It wasn’t close until suddenly late in the 4th quarter there was a fighting chance. On Monday night in Atlanta, the Irish fell short on the biggest stage extending the National Championship drought for another season. It was a fun year all things considered. While completing this game review I’ll try to retain some perspective.
I said I’ll try!
A 14-2 season and no. 2 ranking in the AP Poll is where things finished. So close, yet so far away.
QUARTERBACK: B
I briefly put a grade of B+ here but then switched it back after reviewing things for a while. We put so much on Leonard’s plate in this game and on that first drive it looked awesome–if incredibly unlikely to be sustainable. His passing looked pretty bad early in the game with a couple misses high and then another throw in the turf. It didn’t look very promising.
Somehow, Leonard finished with a really solid game throwing the ball. Looking back, I really wish this offense worked on throwing the ball more and trying to develop more through the air. That’s tough to say about a senior quarterback but Leonard really never had the confidence and rhythm as a pocket passer–and yet in the 2nd half against Ohio State we saw signs that it’s possible. I feel 100% that Denbrock played it safe too much with Leonard’s arm in order to win football games and the 1st half the chicken’s came home to roost, so to speak.
Also, Ohio State quarterback Will Howard outgained Leonard in rushing yards. It was close, but the Irish needed a big game on the ground from Leonard and after suffering a big deficit into the 3rd quarter the gameplan had to shift away from running the ball so much.
RUNNING BACK: F
What a sad ending to the season for this group. You can’t help but think what might’ve been different for the offense is Love had been healthy for this playoff run. Despite the protestations that he was good to go over and over, there’s no way he was close to full health. He didn’t have a knee brace during warmups from what I saw and then put it back on for the National Championship.
Seven carries for the running backs in the title game, yuck. We’ll always have that 98 yard touchdown run against Indiana from Love. In the rest of the playoffs he had 28 carries for 78 yards.
Price felt like an even bigger letdown. Only 95 rushing yards in the 4 playoff games at 3 yards per carry. With the known issues in the passing game we just couldn’t win a National Championship with this lack of productivity from the running backs.
WIDE RECEIVER: B
Jaden Greathouse, welcome to all of the pre-season magazines for the 2025 season! After back-to-back 100 yards receiving games in the the last 2 playoff games, Greathouse comfortably finishes 2024 as the Irish leader in receiving yards. That’ll be some nice momentum to carry into next year.
The rest of the receivers played fine in the championship game. The 2-point conversion throw from Faison to Collins was nifty. Can you imagine if Beaux had dropped that pass?
This offense desperately needed a second receiver to develop into a playmaker either over the course of the season and then at the same time in these big games. It just never came together. Hopefully with a more pass-orientated offense in 2025 we’ll see a couple players actually blossom.
TIGHT END: B
A solid game from Evans and Raridon both who made a couple crucial plays. I think we’ll look back on 2024 and wonder what might have been with this unit because it just never got off the ground in a big way like we’re used to seeing at Notre Dame. I’ll be curious to see how Evans gets along in the NFL now. He had one fewer receiving yards in 2024 compared to the year prior in 8(!!) more games this year.
OFFENSIVE LINE: B+
The offensive line played a winning game, I thought. That might seem absurd with the poor rushing numbers but they had to abandon the run early after falling behind. I would guess the running game probably wouldn’t have performed very well if the Irish defense kept things closer but we’ll never know.
The decision to start Jagusah looked like the right one. The pass blocking was very, very good. Leonard had time to throw, and while he was his normal skittish self at times, once he settled down and found some confidence we got to see some decent drives put together to crawl back in the game.
DEFENSIVE LINE: D
Oof, not great. I would imagine Ohio State went into the game feeling pretty good about winning this matchup with Notre Dame hoping for the best. We did not win that bet.
The Buckeyes ran for over 200 yards and Howard really wasn’t pressured very much. I don’t think there’s much else to say.
LINEBACKER: C-
A day later and the picture I have in my mind from this game is Ohio State receivers running horizontally across the field just a step away Irish linebackers for a first down catch. I’m far from an expert but while it seemed like Notre Dame didn’t have the horses up front on the defensive line, we saw Chip Kelly winning a coaching battle against the Irish linebackers.
I’m not that upset, to be honest. Both sides had good players and Ohio State’s really shined brighter in the championship game. Their talent level was just a little too much for Notre Dame’s linebackers. I keep remembering how much I thought this unit would struggle in 2024 and they really grew a ton and should be even better in 2025.
SECONDARY: C
Howard only threw the ball 7 times in the 2nd half and there’s a case to be made that holding the Buckeyes to no completions over 25 yards until that final deep pass to Jeremiah Smith was a win for Notre Dame. Still, Howard starting the game 12 for 12 was such a back breaker. Ohio State wasn’t doing anything super explosive but they kept moving the chains, and far too easily.
The defense needed one crippling big-play interception off Howard so, so bad.
NOTES:
I predicted an 11-point loss and that’s what we saw in the end. Being over 100 yards less in total offense and -1.9 in yards per play don’t feel that great.
Ohio State following up a Michigan National Championship is big kick in the nuts.
The decision to kick the field goal early in the 4th quarter brings up one of my least favorite things in football when you get a 1st and goal at the 8 to 10 yard line instead of being closer to the goal line. Ohio State completely stuffed another Leonard quarterback draw from the 8-yard line and I knew in my heart Notre Dame wasn’t going to score a touchdown on the drive.
It’s not a big shocker with how much time Notre Dame sucked out of the game on that first drive as the Irish only ran 42 plays throughout the rest of the game. Only 7 more offensive plays after going up 7-0 and heading into halftime trailing 21-7 was a brutal turn of events.
By most of the accounts throughout the NFL, it looks like we’ll be losing Al Golden to the Cincinnati Bengals. Thank you for your service! I can’t be too mad after not thinking much of his hire in the first place and I do wish he was going to stick around for another year or two.
I’m sad and disappointed with the loss and it’ll take a while to shake loose from being so close to an elusive championship. Not just speaking from a fan’s perspective, but from a content perspective this would’ve been a huge turning point for Notre Dame going into the future. Now it feels like we’re falling back into some of those usual darkness that can sometimes cloud Irish football. Finishing no. 2 is great and I am happy for others who can look at many of the positives from the season. I tend to see the cracks that need to be fixed and wish things were different!
Now to the off-season!
I was so disappointed in Price during these last couple of games. I thought that he would jump right in and play like a number one back. However, to his credit, in this game it seems like Denbrock used the running backs as a decoy, as Price was only given 3 carries. Or he thought so highly of the OSU defense, that he thought the only way to gain yards was to have RL rushing with the back as a lead blocker (or taking defenders out of the play)
Fantastic season marred by injuries and a soul searching loss that told us a lot about Freeman and the staff. I always believed Freeman was the big game coach and would get us to that next echelon that I haven’t seen having been born in 89. It was nice to see my belief that means nothing come to fruition. Last night was disappointing for sure, I didn’t have and still don’t have that seething Irish temper of wanting to break something like I had for so many years. I feel relaxed in the fact that I believe CMF gets ND back here in a relatively short time. I’m intrigued by the 2025 team and what is going to look like. I could see us having a 2019 Georgia type season with the 2026 team being the 2021 version of UGA. I think ND will be explosive on offense both rushing and passing, but will have a game or two where turnovers are the downfall. For the defense, I think it depends on what happens at the DC position. But I think they’ll be ok. I think we’re going to be just fine at the second and third levels of the D and then for the line it’s a matter of getting healthy quick. I’m very optimistic on Sevillano. Quick side on Mickens for DC. I know Pete Sampson said hold your horses on making that jump just yet, but here’s my reasoning for promoting him. I posted this on Rock’s House so copying and pasting instead of retyping. I think it’s a lot harder to find an elite DB’s coach to come to a place like ND than it is to go outside and higher a DC and hope to replace your elite DB coach and talent evaluator in Mickens. Mickens isn’t elite because he’s just signing the top 2 DB recruits in the country that everyone sees are elite. Those guys aren’t coming to ND. Defensive backs are as tough as elite D-linemen to get into ND. Either cause they don’t want to play school or can’t play school. In my opinion, I want to keep the guy on staff who is elite at identifying elite talent and traits that also fit at ND and then he can also coach them up. Especially with the fact that Freeman is former elite DC and Mickens has been the passing game coordinator and been working alongside Golden for 3 years. There’s a reason that we haven’t had a first round cornerback selection since Jeff Burris in 1993. B-Mo won’t do that this year because of the injury, but at least was on pace for that. From 1990 to 95 we had a DB drafted in the first or second round every year. Look I’m not saying that there isn’t risk to promoting Mickens. There’s a risk in going outside and hiring as well. For me without knowing what Mickens is going to do, I think the bigger risk is letting the… Read more »
What are the chances we get B Mo. back for 25-26? If Mickens is promoted to DC, does that affect his decision?
Before finding out his dad’s story on the NBC show I would have said 50/50. After hearing that, I would say 1% only because you never know what might happen.
Don’t blame him either way. But I’m very excited for the defensive back class that’s coming in. Think there are some all out studs here.
“Now it feels like we’re falling back into some of those usual darkness that can sometimes cloud Irish football.”
I honestly don’t think so? This program was not plausibly a top-5ish consistent program at any point under Kelly (well, maybe there was hope between the USC game in 2012 and the title game, but that fraud was up pretty quickly) but I honestly think there is some hope that Freeman can keep it up around that level. When you combine being in that mix with a slightly leveler playing field at least at the top end with NIL keeping the depth of the true elite teams a little narrower, it feels like we have a legit chance of winning a natty at some point in the next decade. I haven’t had a feeling like that going into an ND offseason since 2006 maybe? That’s pretty cool, I think.
I remember having hope even after the Natty in 2012. Golson was about the only bright spot in that game but then everything got weird. Kelly interviews for the Eagles (still convinced they accidentally called the wrong Kelly at first and meant to always be calling Chip), then the Manti stuff. Seemed to stabilize with a signing day win with VanderDoes then he transfers immediately and the final nail in the coffin was Golson getting suspended in May.
It just killed all promise that the season had built even with the NC blowout. Knowing we basically were punting on 2013 with Rees at QB. The sad part is 2014 was actually great up until the end of the FSU game and then fell off post ASU.
Based on nothing but pure speculation, I still think Bill Rees and company were behind Golson getting suspended.
Kelly’s complete inability to build momentum coming off of a championship game appearance in 2012 should have been an early red flag that he was never going to get us to the promised land.
As someone who didn’t think we’d see a title any time soon, I have to agree. BUT, it’s still dependent on the program maintaining an extremely high level of consistency which seems like common sense I know but most of me is still in wait and see mode on that. I’ll be curious to see how expectations evolve, though.
Sneaky huge play in this game was Henderson breaking up the Watts interception. That’s was Howard’s one really dumb play in my mind; lofting the ball up toward the best ball-hawk in the country. And Watts got both hands on it, but Henderson just made an exceptional play to break up the pass.
These DBs had been so huge at making game-changing plays this year, I just assumed Watts would come down with it…bummer. A 7 point game at halftime is such a different than 14.
Great call on that one. Forgot about it. There were also a couple other times where ND almost punched a ball out too.
Other big one was the lob to Harrison. If he catches that ball and we decline the holding, it’s a 1 score game with 10 minutes left and the pressure is really on OSU.
That one was so close!