Ohio State triumphs over Notre Dame in Fiesta Bowl

The Fiesta Bowl was Barrett’s first bowl game win. A probation sparked by the actions of the long-departed. But the Irish are into bigger things – you know, given their 11 national championships, seven Heisman Trophy winners and all of those legends. A lifetime, really, on the banks of the Olentangy.

Urban Meyer mentioned in the postgame interview with Todd McShay on ESPN that “nothing is ever good enough” for this team, and he’s not wrong. They certainly worked out for the Buckeyes over the past three seasons. “I love the fact that he was out there and he was not afraid of the moment”.

Ohio State’s biggest problem in some unimpressive wins early in the season and in its one loss came on offense.

While Ohio State won’t win the College Football Playoff this year, they gave Notre Dame a beat down they will remember until the 2016 college football season begins.

“Last year, our quarterback goes down and somebody stepped up”, Fickell said. He was not speaking for the heartland zealots who made up the bulk of the 71,113 fans here Friday.

“It’s definitely going to make us better”, Adams said of experience of the Fiesta Bowl. And there was a lot of pressure on us all year. Sometimes it’s just a matter of letting it go.

And when the Ohio State offense wasn’t clicking on all cylinders, Zeke would motion to the coaches on the sidelines, telling them to just “feed” him the ball.

He has one of the most interesting plans as Vannett said his roommate in California will be North Dakota State quarterback Carson Wentz, a star in FCS football who will lead his team into the FCS Championship on January 9. Another read, “He stiff armed a Defensive End”. As the rule is written, he put his head down and drove it into Notre Dame quarterback DeShone Kizer. Worthy of a penalty, clearly.

ND caught a bit of a break when Joey Bosa got tossed out of the game for targeting after a Buckeye interception, a technically correct call on what didn’t particularly look like a dirty play.

“That was a kidney shot right there, but I guess it was the right call”, Meyer said.

“I will finish what you started”, Nick Bosa wrote on Twitter.

Friday’s game, to the ire of the Irish, was an unfortunate microcosm of an adversity-stricken season.

Hogan completed 12 of 21 passes for 223 yards and one interception.

Ohio State may have felt they had something to prove and did so right from the start.

Two sacks of Kizer and another field goal ended a win that pushed Meyer’s Ohio State record to 50-4. He also caught 26 passes for 308 yards and a score.

Ash likes to disguise coverages by having all his defensive backs playing at around the same depth before the snap.

So why does the selection committee struggle so much with the Buckeyes? “That wasn’t our initial play, but I changed it”. Barrett accounted for the other score, finding Michael Thomas on a 15-yard TD to put Ohio State up 28-14 at halftime. Michigan State earned its spot in the lowly-rated Cotton Bowl, just as Ohio State earned its Fiesta Bowl consolation prize.

But the Buckeyes would dominate the clock in the fourth quarter – eating up 10:49 of the 15 minutes – and the Irish never threatened again.

Oklahoma lost 24-17 to Texas, which went 5-7 and got shut out by Iowa State. But the fact of the matter is that with a healthy Day and Smith or without Day and Smith, the Irish weren’t able to stop anybody from scoring touchdowns once they entered the red zone this year. The committee likes that.

McCaffrey and the mighty Cardinal didn’t miss a thing in their Rose Bowl romp over Iowa. Every week is a knockout round.

Ohio State (12-1) scored touchdowns the first two times they had the ball.

Barrett credited his rushing success to his offensive line as well.