Let’s be real, for the first 20 to 25 minutes of the Orange Bowl things were looking bleak. That darkness of a season-ending loss in depressing fashion–with Penn State pushing you around–was descending on Notre Dame. But this team isn’t simply called the Irish. They are the Fighting Irish and my goodness did they keep battling in numerous ways to find a way to win.
Next up, the final game of the season for real this time, either Ohio State or Texas on Monday, January 20th from the Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta.
QUARTERBACK: B
This game was so emotional that stats, or lack thereof, won’t do things justice. So feel free to roast any of these grades! Leonard threw a pair of really bad interceptions, didn’t have a run longer than 6 yards, and generally looked as uncomfortable in the pocket as we’ve seen this season. Hence why things looked super dark in the beginning. Starting out punt-interception-punt is no way to perform on this big of a stage.
Absent that second interception (the first play right after Penn State answered with a touchdown in a big way to start the 4th quarter oh my how did we not lose???) Leonard actually put together a pretty good game.
We needed some explosive plays through the air and Leonard delivered 4 of them. He had to get a concussion check and came back in the 2nd half and never panicked. Maybe most impressively, the Irish had 7(!!) throws on 3rd down that moved the chains. Super clutch!
Of course, we HAVE to give plaudits to Steve Angeli. I just knew he was destined to play an important part in Notre Dame history. In just one series he converted a trio of 3rd downs through the air and led a late field goal drive in what turned out to be a 3-point win.
RUNNING BACK: B
In the interest of fairness, we have to admit this was not the type of performance needed from Jadarian Price. He had a 12-yard run and his other 6 carries went for a total of 1 yard. They really need to focus on getting him 5 or 6 positive plays in the National Championship. He’s so talented and can be a homerun hitter but 8 carries for 47 yards is needed if 5 or 6 are successful plays.
Anyeas Williams has been a killer all season, displaying no fear as a true freshman. His long catch (what a move!) at receiver was such a big spark for the offense. He put together 7 touches for 83 yards from scrimmage in a little MVP performance.
No, the numbers weren’t there for Jeremiyah Love. But he jumped over another guy (setting a new personal vertical record in the process, I think) and provided one of the toughest, most inspiring touchdowns in Notre Dame history. I’ve watched it 50 times. The grit, balance, and intuition to score like that is completely bonkers.
WIDE RECEIVER: B-
It’s been an off-season of Notre Dame transfers making a big impact in the limelight. Not so with the receivers against Penn State. Zero catches for Collins, Mitchell, and Harrison. According to reports, Beaux Collins might have been one of the players truly suffering from the flu because he stood on the sidelines for nearly the entire game.
All of the Greathouse hype that I, and others, have driven for the past couple years feels absolutely VINDICATED right now. We did it, Jaden! Seven targets, seven catches. A real-world 100-yard receiving game…when we needed it most! Three catches on the game-tying drive with the memorable 54-yard touchdown catch. Plus, we cannot sleep on the clutch 10-yard catch on 3rd down to set up the game-winning field goal and move it from difficult to manageable for Jeter.
TIGHT END: C+
We definitely tried to lean on Mitchell Evans early in this game (9 targets, yeah that’s a lot) and it had some mixed results. He came down with that beautiful 3rd down catch on the sidelines for 32 yards which was an early spark. But his other 8 targets netted 26 yards. Decent production.
I think we all would’ve taken the matchup with Tyler Warren only gaining 17 more receiving yards than Evans. That felt like a big win for the Irish.
With the injury to Cooper Flanagan, there was a lot of playing time for Eli Raridon. His route leading to a pass interference in the end zone did not go unnoticed.
OFFENSIVE LINE: B+
I’m going big grading curve here but I think it’s justifiable.
The line looked in big, big trouble early on in the game. They gave up 5 sacks and 3 additional tackles for loss. Looking at those numbers in isolation it was by far the worst game of the season. Abdul Carter very much played and he was eating everyone’s lunch on those early series.
However, let’s factor in injuries to Knapp and Spindler with Tosh Baker and Charles Jagusah coming in under the most intense pressure of their sporting lives, and you know what, things kind of stabilized and the offense did okay for the last 65% of this game.
After those first 3 series, the Irish finished the game averaging 6 yards per play. This has been a mind-boggling impressive coaching job by Joe Rudolph.
DEFENSIVE LINE: C+
The defensive line finally looked like it was out of gas and couldn’t cope with all the injuries they’ve suffered in 2024-25. I think that was the brutal truth for a large part of this game. It also looked like Howard Cross was more hobbled than usual, as well.
They were getting pushed around, out-leveraged, and weren’t dealing with some of the up-tempo pace from Penn State very well. In total, there was very little playmaking.
Still, like the offensive line, things did get better as the game progressed. The Penn State 75-yard touchdown drive was pretty bad in the early 4th quarter but outside of that things were actually pretty good and Penn State weren’t running the ball as effectively.
LINEBACKER: B-
It looked like Penn State’s speed at running back was really bothering the Irish linebackers early in the game but I also chalk a lot of that up to crafty play-calling from Andy Kotelnicki who was coaching circles around Al Golden for most of the 1st half.
We figured some stuff out, though. After some poor tackling the linebackers came direct and started increasing the level of physicality.
In a game loaded with big plays and helpful decisions, to see Jaylen Sneed pressure Allar on the all-important interception is great stuff.
SECONDARY: A
I’m pretty sure we left Xavier Watts to cover Warren for most of the game and that worked out pretty well. On Warren’s long catch of 27 yards he was covered by Adon Shuler (who didn’t look like himself) and Allar actually tossed a dime over Kiser in coverage, as well.
ZERO WIDE RECEIVER RECEPTIONS FOR PENN STATE.
Christian Gray’s late interception is going down in Notre Dame lore. That and his interception against USC…amazing athleticism!
You love to see it. This was an embarrassing performance from Drew Allar. No completions over 30 yards. Credit for 4 explosive plays for 92 yards, sure. His other 19 attempts went for 43 yards and he should’ve thrown at least 3 interceptions.
Allar converted a grand total of ZERO passes on third down.
NOTES:
I think Notre Dame could’ve come back from a 7-0 deficit (if it moved to 14-0 because it did get to 10-0) but that Singleton dropped touchdown was a big break late in the 1st quarter.
This was the first thing I saw on Instagram when I woke up dead tired at 5:45 AM, but happy as hell:
Watching Penn State lose is so fun.
Money Mitch Jeter. Mr. January. Did anyone else nearly poop themselves when his game-winning kick swerved to the right briefly before correcting itself through the goalposts?
The recovered fumble by Aamil Wagner (also credited to Billy Scrauth) leading up to the field goal drive on the Angeli series might have been the play of the game honestly.
Notre Dame earns $6 million for making the National Championship Game. That takes the post-season total up to $20 million for the Irish.
Here’s another picture of James Franklin:
PSU has to share money with Michigan and others in the B1G.
I’m not going to hate on the players who transfer out and leave because that’s life. I transferred colleges after my freshman year (and transferred back a semester later) and know how hard it can be to figure out life when you’re young. It has to be so tough when you’re a D-1 athlete with athletic aspirations. However, I’d like to praise the likes of Deion Colzie, Jayden Thomas, Junior Tuihalamaka, Gabriel Rubio, Steve Angeli, and especially Tosh Baker.
All of these players have been close to starting and/or played serious minutes at one point or another before being stuck with competition and transferring would’ve been the easy and understandable thing to do. But to stick around and make an impact in a game like this, and be bought in after all this time, is what makes college football special.
Did you see the sniper on Greathouse’s touchdown?
Ankles snatched: 2
What a time to save a season-high 11 conversions on 3rd down. What a wild game.
It feels good to finally take away some positive memories from a game in Miami. A reminder that we’ll open the 2025 season right back inside Hard Rock Stadium against the Hurricanes.
James Franklin moves to 1-15 vs. AP top 5 opponents at the time of kickoff. They are stuck in their own purgatory that we as Notre Dame fans know all too well.
We Are: Going Home
The pass interference call taking away the Jack Kiser interception was an all-time bad flag in post-season history. I can’t lie, I do enjoy a quick garbage-on-the-field outcry after these horrid officiating decisions. Of course we won anyway. Plus, we got to see a bunch of pouty Drew Allar face shots as the game was coming to a close.
I’ll have an opinion piece early next week as we look ahead to the National Championship. For now, I just want to say how proud and amazed I am of this team and the job Marcus Freeman is doing. This has been a dizzying last month and we have a lot to discuss.
Winning. Is. Hard.
It was an ugly, ugly game for most of the early going, but we’ll take an ugly 3-point win over a pretty 10-point loss any day.
FYI: It might just be me, but the homepage still shows the Indiana preview as the top story. I had to go to the Football link to see the Instant Reaction, and I had to go to Murtaugh’s author page to find this article.
Just refresh the home page when you go there next
Huh. Cookies and cache do weird things.
Yeah I spent a couple weeks dodging around the website getting increasingly frustrated until I posted a similar comment to you about 1.5 months ago lol
I have the same problem on my iPad. My phone pulls it up fine (Android) but my iPad shows the GA preview still, no matter how many times I refresh the page. Not sure how to clear the cache or cookies on it. Weird.
Yeah it’s been that way for a few months for me. Got to refresh the main page, and also then refresh in article for the latest juicy comments. Love you guys. LFG.
This x100.
Yes! I was there in 2012 and 2017 and the game being in Miami – especially the early going – was not giving me good vibes. So glad to have that monkey off our backs, especially with us going back there to start next season.
I knew our secondary was elite, and PSU WRs bad, but ZERO RECEPTIONS? Incredible.
Grinding out tough ass post season wins is great. I’m loving the 12 team playoff, we just won the Orange Bowl •and• the Sugar Bowl, in the same season.
Wish we were healthier going into the title game. Either way, it’s clear the coaching staff is maximizing the talent of this team.
Mitchell did have one catch for 7 yards and while Watts was on Warren for a few plays (especially when Warren was all alone on one side), I think Heard actually covered him a lot (when he was in the slot). Heard seemed to do a great job on him on a few key plays where they were clearly targeting Warren. Made a huge difference in the game.
Won a playoff game
Won a major bowl against a big boy opponent (TWICE)
Exorcised the Miami demons
This is already a great season no matter what happens in 10 days… but what the hell, let’s win the natty anyway.
Why. Not. Us.
one more to go
Being able to finally slay the Ohio State dragon sure would be something. A little revenge against Texas for that mess of a game in 16 wouldn’t be bad either.
The 05 Fiesta Bowl was my freshman year, so my first real “ND big bowl game disappointment”. Would be very nice to slay that last demon to win the title!
So glad you posted how Greathouse put 2 dudes on their butts without touching them. I haven’t watched or read anything else but I’ve been pointing that out to everyone I’ve talked to.
I always think of Barry Sanders when it comes to plays like that, but I don’t even think he had many where he sat 2 guys in timeout on 1 play.
Getting one guy to bite and trip over himself is already a nice play. Breaking two guys’ ankles was amazing
Planting the 2nd guy was definitely a little Barry Sanders-like…he stopped hard, dipped low to the ground, then switched directions as soon as the DB overcommitted.
Can someone post the clip of Jaden G’s two ankle breaking reception, with the ESPN replay? It’s embedded as an “X” clip in O’Malley’s II “Notebook”, but I am not on X and don’t know how to forward it.
https://youtube.com/shorts/DLC5UUgb_K4?si=_x5VW1yYe6D3zzl1
Thanks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The whole “he slipped” or “he tripped” narrative is garbage. Credit to Jaden, he absolutely did his job on that play.
The color “commentator” started that — “he just fell down” — such trash.
This was the game I have been waiting for.
Some Thoughts:
Interesting to me that if we had a four team playoff this year, it probably would have been GA, TX, Oregon, and ND (or Ohio st, or Penn st, I don’t think the CFP committee rewards TX and Penn for losing their conference championship). However 2 of the top 4 didn’t make the final four in the play off. Does this prove out that the expanded playoffs are the best way to get to a NC?
The playoffs have been challenging for ND, with some of the injuries we have had from them. Come 1/20, we probably don’t have our best team on the field. This season is a resounding success no matter the outcome of the NC game.
Ohio St is a 7 point favorite over ND and Tx is a 3 point favorite. We’ll know this evening who we are playing, however I don’t think either offense can plan for domination over our D. I am interested to see how TX D holds up to Ohio St attack. Tx defense is right next to ours in their ranking.
I am interested in if the Texas D can hold up against the OSU frosh prenom. If we could play him man (if OSU is the opponent) that would be huge.
“Did anyone else nearly poop themselves when his game-winning kick swerved to the right briefly before correcting itself through the goalposts?”
Yes. Heart stopped for a nano-second. Ball swerving back in was bliss cubed, but oh my.
Same. My heart was already in my throat and for a moment it felt ready to explode as it arced to the right. Only saving grace for the moment was knowing it just meant OT.
I’m not good at estimating, but it looked like that kick would have been good from 60 yards. Just kept sailing once it straightened out.
Yeah, i wish they would show an angle perpendicular to the field, behind the goal posts more often
That kick had David Gordon similarities.
Wow. Painful allusion!
My feeling in that moment was it is or it isn’t, ok either way, and I have a ton of love for every kid that put their heart out on that field.
This world gets used a lot, but their resilience was thrilling to watch.
Injuries? Next up. Down 10-0? Rally back. INT taken off the board? Go score again.
Now that we won: what is the verdict on the DPI? I swear defenses always pick or get flagged when passes are that underthrown.
Someone please tell Greg McElroy the NCAA rules for pass interference. Secondly his thoughts, with 29 seconds left, that should ND break into the clear they should take a knee at the goal line, were absurd.
Does anyone have the exact MF quote at the start of the 4th, when asked how he would keep his team from panicking ? He looked at the sideline reporter as if she were crazed and said something like” Panic? we’re not going to panic, we will stay aggressive”.
Great job boys! Get healthy.
Actually, in a tie game, I completely agree with going down on the 2-yard line and running out the clock for a FG over scoring a TD and giving the ball back with 30 seconds left only up a score.
With college kickers, I would run that ball into the end zone every time and give them 20 seconds to try to score a TD.
I would ‘play to win the game’. Don’t care what it looks like, take into account personnel and how team has been performing, both for the season and in the moment.
20 seconds and no timeouts. And they have to score a TD. Guaranteed 7 vs. 95% ? 3 . TD every time.
Did you watch the TX. ASU game ?
My verdict would be the same as the one on Kiser vs Georgia: Probably the wrong call but I get why it was thrown. It did ‘look’ like PI.
The one that pissed me off (I believe it was the same possession) was Christian Gray getting tackled in the open field while trying to get to the PSU RB and no flag. No excuse for that. NBC’s officiating expert was complaining about it and saying 3 different officials should have flagged it.
More Noise – do you happen to have 300 extra tickets for ND’s next game?
🙂 Well, darn, I did, but I gave them to our local American football league here in Paris, they’re organizing a trip…
You’ve given him credit but the momentum in the game changed when Angeli came in with under 2 minutes to play in the first half. ND was back in the game after Angeli guided the team downfield enabling the field goal. His poise and pinpoint accuracy are so impressive. He was 6 for 7 in passing and the one incompletion was an intentional throw out of bounds.
It’s so true, about poise and accuracy. And you have to love his character. But he does get sacked pretty easily, does he not?
Yes, he does. Is pocket presence something that can be taught?
I think we saw something similar with Stockton. It is hard to develop without real reps.
I thought Kotelnicki called a pretty good game. I feel like he’s the biggest difference for PSU this year. I think he would have done well at ND too. Now someone just needs to steal him from that scumbag Franklin.
He seems built for college. Creative run schemes that help get a somewhat limited passer a lot of good looks. Kind of like a college version McVay/Shanahan offense. I think that’s a smart move in college where it’s hard to find a really good QB. Allar’s numbers skyrocketed this year, but I think it was more scheme than actual development once you watch him play a top D.
It seems like he was trying to be a little too cute as the game wore on. I would have thought he would have kept up on the outside runs and passes to their TE monster, which were killing us in the beginning.
They put up 14 in the fourth quarter. And against an awesome defense. If they weren’t short on time for that last drive he’s probably not calling any downfield passes with Allar.
Back in Phoenix and settling in. Unreal game and experience. So lucky to have been there in person and experience it with my 9 year old kid. Tears were shed (although to be fair the tears started for the 9 yard old after the PI call wiped away the INT and psu scored).
We were seated in second row of upper deck just next to the penn state sections (love scored right in front of us and the jeter kick was at us). Lot of Penn state fans and they were loud. Honestly, at least those around me, the penn state folks were pretty great and as my kid and I hugged and soaked it up we got a lot of fist bumps, hand shakes back slaps from penn state fans.
I doubt I have anything new to add here but nd got their ass kicked for most of the second quarter and I was having clemson cotton bowl flashbacks and was feeling a bit defeated. It was so impressive the way they rallied missing 3 d line starters, missing 3 o line starters, carter and warren were unreal, lost the turnover battle, couldn’t run the ball and still won the game (and the right team won).
So proud of freeman, the coaching staff, and that team.
Couple other notes
1. if you’re going to miami game to open next year, plan something besides a rideshare out of there. It was awful. people weren’t getting out of there til 1am
2. on the discord chat, I was bagging on allar a bit this past week and someone came to his defense. I don’t often do this but quite happy to take my victory lap. allar sucked. all his passing yards felt schemed up (koltnicki was great). I can think of like 2 good throws he made all night
And happy for you and your kid, and thanks for being there!
Good to hear about those PSU fans. Fan bases can vary but reasonably good behavior is a treat. Opposing fans tend to enjoy coming to ND — notably I remember Georgia in 17, and I’m proud of that.
For what it’s worth, one of my roommates was at the game with his grandson, and sat next to some PSU fans. We texted back and forth through the game and he said the PSU fans were obnoxious throughout the game. At the beginning of the 4th quarter, he told me he had called the guy next to him an “asshole”, which is quite the shot from my normally self-controlled friend.
I was at the PSU game in 2006 (a blowout by ND over Paterno) and my experience then was that their fans were ok (of course, you don’t get much chance to be obnoxious when you’re getting beaten)..
My worst experience with any fan base has been with Michigan fans (no shock there). My second worst was with (believe it or not) Air Force (when ND has come here to Colorado to play at the Academy).
I saw a couple of those games out there (I commanded at Fort Carson when we were playing them every year for a while). Being an officer I didn’t have to take any BS from Zoomie cadets (no offense to USAF mates, honest 🙂
Good morning,
aviators18 S,“What tho’ the odds be great or small…”
Looks like they’re big in any case. 10 points, and I am not blaming Vegas.
Hope like MF said after the game that some of the lads can heal up.
Noise, I texted my roommates the same thing when it looked so bleak in the first half. It was a sign of just a tiny amount of hope, and boy did it turn out. What though the odds, indeed!
Text thread… It was just after the Angelli fumble and our recovery.
“I’d like to praise the likes of Deion Colzie, Jayden Thomas, Junior Tuihalamaka, Gabriel Rubio, Steve Angeli, and especially Tosh Baker.”
Love this so much. And, this may well may be indicative of ND’s great advantage in the modern free agency era of college football – guys like that, who have something to contribute but probably aren’t good enough to get big NIL money elsewhere, have a school with a meaningful degree and a head coach building a great team culture, and thus can find themselves sticking around where at other schools they might as well go try to play more elsewhere.
And those guys really have made quite the difference the last couple games! Even Colzie was in there blocking on the Love TD. It rules.
A few new transfers after the Penn St win:
USC DT Elijah Hughes
Louisville DT Jared Dawson
North Carolina kicker Noah Burnette
Virginia Tech safety Jalen Stroman
Added to already committed transfers:
Arkansas TE Ty Washington
Wisconsin WR Will Pauling
Virginia WR Malachi Fields
and Alabama cornerback Devonta Smith
I would think that seeing winning this year has a bigger impact on transfers than on recruiting, winning this year may effect next years recruiting class more significantly. To take some transfer than can either plug holes or make significant contributions to keep the winning ways high probably helps with future recruiting.
Marcus Freeman keeps improving the program, hopefully nothing comes from the NFL (Bears) interest.