The Ohio State Buckeyes and Notre Dame Fighting Irish face off in the national championship on Monday, Jan. 20 at 7:30pm at Mercedes Benz-Stadium in Atlanta, Georgia.
There have been several notable predictions on how the game will go. College football analyst and former Georgia Bulldogs defensive end David Pollack went on YouTube to predict what will happen in the championship game. Here’s everything he said on the game:
How both teams recovered from their losses:
“Notre Dame lost to NIU and it forged them. They haven’t lost since. They’re destroying teams. Now they’ve won so many ranked games in a row. Meanwhile, Ohio State loses to their arch rival. All the negativity swirling forged them. They went through Tennessee, Oregon, and Texas, with the average margin of 20 points. They’ve been far and away the most dominant.”
The impact on injuries:
“Ohio State has had to revamp their offensive line, losing their center, who is the best center in the country, and their left tackle, who’s going to be a high draft pick. Same with Notre Dame. They lost their best defensive lineman. They lost their left tackle in fall camp to start the season, and they lost their best man-to-man corner in Benjamin Morrison…The injuries have taken its toll.”
The differences in talent and how that impacts matchups:
“There is a discrepency in talent. That’s part of playing the game, just wondering how to implement a teams style. Notre Dame’s style has worked with everyone, but that’s where my curiosity goes with this. Ohio State has the best run defense in the country, and it’s not even close. They’re good in fourth-down situation, short field situations…Notre Dame, you can chalk it up, with Riley Leonard and Jeremiah Love, that’s their package, run it straight ahead…Riley Leonard is a better athlete than you think, but can Notre Dame run the football and be good in short yardage against Ohio State?”
About Will Howard vs. Al Golden:
“(Golden) is really good at game planning, he’s really good at the scheme, but Will Howard is really good against man-to-man, and he’s really good outside of the hashes when to throw the football. He’s not an elite rhythm thrower, he’s more of a see-it, rip-it kind of quarterback.”
On Ohio State’s receiving core:
“Emeka Egbuka is on his way to being the leading receiver in receiving yards of all time at Ohio State, and Ohio State is wide receiver U… Jeremiah Smith is another freak of nature. I talked to a guy who was recruiting in the SEC, and he said “I’ve never seen anything in the past like Jeremiah Smith except for Julio Jones and A.J. Green.”
On Ohio State’s defense:
“To me, the biggest difference (in Ohio State over the years) is their defense. They make you earn everything. You talk about Notre Dame having some success in the running game, but ain’t nobody run the football on Ohio State. They’ve been really good since that Oregon game…their defense doesn’t have holes. They don’t have to blitz. They can just sit back and get home…to me the Ohio State defense was on another level.”
On the officiating:
“The SEC football teams are left out of the football team, but the officiating crew is not, and in terms of flags, they’re the highest flagging crew in the league.” This was said by Brent Rollins.
On Jeremiah Love and the running game:
“It can’t be just Riley Leonard on the offense. Love just has the ability to be freaky. He has the ability to stay patient, and wait for the big plays…You have to spy Riley Leonard. He’s so big and strong he can shrug people off of him.”
On Ohio State’s running game:
“To me, it’s not just Judkins. He’s going to get touchdowns and be the goal line back. It’s Henderson. Ohio State made a conscious effort to change who they are in the running game after the Michigan game. They basically said ‘up front is not a strength, so how can I not make it a weakness.’ If your big five can play well together, you don’t have to be elite. They’ve gotten more simple in the running game. Henderson doesn’t carry the football much, but he does well in big screens. That’s the key.”
Pollack’s score prediction:
Ohio State 27, Notre Dame 13
