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No. 7 seed Notre Dame finds itself as the betting underdog for Monday night’s College Football Playoff National Championship against No. 8 seed Ohio State, but the Fighting Irish believe they have a plan to take down the Buckeyes and win the program’s first national title since 1988. This is, after all, an Ohio State team that lost as a heavy home favorite to rival Michigan in the final week of the regular season, and Notre Dame is arguably the hottest team in the country currently riding a 13-game winning streak.
And while Notre Dame finds itself in the underdog role in a game that has one of the larger national title game spreads in recent years (8.5), history has delivered several outright upsets by even larger underdogs in college football’s title game era. Oklahoma took down Florida State and Ohio State upset Miami both as 11.5-point underdogs, and in the College Football Playoff era, we’ve seen Ohio State (over Oregon) and Clemson (over Alabama) win as underdogs of just under a touchdown. With the resilience that this Notre Dame has shown throughout their season, overcoming injuries and delivering in big moments throughout the CFP, it seems foolish to count out the Fighting Irish at any point until the clock expires on Monday night in Atlanta.
So what does a Notre Dame win look like? Or, more specifically, what are the keys to a Notre Dame win? Let’s get into that, and on Monday, we’ll see how much this plan lines up with Marcus Freeman’s blueprint for success.
1. Long, sustained drives on offense
On the season, Notre Dame did not have the best third-down conversion rate compared to other College Football Playoff teams. But the interesting wrinkle is that Notre Dame rarely faced third down, ranking 133rd of 134 FBS teams in…
Source link : https://www.cbssports.com/college-football/news/national-championship-2025-five-keys-to-notre-dame-upsetting-ohio-state-winning-first-title-since-1988/
Author : Chip Patterson
Publish date : 2025-01-18 15:49:00
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