Only four teams remain competing for the college football national championship.
It all starts later tonight when Notre Dame takes on Penn State in the Orange Bowl. The winner of this game will face the winner of Friday night's Cotton Bowl Classic between Texas and Ohio State.
4 legendary programs, 2 spots left for the title match. Who's headed to the national championship game? JP Acosta and Mark Schofield find out here.
No. 8 Ohio State vs. No. 5 Texas
goodyear cotton bowl classic
Friday, January 10th, 7:30pm
JP: The Orange Bowl in Miami was between a team from Texas and a team from Ohio. God, I love college football.
Mark: That's great. Absolutely the best.
Anyway, yes, the Orange Bowl is first on the schedule, but there's a reason we start with this game. While I waxed poetic last week about Dillon Gabriel and all the games he started in college, JP adamantly chose the Buckeyes.
I think it's no exaggeration to say that he succeeded in doing so.
Rather than Mike Vrabel returning to campus to replace Ryan Day, we're debating whether Jeremiah Smith has grounds to challenge the NFL's rules regarding eligibility — which he does, and Monday's After a morning of discussion, here's where we landed — and if the Buckeyes really are the best team in the nation right now.
There are so many stories in this game, including the following, that we thought this was the right place to start: Will JP choose Ryan Day again?
JP: Ryan Day can actually pull it off. this ohio The defense is playing some of the best football in the country after finally running the Jim Knowles defense. They spooled Oregon's RPO-based offense with three safeties, forcing them to either run into the strength of OSU's defense or throw to safety Caleb Downs, which was a mistake. did. According to SIS, there were 66 RPOs in Oregon. Would Mark like to guess which team was right behind him on 63 attempts?
Mark: Well, I think they're playing this game.
JP: Yes, the University of Texas! Sark has one of the best offensive minds in football, even without the gimmicky RPO bullcrap, but QB Quinn Ewers didn't use the standard dropback much in this game, making plays. The best performance is achieved by utilizing actions. He made some very impressive pitches to close out the match. arizonabut this is an entirely different beast he's up against. This is like leaving a pond and entering a shark-infested ocean. Mark, as a former QB, what stands out about Ewers' game and how can he solve this problem (pun intended)?
Mark: I think that's more what stands out about Texas' offense when compared to Oregon. The Texans have the ability to push the ball downfield more consistently, and if you watch their film, Matthew Golden is open on almost every snap. That ability could keep those three safeties deeper than Knowles would like, opening up opportunities for the run game behind a strong offensive line and the potential return of Cameron Williams. As well as setting up some of the play action.
Oh, I'm talking about Texas here…
JP: I could see Texas winning this game…if it was against anyone other than Ohio State. The only thing that concerns me is that Ewers throws the ball with a non-PA dropback. If Cameron Williams can play and counter the pressure, it looks like he could be quite effective, but that's going to be tough. We haven't talked about the best player in this game and the playoffs yet…maybe a freshman?Ohio State WR Jeremiah Smith will be the best player in this upcoming draft class, but he's a freshman. or wondering if they should let sophomores declare for the draft early. He has the rare combination of size (6'3, 215), speed and body control to dunk on a defender on the goal line on one play and beat him with a shooting play on the next. Mark, you've been in this job longer than I have, but I can safely say you haven't seen a receiver like Smith in a long time. A guy who dominated from the moment he stepped on the field.
Mark: I have nothing but respect for JP, who slides in his age search.
But you're right. Smith is special. He's the reason we spent Monday's staff meeting talking more about him challenging NFL eligibility rules than actually talking about the job. He's going to be a problem at the next level and definitely will be a problem for Texas on Friday night.
So let's get down to business. Who is in this?
JP: I'll go with you too. ohio here. The Buckeye offensive line has played very well since the loss at Michigan, and how the Longhorns are going to protect Jeremiah Smith and Emeka Egbuka is one of the most impossible questions to answer in college football. That's a question. The Buckeyes won, but by a close margin.
Mark: I almost talked myself into Texas. largely. but ohio He has been very impressive in the last two games. But like you, I think this will be close.
No. 7 Notre Dame vs. No. 6 Penn State
capital one orange bowl
Thursday, January 9th, 7:30pm ET
JP: This game feels a bit like the Spider-Man meme
I actually think this game has the better QB matchup of the two semifinal games, so I'm going to go with Penn State's signal caller.
Mark: That's a good call because Drew Ara has a chance to do as much fun as possible.
When the Penn State recruit announced his intention to return to campus for his senior year, there was a buzz around Aller regarding his NFL draft stock. Because, let's be honest, someone has to be the QB3.
And if Aller has one or two more solid games, his potential stock could rise even more. So, before we get into the choices, I have to ask JP: If Alaa plays one or two more good games, will he really go back to school?
JP: So he left the door open enough for people to speculate, so let's see what happens! The great thing about Alaa is that he has everything an NFL scout wants. That's true. Typical size, strong arm to push the ball downfield, and growing in offensive operations. In a class without a QB3 (and there are a billion different answers as to who QB1 is), Aller could very well come in after a strong showing in the playoffs and be No. 1 overall. Alaa is from Cleveland, Ohio; browns Fans, and the Browns have the No. 2 overall pick, so…yeah, there's that.
Mark: What bothers me about this game is that Penn State could have been built to test this. notre dame cathedral defense. I went back and watched the Indiana vs. Boise State game and took note of when the Fighting Irish applied pressure. In the first-round win against Indiana, he blitzed Curtis Rourke on 11 pass plays (blitzing is defined as five or more pass rushers). On those plays, Rourke completed 3-of-8 passes for 27 yards and no touchdowns, including one for a two-point conversion. Rourke was also sacked once on those plays, and Notre Dame was flagged for penalties on the final two snaps.
When Notre Dame applied pressure, most of his pass attempts ended up outside his numbers as Rourke tried to connect on vertical routes downfield.
The Fighting Irish also applied pressure in the Fiesta Bowl win over Georgia, destroying backup quarterback Gunner Stockton on 16 pass plays. The Bulldogs QB was a little more successful against pressure than Rourke, completing 8 of 15 passes for 111 yards. Again, many of these completions were over the numbers, but only one was a diagonal route to slot receiver Dominik Lovett.
Enter Tyler Warren. He gives Aller and Penn State a chance to punish blitzing through the middle, something they've done all season.
JP: How Notre Dame deals with the Tyler Warren issue will be very important. Because outside of Warren… if you're Irish, there's no one to scare you. I'm going to steal a page from Bill Belichick and double Warren and literally force the ball elsewhere. I love Notre Dame CB Leonard Moore. He is, as you might expect, a freshman who absolutely smothers outside receivers. If Penn State had to give the ball to someone other than Warren, who would they give it to? Will Nick Singleton be in the backfield?
Mark: Oh, expect a “1-Double 44” record from Notre Dame. Perhaps if forced to look away from Warren at that moment, it could put some pressure on Allard to stress it out and potentially slow him down. ND will then likely put Moore on the Islanders' Harrison Wallace III, forcing Aller to select the third option, likely Singleton out of the backfield.
I can't say it's great.
However, the question may be whether ND can score enough points on offense. And what if we all get sick, since apparently we're dealing with the flu bug now…
JP: “Scoring” and “Notre Dame attack” are not the same thing in my opinion. But what they are good at is complementing soccer efficiently. Their run game is dynamic, with running backs Jeremiah Love, Jadarian Price and Riley Leonard providing three-run threats in the backfield. They are a smash mouth football team that can turn any match into a rock fight, and they also have the special teams to do it. Big takeaway from this game: Penn State EDGE If Abdul Carter's scoring percentage is less than 100%, how will that affect the defense? He missed the second half of the game against Boise State, but since then the Broncos have started moving the ball. Notre Dame is much bigger and much meaner than Boise, so it's very possible that Penn State doesn't have its best player.
Now, with that being said, who will beat Mark for the title game?
Mark: Carter being out tonight will be a problem for PSU and apparently he will be just a “game-time decision.” Even if he leaves, it at least sounds like there's a limit.
But I'm going to roll the dice. please pennsylvania state university Tonight, Alaa has the biggest fight of his life ahead of him, and there will be some interesting discussions over the coming weeks.
JP: I wish I could be as bold as you, but I am. notre dame cathedral. I'm concerned that Penn State's lack of weapons other than Tyler Warren will be exposed in this game, and that the Irish will turn this game into a slugging game, including blocking a punt. I think it can be done.
