Ohio State trolls Notre Dame with Fiesta Bowl t-shirt

See our favorite USA TODAY Sports photos of Ohio State celebrating the Fiesta Bowl victory below.

OSU defensive end Joey Bosa was ejected for targeting and Notre Dame linebacker Jaylon Smith left the game with what his coach Brian Kelly called “a significant knee injury”. However on the very next drive, Elliott broke free on a 47-yard touchdown run to give Ohio State back its two score advantage heading into the final quarter, 35-21. And while the Buckeyes’ performance wasn’t entirely convincing – Ohio State simply couldn’t put the Irish away – it likely made some people wonder how Thursday’s Cotton Bowl would have gone with the Buckeyes playing Alabama instead of Michigan State.

Ohio State running back Ezekiel Elliott trotted over to console him, but there was nothing anyone can do.

His touchdown was an 81-yard catch-and-run in the fourth quarter, which was the second-longest in Fiesta Bowl history.

Those skills should translate well in the NFL.

“That’s what we strive to do is definitely dominate the line of scrimmage”, Ohio State coach Urban Meyer said.

Weber posed for a photo with Elliott and the other running backs after the victory Friday and wrote on Twitter, “Learned a lot this year”.

The only problem with relying so frequently on the “next man up” approach in college football is that there isn’t an endless supply of bodies to plug in and keep winning games.

Ohio State (12-1) flashed national championship ability from its first drive Friday afternoon in Glendale, scoring touchdowns on four of its first five possessions to build a 28-7 lead with 1:48 left in the first half.

Linebacker Darron Lee (two sacks) and defensive ends Tyquan Lewis (one sack) and Sam Hubbard (one sack) got good pressure on ND quarterback DeShone Kizer.

As tough of a break as it was for Zaire to suffer such a catastrophic injury after waiting his turn to take over at quarterback, the fact is the Irish don’t need to look for alternatives at quarterback; they simply need to build on Kizer’s brilliant first year as the full-time starter. “You lose a guy like that early on, it significantly affects what you’re doing defensively”. Not really. I think our mindset was that we are going to play a really good team in Notre Dame and we have to play hard and play together in order to win this game, and I think that was the mindset coming into the game.

Entering the Fiesta Bowl, Elliott led the FBS in rushing yards (3,550) over the past two seasons.

“That was a kidney shot”, Meyer said of the reverberation felt by the Buckeyes.

Ezekiel Elliott scored four touchdowns against Notre Dame.

Running back De’Veon Smith had 111 yards on 25 carries for MI.

Evan Berry put a punctuation mark on the blowout by returning one of Tennessee’s four interceptions 100 yards for a TD in the closing seconds.

“He’s a physical back”.

Notre Dame finally got a stop on Ohio State’s third drive of the game and forced the Buckeyes to punt.

The Buckeyes had their chance to get in the playoff and have only themselves to blame for not making it after losing to the Michigan State Spartans on a field goal as time expired.

Eventually, however, Will Fuller emerged once again for Notre Dame as he has for the last 26 games.

Kizer connected with Chris Brown on a 4-yard touchdown pass to open the second half, pulling the Irish within a touchdown. He averaged 5.5 yards per touch on the Fighting Irish and added a 30-yard reception in the second quarter.

Kizer threw for 284 yards and two touchdowns on 22-of-37 passing, but also had an interception and lost a fumble.

Stay on topic – This helps keep the thread focused on the discussion at hand. “I think we did, when you think about it, I think we did”.