Sport

Ohio State hold off Notre Dame to claim first national football title in 10 years

Jeremiah Smith’s big play proves crucial as Ohio hold off late surge from the Irish in 34-23 win

Will Howard of the Ohio State Buckeyes looks on prior to the 2025 CFP National Championship against the Notre Dame Fighting Irish - his late pass to Jeremiah Smith would prove crucial in the game. Photograph: Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images
Will Howard of the Ohio State Buckeyes looks on prior to the 2025 CFP National Championship against the Notre Dame Fighting Irish - his late pass to Jeremiah Smith would prove crucial in the game. Photograph: Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images
Tue Jan 21 2025 - 10:28

Instead of having to mull over another collapse, Ohio State can celebrate another national title after holding off a Notre Dame comeback bid on Monday night to walk away with a nailbiter of a 34-23 victory over the Fighting Irish.

Will Howard hit big-play receiver Jeremiah Smith for 56 yards on a late third-and-11 to lock down a game that had been a laugher, then turned into something else. Trailing 31-7, Notre Dame scored two touchdowns and two two-point conversions to make it a one-score game late in the fourth quarter.

The Irish stopped Ohio State on the first two plays of the next drive and used their timeouts. But on third down, Howard found Smith in single coverage on the right sideline and dropped his best pass of the season into the hands of the second-team All-American.

“They were running man coverage and I said, ‘Hey, I’m gonna let this loose and let him make a play on it,’” Howard said.

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It set up a field goal that started the celebration in earnest, closing out a seven-week climb from the depths of a loss to 20-point underdog Michigan to the top of college football. Ohio State will bring their first national title since the 2014 season back to the Horseshoe in Columbus.

“It’s a great story about a bunch of guys who have just overcome some really tough situations, and with the point where there’s a lot of people that counted us out [they] just kept swinging and kept fighting,” Buckeyes coach Ryan Day said.

Howard, a transfer-portal success story from Kansas State, threw for 231 yards and two scores, but nothing will beat the pass to Smith with everything on the line. The receiver, who had been bottled up by Texas in the semi-finals and was fairly quiet for most of this game, finally got loose for the kind of play he’s been making all year. He finished with five catches for 88 yards.

Ohio State scored touchdowns on their first four possessions, then added a field goal on the fifth.

When Quinshon Judkins (100 yards, 11 carries, three TDs), a transfer from Mississippi who highlighted Ohio State’s judicious use of the ever-growing portal, busted a 70-yard run to set up the score that made it 28-7, this game looked over. But Notre Dame – and then Smith – had something else to say.

It puts to rest, for now, any angst about that 13-10 Michigan loss in November – Ohio State’s fourth straight in the series – that ended with a brawl after Wolverine players tried to plant a flag at midfield. The whole scene left many, both in and out of Buckeye circles, thinking Day, in his sixth season, had outlived his usefulness on a campus that hadn’t tasted a title in a decade.

Instead, he’s on a list of title-winning coaches with Urban Meyer, Jim Tressel, Woody Hayes and Paul Brown. Day’s .873 winning percentage is third among coaches with 50-plus games – one spot behind Notre Dame legend Knute Rockne.