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This article appeared in a series in the print issue, "The Never Ending Season: The Story of the Irish's Historic Fight for a National Title." Notre Dame’s football program is among the most notorious in collegiate football history. From hosting the first ever home playoff game in the first 12-team playoff bracket the to making their first national championship appearance since 2012, follow the Irish as they continue to tread a historic path on their constant march to victory.

Gratitude. Pride. Sorrow. 

Those are the emotions that have seeped into the Notre Dame fanbase, players and coaches in the days following the Irish’s loss to the Ohio State University (OSU) Buckeyes in the 2025 College Football Playoff National Championship in Atlanta, Georgia. Moments after the loss, head coach Marcus Freeman told the media that, “There’s not many words to say when everybody’s hurting, but I’m proud of them, what they’ve done, I’m proud of who they are.” Freeman acknowledged the downcast locker room, noting that, for the seniors on the team, there is no more football to play at Notre Dame. However, he also said that he was “very grateful to be on the journey with them.”

The Climb

The Fighting Irish reached the national championship for the first time since the 2012 season, where they lost 42-14 to Alabama. The last successful championship for Notre Dame was in 1988 under coach Lou Holtz. In Freeman’s third season with the Irish, the team had hopes to return to the national championship in the first year of the expanded 12-team College Football Playoff. For the first time, four conference champions would be given automatic first-round byes, with eight teams competing in bowl games at the higher-seeded school. With Notre Dame’s independent status, many saw this expanded format as an opportunity for the school to go on a postseason run. In August, DraftKings placed Notre Dame at +2200 odds to win the National Championship, No. 7 on their top 10 list. Ohio State had the second best odds, set at +380.

In front of a crowd of more than 102,000 at Kyle Field to open the 2024 campaign at Texas A&M University, the Irish beat the Aggies 23-13. The belief in a competitive postseason deepened. But just a week later, the Irish lost to Northern Illinois University (NIU) in their home opener. The devastating loss to the unranked team had commentators belittling the team. On ESPN’s First Take, Stephen A. Smith said the Fighting Irish’s season was over. “Nobody can figure out why the hell the Fighting Irish are on national television all the time. You can’t lose games like this.” Paul Finebaum, the Southeastern Conference’s darling commentator, said “that was such a terrible loss, I mean, monumental. It’s hard to put into words how destructive that was.” But when the Irish took the field again at Purdue the next week, they began the long uphill climb to reach the playoffs. The Irish faced No. 15 University of Louisville, No. 19 Army, No. 24 Navy, and the traditional Stanford University, University of Southern California and others to end the regular season with a 10-game winning streak.

 

Playoff Like a Champion

At 11-1 on the year, it catapulted Notre Dame into the inaugural 12-team College Football Playoff, thus kickstarting its incredible postseason run. The team faced No. 10 Indiana at home on Dec. 20, No. 2 Georgia in the Sugar Bowl on Jan. 2, and No. 6 Penn State in the Orange Bowl on Jan. 9 to reach the national championship.

“The entire playoff run was something truly special because of the run the team had during my four years here,” said senior Leah Brucal. “We lost to Marshall, Stanford and NIU in the past four years, but this playoff run showed everyone at Notre Dame and around the world that we belonged on the national stage.” For many seniors — who witnessed upset losses, a coaching transition and a continual struggle to find a starting QB — the playoff run was a special midpoint to their final year at Notre Dame. “Going down to Atlanta was such a fun road trip with some of my close friends at ND. The night before the game we were in Gibney’s Pub in Atlanta with so many Notre Dame students and alumni. You could tell that everyone felt just how special this journey was.”

The national championship game itself was a microcosm of the season. With half of Mercedes-Benz Stadium painted green and the other half red, the Irish began the game on offense and did what they do best — run the ball. An 18-play, 9:45-minute drive was capped off by a 1-yard touchdown run by starting quarterback Riley Leonard. The scoring drive set the record, both in terms of plays and time, for most in College Football Playoff history.

Not to be outdone, Ohio State answered with an 11-play drive that chewed up six minutes of the clock. It ended in quarterback Will Howard finding wide receiver Jeremiyah Smith for an easy 8-yard TD reception. Penalties and a fumbled snap ruined Notre Dame’s next two offensive possessions, and the Buckeyes capitalized both times. Notre Dame’s hot start quickly faded, and the Irish went into the locker room with a 21-7 deficit at halftime.

Ohio State received the ball to begin the second half and picked up right where it left off. Quinshon Judkins broke off a 70-yard rush that got the ball inside the Irish 10-yard line. Just a few plays later, Judkins finished off the drive with a 1-yard TD run that gave the Buckeyes a 28-7 advantage.

The feeling felt all too familiar to the 2012 national championship and other years where Notre Dame found itself outmatched against college football’s premier programs on the biggest stages. But just like the team bounced back after the NIU loss, the Irish rallied with pride.

With three minutes to go in the third quarter, Leonard found wide receiver Jaden Greathouse over the middle of the field. Greathouse made a couple Buckeye defenders miss and sprinted into the end zone for a 34-yard touchdown. Jeremiyah Love converted the 2-point attempt and Notre Dame was only down two scores at 31-15.

Then the Irish defense stepped up. OSU wide receiver Emeka Egbuka was stripped by Drayk Bowen, and the fumble was recovered by Kyngstonn Viliamu-Asa. Later in the fourth quarter, Leonard again found Greathouse for another TD reception, this time from 30 yards out. Notre Dame pulled some trickery on the 2-point attempt as Jordan Faison took an end around and threw the ball to Beaux Collins in the back of the end zone to bring the Irish within eight, 31-23, with 4:15 remaining.

Notre Dame’s defense needed one more stop, but with Ohio State facing a third-and-11 with 2:45 to go, Howard connected with Smith on a 56-yard reception. This brought the ball to the ND 10, ending the Irish’s hopes for a miraculous comeback.

“Yeah, it was do or die. It was that type of down,” Freeman said of the third-and-11. “If they run it and they get a first down — we’ve got to get them stopped, and we thought at that moment the best way to get them stopped is to run zero pressure. We have to have faith at some point that we can make a play. There were times in the second half that we did in man coverage, but (Smith’s) a heck of a player. He’s difficult to cover. You want to play zone, and they’ll find ways to pick you apart. You want to play man, they’ll find ways to get him the ball. It’s a talented offense, with that situation right there.”

The Buckeyes added an insurance field goal and claimed the 2024 College Football Playoff National Championship with a 34-23 victory.

 

Post-game Parable

Speaking to the media after the game, Leonard was visibly emotional and in tears. Before he took questions, he spoke about how important his faith was to him, and showed that he had carried Proverbs 27:17 with him in the game. The verse says, “As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another.” He gave credit to his teammates and “the ups and downs” the program has been through throughout the year. Freeman said he was “tremendously grateful for what Riley and these guys have done for our program.” Freeman said that the team did the work to improve after the difficult loss to NIU in Week 2 to put the program in the national championship game but “we didn’t get it done, and it hurts.”

Linebacker Jack Kiser was also emotional in front of the press after the game. The senior has spent six years at Notre Dame, playing in a school record of 70 games during his football career. Even amidst tears, he too was grateful and proud. “The people” of Notre Dame Football is what he will remember, he said. Those that supported him since the beginning of his career, even before Freeman was the head coach or Riley Leonard was QB, is what made the place different for him. “It just shows where this program is heading,” he said. “The people in this program are the best — absolute best.”

Freeman said that “one of the greatest gifts in life is to be able to be the leader of this program because we have great young people like this.” But he added, “we just have to be better. I got to make sure we prepare better for this next opportunity that we have in the future.”

A video emerged on social media after the game of Freeman outside the locker room watching the Ohio State Buckeyes lift the trophy high, in front of a sea of fans with red and white confetti raining down. Freeman glared at the TV just as Rich Clark, Executive Director of the College Football Playoff, congratulated the Buckeyes and handed the trophy to OSU head coach Ryan Day and the rest of the team. Even while gratefulness and pride was shown by the team, the glares and the tears show that this game hurt the Irish. For those coaches, players and fans, that hurt will be around next year, and they will remember the feeling of loss. But as Freeman and his team displayed in 2024, disappointment can be turned into determination, and this one will be used as a motivating factor heading into the 2025 season.