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Jan. 20—ATLANTA — For Ohio State football, the national championship game against Notre Dame comes down to one question.
Can the Buckeyes finish the job?
“There are great stories on this team individually,” Ohio State head coach Ryan Day said. “There’s great stories on this team collectively, but I’ve said this before: The only way those stories get told is if we win, and we have an opportunity to become the ninth team in Ohio State history to win a national championship and the third team in over 50 years, and there’s been a lot of really good football teams in Ohio State history.
“We talked about that, looking up at the banners of those years, and to see just a couple of them over 50 years of great teams. We have an opportunity to separate ourselves, so that’s it. That’s the only thing right now that matters, and how do we do that? By being in the moment, preparing ourselves to be great.”
Here are five storylines to watch in Monday’s title game.
1. Which team gets the better start?
Ohio State jumped on Tennessee and Oregon in its first to playoff games, but Texas took an early punch and played toe-to-toe with the Buckeyes in the semifinal.
The Buckeyes seem to be better when playing from ahead, but Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman said just getting off to a good start won’t be enough for the Fighting Irish.
“Yeah, the first quarter is important in every game,” Freeman said. “It’s how you start, how you win the middle eight (minutes), how you finish. Every play is important. Having a good first quarter is the result of winning that play.
“We often talk about people say you guys do good in the middle eight. Well, you’ve just got to win that play. You’ve got to finish. How do you finish? You’ve got to win that play. We don’t spend a lot of time saying you’ve got to start fast. Yeah, everybody knows that. You’ve got…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/ohio-state-eyes-9th-national-151000353.html
Author : Dayton Daily News, Ohio
Publish date : 2025-01-20 15:10:00
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