ATLANTA — The longest season in the history of the NCAA’s Football Bowls Subdivision wraps itself tonight in Atlanta, on MLK Day in the hometown of MLK, as No 8 seed OSU faces No 7 Notre Dame for the College Football Playoff Championship.
FootballScoop has the most comprehensive scouting primer for all your needs and reads after speaking with approximately a dozen coaches across the sport whose teams faced either or both squads set to compete in tonight’s CFP title tilt.
All coaches are remaining anonymous so that they can comfortably share their candid assessments.
Big-picture thoughts on the Buckeyes-Irish matchup:
“Tough one. I’ll say this, Notre Dame has enough physical talent to compete with them. Biggest and most critical matchup will be Notre Dame’s offensive line vs their defensive live. They’re obviously very talented up front, and Notre Dame is beaten up some up front.
“We played Ohio State, so I know the physical freaks that they have out on the edge at receiver. I think the Notre Dame defense will play really well against them, personally.
“I expect it to be a really good game. Hard for me to say who is going to win, but I do think it’s going to be a better game, tighter game than people might think. That O-line-D-line matchup will be the most critical part of game.” Offensive line coach
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“I think Notre Dame’s defense has been playing really well, and Coach (Marcus) Freeman being a defensive-minded coach has got it going well. We actually used some of their front mechanics this past year for us and it worked out pretty good. I think Al Golden does a really good job. I don’t know if they will have enough speed to cover (the Buckeyes wideouts), I said it several weeks ago, they are the best team I’ve ever seen holistically. They got speed and size at every position. The amount of speed they have at every level on both sides of the ball is probably comparable to some NFL teams.
“Because they are able to play fast, I think Ohio State will have a huge advantage offensively. I don’t think Notre Dame is a super-powered offense. You’ve got to be able to score 20 points to beat Ohio State. Can Notre Dame score 30 without Ohio State turning it over? Can a good defense like Notre Dame contain them long enough to have an average offense compete with them?” Veteran head coach
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“I think it’s good vs good. You look at Notre Dame’s strength, they’re really good up front still, but those injuries on the defensive line, they’ve maintained it, done a good job with it, but if they didn’t have those injuries they’d be lethal up front. 99 (Rylie Mills) was a man when we played them. But the strength of their defense is their secondary and pass defense.
“When you think about Ohio State, you think about those special wide receivers, the explosiveness in the pass game. So, this game is good on good, their pass offense vs Notre Dame’s pass defense.
“But at the end of the day, it will all come down to who can run the rock better. Notre Dame is gonna try to run it down your throat each and every way they can. Ohio State will probably try to do the same, especially since Notre Dame’s defensive strength is the back end.” ACC assistant coach
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“When we were prepping to play Ohio State, what stood out to me and pretty much everybody on staff, man, they are as sound as a team that you will come across from a defensive standpoint. They are who they are. They line up and there’s not a whole lot of pre-snap manipulation with the QB, not a whole lot of pre-snap stems from the defensive line, they are who they are. That was the one thing that really stood out. They’ve got really good players, pretty much every position is solid.
“Then when you play in person, players you think are pretty solid because you’ve watched them on film, they’re as good as any team I’ve seen in person. They are faster than any team I’ve seen, and again, they’re sound. They are way more physical up front, d-line-wise, than I think you can see on tape.
“About the middle of the third quarter, you’re like ‘Holy Shit, man!’ They’re just different than any team I’ve come across.” – Power Conference assistant with experience across multiple leagues and with offensive coordinator experience.
HOW TO ATTACK EACH TEAM:
“They’ve changed how they’re playing defense now vs when we played them. After the first Oregon game, they switched and started playing Caleb Downs as a middle-field roamer, playing run and pass, and you can’t really block him because of where he’s playing and then can’t really account for him in coverage because of how patrols the middle of the field.
“We were able to get the ball out quick and hit some soft spots in the zone. Some quarterback run game, but again, now they’ve got a guy kinda responsible for all that with the way they are playing Caleb Downs. Texas had some success getting the ball out on the perimeter quick, but Texas is fast; I don’t know if Notre Dame has that type of speed. I don’t know if Notre Dame can block them. They gave up what, seven (five) sacks vs Penn State? And I think Ohio State’s defense is better up front. They have to be able to get the ball out quick, find some spots in the zone and run some QB draw.
“But now Caleb Downs is filling that void and making it more difficult.” Coach with experience against both teams in the past couple years
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“We tried to get the ball on the perimeter a little bit when we played Notre Dame. It worked at times, but their length out in the secondary just is so impressive. Even some of the kids that are playing now, their length, speed and what I call twitch to cover ground is impressive as hell. Shows up every time they play. And I think they’ve gotten better since we played them. We ended up finding a bit about ourselves after that game. What I remember about our game was it was like a one-score game and their special teams took over.
“Their special teams wins games for them. It’s a culture program. They’re not gonna win by smoke and mirrors. They are who they are.
“On Ohio State, you just see a confident football team, bottom-line. Offensively, especially. Everybody talks about their wideouts, but they’ve been running the ball well, the quarterback is playing with a lot of confidence right now. Early on in the postseason, he’s threading the needle in the Playoffs and just clearly has a lot of confidence. You can see their whole team does. That’s hard to beat.” – longtime college offensive assistant with offensive coordinator, offensive line and running game coordinator experience.
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“Going into it, we thought we could win one-on-one matchups on the perimeter (against the Ohio State secondary), we felt we were better at wideout than they were at corner, for sure. We thought we could go by them; they had a great plan. We’ve got a pretty talented offensive line, felt like we could block them and that’s what kind of flipped. They were getting pressure, getting upfield, and they were shedding blocks to make tackles in the run game at or near the line of scrimmage.
“The defensive lines we see every week, they are flashy and twitchy and all that stuff. They didn’t look as fast-twitch off the ball as some teams we’ve played when we watched film and that just was not the case that night. It kind of surprised me a little bit, because it just seemed like we weren’t playing against the same team we saw on tape. They’re on an unbelievable run all three phases.” Assistant coach from a CFP team.
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“You’ve just got to be aware of those Ohio State ends, all the time. They are freaks, but they play really hard, play really well together. They’re all three and four-year guys that have played a bunch of football. It’s freaks, but it’s also guys who are well-coached, play hard and you’ve got to have a plan for them. Can’t double-team all of them, but especially these (Notre Dame offensive) tackles, you’ve gotta help them with blocking JTT (JT Tuimoloau) and Jack Sawyer. Be it tight end or running back help, you gotta help. And you’ve got to run the football. If Notre Dame can run the football efficiently, they’ll be fine and it will help manage those guys.” College assistant with both ACC experience and on at least one of the CFP teams in this year’s field.
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“We got into some stuff, when 99 (Mills) was out of the game, rotating out against us, our offensive coordinator, he knew it. We were trying to run it just get 4 to 5 yards when he subbed out. We found a couple things in the run game that helped us move it a little bit. At the end of the day, the pass defense is what won the game for them as the game got away us.
“You’re always going to get some confusing looks from Al Golden. The two safeties, I think, are the best duo in the country, freakishly good.
“You have to use quick game, quick-throw game and in the run game, pop short yards and get ahead of the sticks. Our tempo stuff hurt them because they were thin, 56 was banged up but 99 was rolling. And now, 99’s out. He’s a pro.
“We had some good drive starters, just couldn’t sustain it. I think whoever runs the football better will win the game.” Former college QB with coordinator, position coach experience at G5 and P4 levels.
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HOW DOES AL GOLDEN DISGUISE?
“To be honest with you, I think Al Golden trusts those two safeties enough that he can ask them to do a lotta things. That makes them really versatile. Normal downs, (they say), ‘Hey, we’re better than you, and we’re going to man you up. Bring pressure.’ But when It’s third-and-long, he can really do a lot with those safeties.
“You can put a safety on the line of scrimmage and bail him into a cover-2 safety. It’s hard especially on a young QB but really any QB. You can study every look from the season, every one, and Al Golden still will have at least two new looks coming down the pipe on Monday. Those safeties are trusted enough and have played enough ball that they can do a lot in backend.”
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WHAT DO YOU MAKE OF OHIO STATE’S DOMINANCE IN THE POSTSEASON AFTER LOSING TO MICHIGAN?
“I think maybe after that, the time off, as a coach you go back to who you are, drill what you do, go back to square one, what they do well. Anything can happen in the Playoffs, and they very evidently did that. They’ve got a mentality of going out and saying, ‘We’re going to beat your tail.’ And now they’re more confident as every game goes on.” – Power Conference assistant from a bowl team
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THE FINAL WORD:
“These are two really well-coached teams, both sides. They do it the right way. To me, you don’t get that at Ohio State just based all on the money that everybody talks about them spending (on their roster via NIL). They play really hard, are extremely talented and play well together. I think they’re a really good football team. And the same is to be said for Notre Dame.
“Notre Dame, super well-coached, culture is unbelievable and they play as hard as anybody I’ve ever seen. I think this is as good a matchup as we’ve seen all year in college football.” – College football running game coordinator with postseason experience as player, coach.
