The inaugural 12-team School Soccer Playoff has given us loads of pleasure and engaging storylines.
On Monday evening on the Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta (7:30 p.m. ET), Ohio State will battle Notre Dame and faculty soccer followers will get the possibility to see how this story ends.
It is Marcus Freeman vs. Ryan Day. It is Riley Leonard vs. Will Howard. It is two of probably the most storied applications within the sport preventing for an opportunity to be topped nationwide champions, with Ohio State’s final nationwide title coming in 2014 and Notre Dame looking for its first since 1988.
FOX Sports activities college football writers Laken Litman, RJ Young and Michael Cohen are right here to reply the whole lot you should know forward of Monday evening’s nationwide championship sport.
Let’s get to it!
Each Riley Leonard and Will Howard are veteran switch quarterbacks who left their respective Energy 4 applications for an opportunity to win a nationwide championship. Is that this a pattern that we should always anticipate to see transferring ahead?
Laken Litman: It is actually been a pattern and can stay one transferring ahead. Whereas they are not taking part in for a nationwide championship, Texas’ Quinn Ewers, Oregon’s Dillon Gabriel and Arizona State’s Sam Leavitt all led their groups to the playoff after transferring from one energy convention to a different. Waiting for subsequent yr, that is what Carson Beck – who not too long ago transferred from Georgia to Miami – will hope to do.
Riley Leonard and Will Howard are hardly trendsetters, however they’re proof that gamers can use the switch portal to their benefit and improve their careers.
RJ Younger: I do not assume it is a pattern anymore as the price of housing continues to rise and inflation continues to extend. I feel the one-year rental is changing into a beautiful means to achieve trendy faculty soccer. However it might’t simply be any QB. In circumstances like Howard, Leonard, Gabriel, Indiana’s Kurtis Rourke or Miami’s Cam Ward, you are not simply seeing any skilled quarterback earn that one-year alternative to characteristic at applications like Ohio State and Notre Dame however gamers who’ve been multi-year starters, generally with greater than 30 begins, change into commodities for applications who imagine they are a quarterback away from taking part in within the CFP or successful the entire thing.
The very best instance of that is Beck, who led Georgia to back-to-back SEC Championship Recreation appearances with one win. However look slightly additional down the pecking order, and you will find Duke incomes a switch from former Tulane QB Darin Mensah for a reported $8 million, largely in order that the Blue Devils know who their starter is not only in 2025, however 2026. Within the age of revenue-sharing and title, picture and likeness offers resulting in seven-figure sums for QBs, that is the brand new regular.
Michael Cohen: Groups that employed a one-year rental philosophy at quarterback had been actually rewarded within the first yr of an expanded 12-team playoff. Howard at Ohio State, Leonard at Notre Dame, Gabriel at Oregon and Rourke at Indiana all invigorated their respective applications with an immediacy that can absolutely catch the eyes of coaches across the nation. That one-fourth of the groups on this yr’s School Soccer Playoff invoked an analogous technique on the sport’s most essential place is something however a coincidence. The maturity, poise and management all 4 quarterbacks delivered to their new faculties was lauded with the identical reverence teammates and coaches used to explain the on-field influence that was apparent for everybody to see.
It is price noting, nevertheless, that Gabriel (beforehand at UCF and Oklahoma) and Rourke (Ohio) had been each of their sixth seasons of school soccer after selecting to capitalize on the additional yr of eligibility afforded to gamers who had been on rosters through the pandemic-shortened 2020 marketing campaign. And Howard, whose collegiate profession will come to an in depth Monday evening towards Notre Dame, exercised that very same possibility to maneuver from Kansas State to Ohio State for a fifth and ultimate season. So, whereas the worth of a veteran quarterback with a number of seasons of expertise will all the time be excessive throughout faculty soccer, particularly as income sharing is predicted to reach later this yr and high-end faculties have extra money to burn, the run of sixth-year gamers ought to be coming to an finish now that the pandemic is way sufficient within the rearview mirror. The pendulum ought to swing ever so barely again towards multi-year growth, although confirmed transfers will nonetheless command the most important value tags within the portal.
Marcus Freeman performed at Ohio State from 2005-08 and began his teaching profession there as a graduate assistant in 2010. Does that give him any kind of benefit on this matchup, and what’s the emotional issue of taking part in towards your alma mater in a sport of this magnitude?
Michael Cohen: For Marcus Freeman, the sentimental facet of teaching towards his alma mater in a nationwide championship sport might need generated stronger pull if this was the primary time he’d confronted the Buckeyes as a head coach. However Freeman changed former coach Brian Kelly on the tail finish of the 2021 season and was instantly greeted by a home-and-home sequence that matched the Fighting Irish with Ohio State in consecutive years, first in Columbus on Sept. 3, 2022, after which in South Bend on Sept. 23, 2023. The Buckeyes received each of these video games by scores of 21-10 and 17-14, respectively, with the latter producing an all-time clip of head coach Ryan Day calling out former Notre Dame head coach Lou Holtz, who’d beforehand questioned Ohio State’s toughness, in an emotional postgame interview that set social media ablaze.
With these two experiences beneath his belt, albeit a pair of hard-fought losses, Freeman is unlikely to be fazed when he sees the Scarlet and Grey uniforms on the other sideline at Mercedes-Benz Stadium on Monday evening. One of many prevailing storylines from this yr’s School Soccer Playoff is how coolly Freeman has comported himself on the sidelines in high-pressure conditions, most notably towards Georgia head coach Kirby Sensible and Penn State head coach James Franklin over the last two rounds. The unflappable demeanor he is exhibited regardless of all of the strain heaped on each head coach at Notre Dame — to not point out the looming chance of Freeman changing into the game’s first Black and Asian American head coach to win a nationwide title — has been extremely spectacular. It is one of many the reason why even the Chicago Bears reportedly want to interview Freeman for their very own head-coaching emptiness.
Laken Litman: It positively doesn’t give him any kind of benefit. So far as feelings go, Freeman will attempt to downplay the importance and make it a non-story main as much as the title sport. However whereas there’s absolutely some deep-down pulling of the guts strings, he is already gotten taking part in his alma mater out of the way in which.
Not counting the 2021 season bowl sport after Brian Kelly left for LSU, Freeman’s first sport as the top coach of Notre Dame was a homecoming in Columbus. The Buckeyes beat the Preventing Irish to open the 2022 season, 21-10. Within the rematch in South Bend a yr later, Lou Holtz known as out Ryan Day and the Buckeyes’ toughness and OSU responded with a 17-14 win. The sport was determined within the ultimate minute when Ohio State scored the successful landing after Notre Dame solely had 10 gamers on the sphere.
In fact, Freeman wouldn’t prefer to go 0-3 towards Ohio State. However he is in all probability pondering extra alongside the strains of desirous to win a nationwide championship irrespective of who the opponent is.
RJ Younger: I do not assume there’s a bonus or drawback for Freeman on the sphere as a result of he performed and coached at Ohio State. And it is not as if Freeman did not watch defensive coordinator Al Golden coach one hell of a sport towards his alma mater, Penn State, within the Orange Bowl. I imagine realizing Freeman performed and coached within the Scarlet and Grey is a superb storyline however not one that can have bearing within the sport.
Notre Dame at the moment sits at 14-1 with its lone loss coming towards Northern Illinois, the place the Preventing Irish had been 28-point favorites. Ohio State at the moment sits at 13-2 with its losses coming towards Oregon and rival Michigan, the place the Buckeyes had been 19.5-point favorites. How did each of those applications rebound from these losses to get thus far the place they’re now?
RJ Younger: Succinctly, every leaned into its power. The Preventing Irish constructed an id on working the ball, stopping turnovers and stifling protection. As a result of their loss got here early within the season towards a program that had no enterprise beating ND — not to mention at dwelling — their backs had been towards the wall for the higher a part of three months. It additionally helped ND that Military and Navy had been ranked opponents on the schedule when the committee lastly put collectively the 12-team subject.
Ohio State came upon simply how vanilla its protection was towards Oregon, after which turned extra unpredictable and aggressive because of this. Offensively, an enormous win towards Indiana maybe supplied a false safety for the Buckeyes that they may run the ball towards a proficient defensive entrance like Michigan’s reasonably than lean into the gaudy benefit they’ve at huge receiver. Heading into the CFP nationwide title sport, we have seen the Buckeyes sack QBs not less than 4 instances within the final three video games and offensive coordinator Chip Kelly is keen to let Howard spin it vertically to his receivers, and the rating has mirrored these adjustments.
Michael Cohen: With every successive victory by Notre Dame and Ohio State on this yr’s School Soccer Playoff, the sooner defeats to Northern Illinois and Michigan, respectively, appear an increasing number of like uncharacteristic blips. For the Preventing Irish, who misplaced 16-14 to the Huskies on Sept. 7 earlier than reeling off 13 consecutive wins, the outcome was one thing of an aberration. It stays the one sport all season by which Notre Dame’s stellar protection did not create a takeaway, finally shedding the turnover battle 2-0, and it was solely the second time all yr that quarterback Riley Leonard tossed a number of interceptions, with the opposite such outing coming within the Orange Bowl towards Penn State.
For the Buckeyes, who misplaced 13-10 to Michigan of their regular-season finale, a fourth consecutive defeat to The Staff Up North, the efficiency felt like a psychological block that had come to life. Head coach Ryan Day and offensive coordinator Chip Kelly had been hellbent on working the ball between the tackles towards a group with two potential first-round picks alongside the inside of its line of defense in Mason Graham and Kenneth Grant. Whereas the protection coordinated by Jim Knowles failed once more when it mattered most, this time surrendering an 11-play, 57-yard subject purpose drive with :45 remaining. Since that fateful afternoon, nothing in regards to the sport plans or ranges of execution that Ohio State has put forth in three convincing School Soccer Playoff victories has remotely resembled that debacle in late November.
This quote from Day on a Zoom name final week sums up what has occurred for each applications: “I do assume the brand new format has allowed our group to develop and construct all through the season. And as a lot as losses harm, they actually enable us as coaches and gamers to take a tough take a look at the problems and get them addressed. After which it is in regards to the enterprise of getting them fastened as time goes on. I feel that is actually been the most important factor that I’ve discovered about this format, which I feel has been nice for our gamers. I feel it is nice for school soccer.”
Laken Litman: Whereas no group ever desires to lose – and whereas Ohio State by no means desires to lose to Michigan – the adversity served every program effectively.
Notre Dame did not lose once more after that home-opening embarrassment. As a result of the Irish aren’t in a convention, they knew they could not slip up even slightly bit the remainder of the season. In order that they discovered methods to win all yr and made it to the CFP. As for the Buckeyes, that was an indignant group after being upset by the Wolverines at dwelling. And never solely that, they needed to show one thing after the entire flag planting fiasco. Ever since that sport, OSU has regarded like a modified group and one which appears destined to win the nationwide championship.
Laken Litman covers faculty soccer, faculty basketball and soccer for FOX Sports activities. She beforehand wrote for Sports activities Illustrated, USA At the moment and The Indianapolis Star. She is the writer of “Robust Like a Lady,” revealed in spring 2022 to mark the fiftieth anniversary of Title IX. Observe her at @LakenLitman.
RJ Younger is a nationwide faculty soccer author and analyst for FOX Sports activities and the host of the podcast “The Quantity One School Soccer Present.” Observe him at @RJ_Young.
Michael Cohen covers faculty soccer and basketball for FOX Sports activities with an emphasis on the Huge Ten. Observe him at @Michael_Cohen13.
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