Then, for the biggest play of the game, Notre Dame decided to leave Ohio State wide receiver Jeremiah Smith on an island. It was third and 12 and the Fighting Irish would get the ball back with a stop with a chance to tie the game. Smith completely burned his defender and he was wide open for a huge gain, and he iced the game.

Local observers tout the impact of the first Black/Asian American coach to reach the national champs. Coach Freeman points attention back to his team.

In addition to its first-ever meeting with the Broncos, who won the Mountain West Conference and claimed the No. 3 seed in the 12-team CFP, Notre Dame will play host to Texas A&M (Sept.

The risk associated with composing a pre-national championship panegyric on the University of Notre Dame’s football team ... I went to my first game against Texas A&M on a sweltering August ...

THE NOTRE DAME FIGHTING IRISH It's not the luck of the Irish. It's the skill, the grit, the perseverance, the clutch factor. Notre Dame beat Penn State, 27-24, in the Orange Bowl to advance to the College Football Playoff National Championship.

Both the Buckeyes and Fighting Irish won three CFP games to get to the finals and upset higher seeds along the way.

For some perspective on Lampkin’s recent rebounding numbers, in the last 20 years, only Jesse Edwards (10.3 rpg in ‘23) and Rick Jackson (10.3 rpg in ‘11) have averaged more than 9.5 rebounds per game.

OSU and OU were on the front lines of hiring black coaches in college football. No Alabama. No Georgia, Florida or Tennessee. Black head coaches have been hired at only 29 of the 68 power-conference schools.

It was hard to ignore the connections between Marcus Freeman's fate as he tried to make history on Monday night and all that was happening in America on the day of the big game

Why is Notre Dame not in a conference for college football? Here's what to know as the Irish are set to compete in the CFP championship game on Monday:

Is Texas poised for another appearance in the College Football Playoff semifinals? The national media certainly thinks so.