By Danielle Daniels

***COACH DAY OPENS UP BY TALKING ABOUT TREVEYON HENDERSON’S HEAD-BUTTING PENALTY AGAINST TEXAS***

Ryan Day OSU head coach National Championship Game Preview Press Conference, Notre Dame, January 2025

FIRST AND TEN

• It. Is. Title time! Ohio State (13-2 overall; CFP No. 8 Seed) and Notre Dame (14-1; CFP No. 7 Seed) will meet at Mercedes-Benz Stadium (71,000) in Atlanta Monday, Jan. 20, in the championship game of the 2025 College Football Playoffs.
• The Buckeyes will be seeking their second CFP national championship after winning the inaugural title in 2015, and their ninth national championship overall.
• Both Ohio State and Notre Dame are Top 5 among FBS schools in national titles according to NCAA.com: Alabama leads with 16 and is followed by Notre Dame – 13, Michigan – 10, USC – 9 and Ohio State – 8.
• Ohio State has arrived in this title game by winning three big, big games and all by double digits: 42-17 over No. 7 (Associated Press) Tennessee in a first-round playoff game at Ohio Stadium, 41-21 over No. 1 Oregon at the Rose Bowl and 28-14 over No. 3 Texas at the Cotton Bowl.
• The victories 20 days apart over the SEC’s Tennessee and Texas marked the first time Ohio State has defeated two SEC teams in one season.

BY THE NUMBERS
13 2x: Head coach Ryan Day has joined Urban Meyer as the only Ohio State coaches with two seasons of at least 13 wins. Day has 13 wins this year and had 13 in 2019. Meyer had 14 wins in 2014 and 13 in 2018.

7-4: Ryan Day is 7-4 in post-season games at Ohio State. He is 2-0 in Big Ten championship games, 4-3 in CFP and NY6 bowl games, 1-0 in CFP first-round games and 0-1 in CFP championship games.

00:00: Ohio State has not trailed in this CFP. The team led 21-0 over Tennessee, 34-0 over Oregon and 7-0 vs. Texas, which tied the game twice (7-all and 14-all), before consecutive fourth quarter Buckeye TDs.

Top 5: Ohio State is one of four schools all-time to defeat four Top 5 teams in one season (wins over #3 Penn State; #5 Indiana, #1 Oregon and #3 Texas). The others: LSU-2019, USC-1967 & Notre Dame-1943.

FIRST THINGS FIRST

• Ryan Day is first nationally among all FBS coaches with an .873 winning percentage (69-10).
• Day is the only active coach with four CFP appearances in the last six years.
• Ohio State will play 16 games in a season for the first time in school history.
• Three post-season wins this season ties the 2014 team – wins in the Big Ten title game, CFP semifinals and title game – for that top program honor.
• While it could never before happen, two bowl game wins this year – Rose and Cotton – is an historical achievement for this tradition-rich program.
• The Rose Bowl and Cotton Bowl wins moved Ohio State’s bowl game record to over .500 (27-26) for the first time since the 2022 win over Utah and for only the second time since the 1986 Cotton Bowl win over Texas A&M.
• Not including the disrupted, 2020 Covid-19 season, Ohio State has 12 consecutive seasons with at least 11 wins … the longest streak in the nation. Georgia is second with seven.

OHIO STATE VS. NOTRE DAME

• These teams know each other.
• This is the third consecutive season the teams will meet and the ninth meeting all-time between the programs.
• This is the sixth consecutive game – since 1996 – where both are in the Top 10 of the Associated Press poll.
• Notre Dame won the first two games of the series, in 1935 and 1936, and Ohio State has won the last six games, played in 1995, 1996, 2006, 2016, 2022 and 2023.
• The game will be the third on a neutral field between the teams. Ohio State won both of those prior games at the Fiesta Bowl in 2006 and in 2016.
• Just 14 points separated the two teams in the 2022 and 2023 home and home series with Ohio State winning both (17-14 in Columbus and 21-10 in South Bend).

HISTORY. TRADITION. EXCELLENCE.

• Ohio State (977 wins) and Notre Dame (962) rank second and fourth, respectively, in all-time college football wins. Their respective winning percentages of .7351 and .7330 are No. 1 and No. 4, respectively, all-time.
• Ohio State has won national championships in 1942 (Paul Brown) 1954-57-61-68-70 (Woody Hayes), 2002 (Jim Tressel) and 2014 (Urban Meyer).
• The Buckeyes and Fighting Irish are tied with Oklahoma for second-place with seven Heisman Trophy winners apiece; USC leads with eight.
• Notre Dame’s 110 all-time consensus All-Americans rank first; Ohio State’s 93 is second.
• Notre Dame’s 569 drafted players, per Pro Football Reference, ranks No. 1; Ohio State has had 512, which is third-most.
• Ohio State is No. 1 with 91 first-round NFL Draft picks; Notre Dame is No. 4 with 71.
• Ohio State has spent 998 weeks ranked in the Associated Press poll, which is No. 1 all-time; Notre Dame is fourth at 889 weeks.

BUCKEYE COACHES VS. THE BUCKEYES

• Five former Ohio State players-turned-coaches have had their teams play against their alma mater. They are 5-18-1 in those games.
• The list includes Marcus Freeman (0-2 vs. Ohio State as head coach at Notre Dame), Luke Fickell (0-1 at Cincinnati; 0-1 at Wisconsin), Glen Mason (1-7 at Minnesota), Gary Moeller (0-3 at Illinois and 3-1-1 at Michigan) and Bo Pelini (1-3 at Nebraska).

PERSONNEL & HR DEPARTMENTS

• Ohio State strength coach Mickey Marotti spent seven seasons (1998-2005) in the position at Notre Dame.
• Second-year tight ends coach Keenan Bailey is a Notre Dame graduate (American studies, ’16).
• LB coach James Laurinaitis was a graduate assistant at Notre Dame under Marcus Freeman in 2022.
• Notre Dame DL coach Al Washington was linebackers coach at Ohio State for three seasons, from 2019-21.
• Fourth-year CB Lorenzo Styles played wide receiver for two seasons at Notre Dame (2021-22) before transferring to Ohio State the summer of 2023.
• Ohio State national title-winning head coach Urban Meyer (2014) was an assistant at Notre Dame from 1996-2000.

OHIO STATE’S CFP OVERVIEW

• Ohio State, the 8th Seed in this CFP, has not trailed in its first three games, victories over Tennessee, Oregon and Texas, and has outscored its opponents, 69-25, in the first half and, even more impressively, 42-0 in the first quarter.
• Ohio State has amassed 560 offensive yards in the first quarter of the three games while allowing just 124.
• Ohio State has outscored its three opponents, 111-52.
• Overall, Ohio State is clicking to the tune of 447.6 yards of offense on average in the three games, including 308.3 yards passing.
• Ohio State’s defense, No. 1 nationally for the season in scoring, passing and total defense, and No. 3 vs. the run, has allowed 291.1 yards per game during this CFP run, a total bolstered by the passing of Oregon’s Dillon Gabriel (299 yards) and Texas’ Quinn Ewers (283).
• Teams are averaging just 62.3 rushing yards per game against Ohio State in the playoffs and just 1.9 yards per carry.

COURTESY OHIO STATE ATHLETIC COMMUNICATIONS