Marcus Freeman, Notre Dame ‘find a way’ past Penn State, advance to title game

With seven seconds left to play, Notre Dame coach Marcus Freeman sent Mitch Jeter onto the field to do what no kicker has ever done: make the go-ahead field goal in the fourth quarter of a College Football Playoff game.

That means the chances of Jeter making a kick were slim, as kickers were 0-4 in CFP history in that situation. That means everyone will be watching Jeter. That means the great place kicker will be heralded as a hero or blamed for his mistakes.

Chances are Freeman knew exactly how Jeter felt.

Freeman, who turns 39 on Friday, is one of 16 coaches in the Black game. He is the second Black head coach in Notre Dame football history, and, while Jeter was trying to become the first kicker to make his mark, Freeman was trying to become the first black coach to succeed in leading his team to a championship. national title game.

Jeter stared down the goalposts at Hard Rock Stadium, going up and nailing his 41-yard field goal attempt to send the Fighting Irish to the national title game with a 27-24 victory over Penn State on Thursday night in the Orange Bowl. And with it, history was made.

Now Freeman will look to become the first Black coach to win a national title, and he will get that chance in just 11 days. But getting to this point required a battle for Freeman and the Fighting Irish against James Franklin’s Penn State team.

Penn State’s defense made its presence known from the opening kickoff. With Abdul Carter injured on the field — right tackle Aamil Wagner — the Nittany Lion defense punished a Notre Dame offense that hadn’t looked like it could win a CFP game on the arm of quarterback Riley Leonard.

After Leonard threw for just 90 yards in a win over SEC champion Georgia in the Sugar Bowl, Penn State defensive coordinator Tom Allen put a unit on the field determined to make the Notre Dame QB pass down the field.

With each pass, Penn State’s defense dictated the pace at which Leonard played. His footwork was sloppy. His release was delayed. His feet didn’t have a chance to stop before his arm started to swing, and his hips were left behind, resulting in many passes being misplaced. He threw two interceptions, one of which was due to the aforementioned errors in mechanics.

Losing starting left tackle Anthony Knapp in the first half to a sprained ankle didn’t help matters. Knapp made 15 appearances for the Irish this season and was responsible for protecting Leonard’s position.

With less than two minutes left in the first half, a hard hit left Leonard off his feet as an official forced him off the court for an evaluation. He completed 6 of 11 passes for 63 yards and rushed for 7 yards on five carries when backup QB Steve Angeli entered the game.

The backup signal-caller fumbled and took two sacks, but again completed 6 of 7 passes for 44 yards and a one-goal lead in the first half for the Fighting Irish, who had rushed for just 15 yards on 13 carries as a team. against a dangerous Nittany Lions defensive line.

Across the sideline, Penn State’s speed attack has matched the tenacity of its defense. Nick Singleton and Kaytron Allen could not be slowed down by Notre Dame defensive coordinator Al Golden’s typically aggressive and predatory defense. With outfield plays and extended plays, Andy Kotelnicki’s offense rushed for 141 yards in the first half, including a 5-yard touchdown from Singleton with just over two minutes left before halftime. That was the only touchdown in the first half of the game.

Singleton and Allen combined for 115 rushing yards in the first half, 100 more than the entire Notre Dame offense. The tandem regularly gets to the secondary of Notre Dame’s defense and has made more than one tackle against them, combining for an average of 5 yards per carry.

“They run better than what we face,” Freeman said during a break in the broadcast.

Still, Franklin knew the score was just 10-3 at halftime and that the Fighting Irish would get the ball to start the second half.

“We’ll have to finish,” Franklin said. “It’s going to be a four-quarter game.”

And he was right.

With Leonard pronounced “asymptomatic” due to the concussion, he returned in the second half and quickly led Notre Dame down the field for a score. A 36-yard pass to freshman tailback Aneyas Williams, followed by a 15-yard rush from him, set up a 3-yard TD run from Leonard to make it 10-10. It was at that time that a real battle broke out with men who had the courage to make a long and lasting name for themselves.

Notre Dame continued to respond, holding the Nittany Lions to just 25 yards of total offense in the third quarter. The Fighting Irish offense mounted a 10-yard, 71-yard drive, culminating in a 2-yard touchdown run by running back Jeremiah Love, who has rushed for a score in 14 of Notre Dame’s 15 games this season.

Love’s touchdown run gave Notre Dame its first lead of the game. It put up 17 unanswered points on a Fighting Irish team that looked like they weren’t up to the challenge of the Nittany Lions early on.

But Penn State wouldn’t go away. Instead, they roared.

With 10:20 left in the game, Singleton rushed into the end zone for a 7-yard score. The touchdown was set up by a 27-yard strike from QB Drew Allar to Mackey Award winner Tyler Warren, who was running free on a second down route. Allar completed all three of his passes for 48 yards, while adding 9 yards rushing on the TD drive.

Penn State’s Dani Dennis-Sutton sacked Leonard on the ensuing kickoff, returning the ball to Penn State’s offense which again committed to running the ruck. The Nittany Lions put together a five-play, 39-yard drive that ended with a 7-yard touchdown run from Singleton, giving Penn State a 27-17 lead with less than eight minutes left in the game.

Leonard and the Irish got the ball and quickly went to work. The senior QB completed all four of his passes on the drive, with one of the biggest being his 54-yard TD strike to wide receiver Jaden Greathouse, who ran into the end zone after a Penn State defender slipped, tying the game at 24-24. Greathouse put together the best performance of his career on the biggest stage, hauling in a career-high seven catches for 105 yards and a score.

After the teams traded punts, Allar and the Nittany Lions got the ball and a chance to win the game. But Christian Gray picked off Allar with 33 seconds to play and gave the ball to a foul that did what he had done since the start of the second half: find a way.

“We found a way to make a play when it mattered most,” said Freeman. “In my opinion, great teams, great programs, find a way to do that.”

RJ Young is a national college football writer and commentator for FOX Sports and host of the podcast “The Number One College Football Show.” Follow him on @RJ_Omusha.

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