton “go get your money, man, you’ve done enough.”
Am I the only one who thought of this? Coach Freeman greeting Father Jenkins and Swarbrick vs. Coach Freeman greeting Brady Quinn.