They’re not old, but they’ve been around the block many times. Multiple different blocks, really, college and pro. They’ve each had moments of great triumph as head coaches, and they’ve each been fired. Now these two products of the Northeast are re-centered as coordinators and senseis for younger head coaches.
They’re dialed into the granular details of scheme and personnel—one practiced in the art of scoring and the other steeped in the science of preventing touchdowns. Chip Kelly vs. Al Golden might be the most interesting matchup of all Monday night in the College Football Playoff national championship game.
Kelly, the 61-year-old offensive coordinator for the Ohio State Buckeyes, orchestrates the nation’s No. 3 passing attack in terms of efficiency. Two of the three highest single-game efficiency marks of the playoff have been by the Buckeyes, with their 206.53 masterpiece against the Oregon Ducks better than anyone else by 23 points. There has been no better receiving corps this season than Ohio State’s, and quarterback Will Howard is playing the best ball of his life in the playoff.
Golden, the 55-year-old defensive coordinator for the Notre Dame Fighting Irish, leads the nation’s No. 1 pass efficiency defense. Their 99.50 season rating is a full five points ahead of the second-place Texas Longhorns. Their 32 takeaways also lead the nation, and their six defensive touchdowns are tied for No. 1 nationally.
Golden on the Ohio State offense: “They’re just operating at a really, really high level. They’re running the ball well. Their running backs are great competitors. The quarterback’s making good decisions. Tight ends are really doing a nice job. And then obviously the vertical threats.”
Kelly on the Notre Dame defense: “I think how well-coordinated they are. You’ve just got to be impressed. As a football guy, you’ve got to sit back and say, wow, that’s pretty good. They do some really good things. It’s going to be a heck of a matchup on Monday night."
Somehow, Golden believes these two have gone through their careers to this point without coaching against each other. Their paths just haven’t intersected.
Golden went from assistant jobs at Virginia, Boston College and Penn State to head coach at Temple from 2006–10 and Miami from 2011–15. Meanwhile, Kelly was going from a 16-year run as an assistant at lower-division schools to the OC at Oregon, then the head job there. Kelly went to the NFL from 2013–16, while Golden was there from 2016–21. Their returns to college sent them in different directions again—Kelly to UCLA and then Ohio State this season, while Golden has been at Notre Dame for three years.
Now it’s time for a showdown, with the highest stakes. One of the two is going to win his first national championship.
The marquee matchup will be Buckeyes wideouts Jeremiah Smith and Emeka Egbuka (and don’t forget about Carnell Tate) against the Irish secondary of Xavier Watts, Adon Shuler, Jordan Clark, Leonard Moore and Christian Gray. Both sides are accustomed to huge plays from those position groups. Smith and Egbuka have combined for 146 catches, 2,174 yards and 24 touchdowns this season. The Irish defensive back quintet has combined for 15 interceptions, 38 passes broken up and five forced fumbles.
The tension point is this: Notre Dame has played more single-high man coverage than any team in the country, according to Pro Football Focus, with Watts as the roving backstop and man-to-man elsewhere. That would seem like a steep challenge against the Buckeyes—especially Smith, whose size (6' 3", 215 pounds), speed and catch radius make him a nightmare matchup. Will the Irish bow to the talents of the Buckeyes by altering their scheme, or dare the Ohio State to beat them at what they do best?
“A lot of teams have went to the zone mindset when playing them,” Moore said earlier this week. “But I think that going into this game we’re not going to change who we are. We’re going to play man coverage like we do every week. We’re going to go out there and challenge their receivers.”
If the Irish are up to that challenge for 60 minutes, it’s advantage Notre Dame. If Ohio State starts winning the man-to-man matchups, it will be time for Plan B. So this could be a scenario in which the Buckeyes counter what Notre Dame does, then the Irish counter those counters with some adjustments to their base defense.
“I think because they played [man coverage] so much, they know how people are going to try to attack it so they have some answers for that,” Kelly said. “I think that will be the game within the game—where are they leaning? They can double anybody they want. But they can’t double everybody.”
Notre Dame notably doubled—or at least bracketed—superstar wide receiver Marvin Harrison Jr. last year in a regular-season meeting in South Bend. Harrison was limited to just three catches for 32 yards, which gave the Irish a chance to win a defensive slugfest. But Egbuka stepped up with seven catches for 96 yards, including a 21-yard reception to the Notre Dame 2-yard line that set up the winning touchdown in the final seconds.
Could Golden blanket Smith similarly, daring Egbuka (and Tate, and others) to beat the Irish on the outside? It nearly worked last season with a team that isn’t as good as this one. Kelly wasn’t at Ohio State for that game, but he’s gone back and watched both that and the other recent meeting between the two teams (a 21–10 Buckeyes victory to open the 2022 season).
“You don’t know what they’re going to do,” Kelly said. “But I’m impressed. Both corners are tall and long and they do a great job in single coverage. And then when you can add Watts in there as a safety over the top, he’s as good as a safety as there is in the country.”
Notre Dame has arrived at this point through collective will, battling through an array of injuries that would demoralize a lesser team. But it would be a mistake to discount Ohio State’s full-team investment, too.
For all the Buckeyes who chose not to enter last year’s NFL draft, this was the goal. And it required people like Egbuka and Tate being O.K. with Smith emerging as the No. 1 receiver as a freshman. Individual agendas were set aside a long time ago to make this offense go.
“All those guys that are about, ‘How many catches I’m going to get?’ They’re at home right now,” Kelly said. “They’re not playing for a national championship.”
Same at Notre Dame, where upperclassmen have welcomed rising freshmen stars among them. That’s especially true on defense, where Moore, Shuler, Bryce Young, Kyngstonn Viliamu-Asa and Jaiden Ausberry have all been vital. Here in game No. 16, are the Irish youngsters old enough to stop a fully grown Ohio State offense? That’s the game within the game.
“I know our offense versus their defense is going to be a dogfight,” Kelly said. “And we’ve got to be the most prepared as we were for any game this entire season to go against this group.”
This article was originally published on www.si.com as CFP Title Game Matchup to Watch: Notre Dame’s Top Pass Defense Against Ohio State’s Air Attack.
