College football officially closed out their season on Jan. 20 as these young athletes created a competitive atmosphere for this action packed championship game. The Ohio State Buckeyes finished their season with a 14-2 overall record and a 7-2 conference record, going into the championship as the favored team. The Buckeyes secured their ninth championship title after defeating their opponents, the Notre Dame Fighting Irish. This win was a milestone for the OSU team with it being their first national title of the decade. Despite Notre Dame’s efforts to rise to the occasion, they fell short losing 34-23.
The OSU offense started off the game slowly, scoring zero points in the first quarter. Notre Dame took the initial lead with a score of 7-0. Quarterback Riley Leonard scored a touchdown on fourth down in the first quarter after rushing the ball a total of nine times on the opening drive. After Leonard’s intense performance, senior kicker Mitch Jeter successfully made the extra point.
Ohio State upped their intensity moving into the second quarter with true freshman wide receiver Jeremiah Smith tieing up the game at 14:10, scoring a touchdown off a Will Howard pass. Quinshon Judkins continued the teams’ stellar performance, scoring his first touchdown of the night at 6:15, followed by another at 0:27 off a six yard pass from Howard. Offensively, the Buckeyes bounced back in a major way. Not only did OSU score three touchdowns, but Jayden Fielding was successful with all three of his kicks, flipping the scoreboard to 21-7.
Continuing their powerful offense, Judkins scored the first touchdown of the second half for Ohio State, his third of the game, at 12:46. Adding to the scoreboard, Fielding made an impressive 46 yard field goal attempting to maintain the lead OSU built for themselves. Notre Dame, fighting to take back their initial head start, scored their second touchdown of the game, managing to get wide receiver Jaden Greathouse, in the endzone off of a 34 yard pass from Leonard.
A slow start to the last quarter resulted in the first touchdown at 4:14 from a 30 yard Leonard pass to give Greathouse his second touchdown of the night. With the score at 31-23, with OSU in the lead, Notre Dame had the final few minutes to make an impact to possibly go into overtime. The fighting Irish fell short on their goal of taking home the hardware as Fielding made his 33 yard field goal with a little over 30 seconds remaining on the clock.
Post victory, Howard, the starting quarterback for the Buckeyes, was noted as a stand out player throwing a total of 4,010 yards and 35 touchdowns this season. The senior was ranked first on the quarterback list with a QBR of 89.6 and threw with 81% completion, passed 231 yards and threw two touchdowns throughout the course of the Monday night championship game. Howard transferred to OSU from Kansas State back in January of 2024 for a fifth year of eligibility and for a better chance to compete for a championship. Howard’s decision had an extremely positive outcome and he has plans to enter the NFL draft in the near future with his college career coming to an end.
Alongside Howard, Judkins’ outstanding offensive performance gained him the honor of being named the offensive MVP of the game. He is the former running back for Ole Miss and transferred after two years in hope to decrease the physical strain on his body. The senior has already declared his submission into the next NFL draft.
The transfer portal has officially opened which brings hope to teams and players who did not achieve all of their goals this past season alongside incoming freshmen. The 2025 season is planned to kick off for the majority of the division one football programs the last week of August where games can be streamed on Fox, NBC, ESPN, and other platforms like Peacock.
