Ohio

Comparing Ohio State vs. Notre Dame at Every Position

Published

11 months ago

January 19, 2025

Comparing Ohio State vs. Notre Dame at Every Position

Ohio State is one game away from proving it’s the best team in college football this year, but it has to beat one more elite opponent first.

While the overall talent gap between Ohio State and Notre Dame might be a little bigger than it was between the Buckeyes and their last two opponents – Texas and Oregon – that’s not to say the Fighting Irish don’t have plenty of great players who are capable of challenging the Buckeyes. If they didn’t, they wouldn’t be in the national championship game having won their last 13 games in a row.

Given that, Ryan Day has repeatedly emphasized in the days leading up to the national championship game that Ohio State needs to play its best game of the season to hoist the trophy on Monday night.

“We know we have a great challenge ahead of us. Notre Dame’s a very, very good team and very disciplined, a lot of good players, very well-coached, as you know. Certainly complementary in all three phases, put pressure on you,” Day said Friday. “So we know we have to be at our best, and that’s the goal in this game is to play our best game of the season. I still don’t think we’ve done that, and that’s the goal.”

With that in mind, we take a look at how the two teams that will meet in Monday night’s national championship game compare at every position group – with an assessment of which team is stronger at each position entering the national title game – and put together what a composite starting lineup could look like if both rosters were combined.

Quarterback

There are several similarities between the two quarterbacks facing off in the national championship game. Will Howard and Riley Leonard each drew interest from both Ohio State and Notre Dame when they entered the transfer portal last offseason, and both seniors have drawn considerable praise for the leadership and competitiveness they’ve brought to their respective teams in the buildup to the national title game.

That said, Howard has been the considerably more consistent passer between the two this season, completing 72.6% of his passing attempts for 3,779 yards (9.4 yards per attempt) and 33 touchdowns with 10 interceptions compared to a 66.4% completion percentage with 2,606 yards (seven yards per attempt), 19 touchdowns and eight interceptions for Leonard. The Notre Dame quarterback has done more damage as a runner, gaining 866 yards and 16 touchdowns on 167 carries compared to 169 yards and seven touchdowns on 89 carries for Howard, but Howard has still been a capable dual-threat when the Buckeyes have needed him to be.

Advantage: Ohio State

Running Back

Both Ohio State and Notre Dame have elite tandems at running back. Ohio State’s TreVeyon Henderson and Notre Dame’s Jeremiyah Love are two of the most explosive ballcarriers in the country, while OSU’s Quinshon Judkins and ND’s Jadarian Price have been highly productive complements to Henderson and Love.

Cumulatively, Henderson and Judkins have combined for 1,927 yards and 22 touchdowns on 315 carries (6.1 yards per carry) while Love and Price have totaled 1,855 yards and 24 touchdowns on 276 carries (6.7 yards per carry). Love has battled through a knee injury in Notre Dame’s last two games, but has been the most productive RB between the two teams for the season as a whole, and Notre Dame also has strong depth with freshman Aneyas Williams, who caught five passes for 66 yards in the Fighting Irish’s CFP semifinal win over Penn State.

Assuming Love will be fully healthy after practicing without a knee brace this week, the slight edge goes to the Fighting Irish at running back with how efficient and productive their running backs have been.

Advantage: Notre Dame

Wide Receivers

There’s no more lopsided edge for either team when comparing the position groups in this game than Ohio State has at wide receiver.

Carnell Tate has been Ohio State’s third-most productive receiver this season (50 catches for 698 yards and four touchdowns), yet he has 13 more catches, 234 more yards and one more touchdowns than Notre Dame’s leading wide receiver in each category. The Fighting Irish don’t have any downfield weapons who can come close to comparing to Jeremiah Smith and Emeka Egbuka, and that gap is one of the biggest reasons why Ohio State is favored to win this game.

Advantage: Ohio State

Tight End

While tight end has been an advantage position for the opponent in most of Ohio State’s matchup games this season, the argument could be made in the Buckeyes’ favor for this game. Gee Scott Jr. and Will Kacmarek have been playing their best football of the season in the CFP, and Notre Dame’s Mitchell Evans – who looked like a budding star when he caught seven passes for 75 yards against Ohio State last season – hasn’t had overwhelming production this year.

The Fighting Irish’s tight end depth has also been thinned as their best blocking tight end, Cooper Flanagan, suffered a season-ending injury in Notre Dame’s Sugar Bowl win over Georgia. Evans is still the top receiving tight end in this game (39 catches for 369 yards and three touchdowns) and Eli Raridon is a solid backup for the Fighting Irish, but the gap here isn’t as big as Notre Dame might have hoped it would be.

Advantage: Notre Dame

Offensive Line

Both Ohio State and Notre Dame have been snakebitten by injuries along the offensive line this season, and the left tackle position is a particular position of concern for the Fighting Irish after Anthonie Knapp went down with a season-ending injury against Penn State. They’ll now be counting on Charles Jagusah – who was expected to be their starting left tackle entering the season but had missed the entire season due to injury before filling in at right guard in the Orange Bowl – to play the premier position on the offensive line in just his second career start.

Assuming Rocco Spindler is able to return to action after leaving the Orange Bowl with an injury of his own, Notre Dame still has one of the nation’s best interior offensive lines along with a strong right tackle in Aamil Wagner. The Fighting Irish’s strength at those positions gives Notre Dame the edge when comparing the two teams’ offensive lines as a whole, but that edge is contingent on Jagusah being the player Notre Dame thought he could be entering the season, along with Spindler’s health.

Advantage: Notre Dame

Defensive End

Like wide receiver, this is another position where Ohio State has a massive advantage. While Notre Dame has lost two of its best edge rushers, Jordan Botelho and Boubacar Traore, to injuries suffered in the regular season, Ohio State’s defensive end tandem of Jack Sawyer and JT Tuimoloau has been dominant in the CFP.

In three CFP games alone, Tuimoloau and Sawyer have combined for 10 sacks. Notre Dame’s available edge rushers have combined for seven sacks for the entire season. That’s not to say the Fighting Irish can’t still generate pressure off the edge, but they don’t have anyone who can take over a game like Sawyer or Tuimoloau.

Advantage: Ohio State

JT Tuimoloau and Jack Sawyer have combined for more sacks in the CFP than Notre Dame’s uninjured edge rushers have had all season. (Photo: Adam Cairns/Columbus Dispatch/USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images)

Defensive Tackle

This is another position where injury has changed the equation for Notre Dame. The Fighting Irish’s best defensive lineman, Rylie Mills, suffered a season-ending injury in their first-round playoff win over Indiana.

Notre Dame still has one excellent defensive tackle in Howard Cross III, and Gabriel Rubio has stepped up well in Mills’ absence. With Mills on the sideline, however, Ohio State might have the two best defensive tackles in the national championship game in Tyleik Williams and Ty Hamilton, with Williams being the biggest game-wrecker on the interior defensive line for either team.

Advantage: Ohio State

Linebacker

Both teams feature an excellent veteran leader at linebacker with Cody Simon leading the way from the Mike linebacker spot for the Buckeyes and Jack Kiser doing the same from the Will linebacker position for Notre Dame.

Simon and Sonny Styles have been the most productive linebackers between the two teams this season; Simon has recorded 104 tackles with 11.5 tackles for loss, seven sacks and seven pass breakups while Styles has recorded 94 tackles with 9.5 tackles for loss, five sacks and five pass breakups. Notre Dame has a deeper rotation at linebacker, however, with four linebackers who have each recorded at least 50 tackles and four tackles for loss this season.

This is the tightest comparison of any position on defense, with Simon and Kiser being the two best all-around linebackers between the two teams, but I’m giving the slim advantage to Ohio State based on how impactful Simon has been this year.

Advantage: Ohio State

Cornerback

This is another position where Notre Dame suffered a major injury loss as Benjamin Morrison, an All-American candidate at cornerback, went down with a hip injury in the middle of the regular season. Despite that loss, the cornerback position has continued to be a strength for the Fighting Irish with Leonard Moore earning FWAA Defensive Freshman of the Year honors and Christian Gray giving Notre Dame another difference-maker on the outside of its secondary. Jordan Clark, the son of former NFL safety Ryan Clark, has also been an active playmaker for Notre Dame at nickelback.

The cornerback position certainly isn’t a weakness for Ohio State either as Denzel Burke, Davison Igbinosun and Jordan Hancock have led the way for OSU to lead the nation in passing yards allowed per game. But with Burke coming off an injury that sidelined him for the second half of the Cotton Bowl and penalties being a recurring issue for Igbinosun this season, cornerback is a slightly greater position of strength for the Fighting Irish.

Advantage: Notre Dame

Safety

National championship game viewers will be treated to watching the two best safeties in college football, Ohio State’s Caleb Downs and Notre Dame’s Xavier Watts. Both of them lead their respective defenses from the free safety spot, with Downs moving all over the field to make plays while Watts – who’s tied for second nationally with six interceptions this season – is the linchpin of Notre Dame’s Cover 1 defense.

Both teams have impactful strong safeties, too, with Lathan Ransom joining Downs to form an elite tandem over the middle for the Buckeyes while Adon Shuler has had an excellent redshirt freshman season for Notre Dame. Both teams’ safety tandems make it tough to throw the ball over the middle of the field, but there’s no better pair of safeties against the run in college football than Downs and Ransom, which gives Ohio State the overall advantage here.

Advantage: Ohio State

Projected Composite Lineup

Pos	Player	Team
OFFENSE
QB	WILL HOWARD	OHIO STATE
RB	JEREMIYAH LOVE	NOTRE DAME
WR	JEREMIAH SMITH	OHIO STATE
WR	EMEKA EGBUKA	OHIO STATE
WR	CARNELL TATE	OHIO STATE
TE	MITCHELL EVANS	NOTRE DAME
LT	DONOVAN JACKSON	OHIO STATE
LG	BILLY SCHRAUTH	NOTRE DAME
C	PAT COOGAN	NOTRE DAME
RG	ROCCO SPINDLER	NOTRE DAME
RT	AAMIL WAGNER	NOTRE DAME
DEFENSE
DE	JACK SAWYER	OHIO STATE
DE	JT TUIMOLOAU	OHIO STATE
DT	TYLEIK WILLIAMS	OHIO STATE
DT	HOWARD CROSS III	NOTRE DAME
LB	JACK KISER	NOTRE DAME
LB	CODY SIMON	OHIO STATE
CB	LEONARD MOORE	NOTRE DAME
CB	DENZEL BURKE	OHIO STATE
NB	JORDAN HANCOCK	OHIO STATE
FS	XAVIER WATTS	NOTRE DAME
SS	CALEB DOWNS	OHIO STATE

Source link

Ohio

Ohio State dominate latest power ranking as nine Buckeyes rank inside Top 50 players

Published

10 hours ago

December 18, 2025

Press Room

Ohio State dominate latest power ranking as nine Buckeyes rank inside Top 50 players

The honors continue to roll in for this Ohio State Buckeyes football team.

From young players ready for another College Football Playoff run next season to players hungry for one more run starting December 31 before the NFL Draft, this Ohio State Buckeyes team is loaded with talent headed into their seventh playoffs appearance since the CFP era began in 2014.

Five defensive players and four offensive players headlined a class of extremely talented Buckeyes. Indiana quarterback Fernando Mendoza took the No. 1 spot to go along with his Heisman and Maxwell honors.

An offensive Ohio State Buckeye took the No. 2 spot right behind Mendoza.

Ohio State Buckeyes linebacker Arvell Reese (8) tackles Michigan Wolverines running back Bryson Kuzdzal (24) during the NCAA football game at Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor, Mich. on Nov. 29, 2025. Ohio State won 27-9. | Adam Cairns/Columbus Dispatch / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Wide receiver Jeremiah Smith takes the No. 2 spot

Jeremiah Smith was ranked behind Mendoza along with his gun-slinging sophomore quarterback. Julian Sayin was the second-highest ranked quarterback on the list at No. 5.

“Smith caught 80 balls for 1,086 yards and 11 touchdowns as a sophomore, but that doesn’t really tell the story…Smith commands double-teams constantly, draws the attention of everyone’s best corner, and has every defensive coordinator he faces scheming to slow him down. And none of it has mattered.”
ESPN’s David Hale

Smith is expected to have one more dominant season with the Buckeyes next season where fans hope to see him paired next to five-star recruit Chris Henry Jr. Senior wide receiver Carnell Tate has been an impressive receiving mate for Smith the past two seasons. Tate caught 48 passes, nine touchdowns, and had 838 yards. He ranked No. 26 in the rankings.

Offensive tackle Austin Siereveld ranked No. 44 as well.

The defense takes over

All five of Ohio State’s defensive players on the list ranked inside the top-22. Junior linebacker Sonny Styles sat at No. 21 to kick things off for the defense. The Buckeyes have had the best defense in college football for the entire season and these are the names that have made it happen. Projected first round NFL Draft Arvell Reese took the No. 16 spot.

“A new set of stars emerged to lead the nation’s No. 1 defense this fall, and Reese was undeniably front and center. He has thrived under new coordinator Matt Patricia, recording 6.5 sacks and 10 tackles for loss from the edge position and finished second on the squad with 62 total tackles…Reese was named Big Ten’s Linebacker of the Year and recorded a sack in six of Ohio State’s first eight games of the season.”
ESPN’s Adam Rittenberg
Advertisement

Defensive linemen Kayden McDonald and Caden Curry ranked at No. 13 and No. 11 respectively. Safety Caleb Downs was the highest ranked defensive Buckeye at No. 7. Downs is a simply a lockdown player who can play corner or safety while still being able to tackle at a high level. If he chooses to declare for the NFL Draft after the season is over, he’ll be slated to go within the top 10 in most mock drafts.

Opposing quarterbacks only targeted downs 20 times for the entire season. Only nine passes were caught on his watch as the primary defender.

“The longest completion he gave up was 17 yards. A 14-yard completion in the second quarter of the Big Ten title game was the first one he’d given up in nearly two months. There is not a more lockdown corner in the country than Downs.”
ESPN’s David Hale

The Ohio State Buckeyes are waiting for the winner of the No. 10 Miami Hurricanes against the No. 7 Texas A&M Aggies in the first round of the College Football Playoffs this Saturday at 12:00pm Eastern on ABC/ESPN.

Source link

Ohio

From seed to living room: Christmas tree care, myths and Ohio connections

Published

22 hours ago

December 17, 2025

Press Room

From seed to living room: Christmas tree care, myths and Ohio connections

CLEVELAND, Ohio — For many households that do not otherwise keep plants, a cut Christmas tree may be the only one they actively care for all year, watered daily and monitored carefully.

And every December, families arrive at Sugargrove Tree Farm in Ashland, ready to make a once-a-year decision: which tree will carry their lights and ornaments and serve as a backdrop for holiday selfies. I recently spoke Bob Smith, who owns and operates the cut-your-own tree farm, about his tree care advice.

Read all of Susan Brownstein’s columns here.

Smith has a short list of rules for customers once their tree is home, and the most important one is simple.

“Water,” he says. “Always keep it watered. The bottom of the trunk should never be exposed to air.” When a freshly cut tree sits dry for too long, sap seals the cut surface, forming a scab that prevents water uptake.

If a tree has been without water for more than six or seven hours—for example, if you store it in the garage for a few days before bringing it in the house—Smith recommends making a fresh cut before putting it back in water. One to two hours of exposure is usually fine; six or seven hours is not.

Smith was also eager to bust some persistent Christmas tree care myths. Adding Sprite or aspirin to the water doesn’t help, Smith says, and worrying about water temperature is unnecessary. Warm water quickly cools to room temperature anyway.

“Tap water is fine,” he says. “The tree just needs hydration.”

Placement in the house, on the other hand, is important. A hot air register right next to the tree is “really, really bad,” Smith says, and dries it out regardless of how much water is in the stand. Cooler conditions are best.

He has one longstanding customer who sets up her Fraser fir in a three-season room and keeps it there until April, finally taking it out when the daffodils bloom.

Norway spruce has poor needle retention, regardless of how much it is watered.Courtesy Sugargrove Tree Farm

Tree species also plays a major role in how long a tree stays fresh. Norway spruce, while classic in appearance, has inherently poor needle retention and will often drop needles within two weeks, no matter how well it’s cared for. Fir trees perform much better indoors, and among them, the Canaan fir is rapidly gaining in popularity.

Pronounced “ka-NANE,” the Canaan fir is growing rapidly in popularity as a Christmas tree and has an origin story with deep Ohio roots (pun intended).

The tree takes its name from Canaan Valley in West Virginia, where it was first identified, and its development as a Christmas tree accelerated in the 1950s through work at The Ohio State University. That early research helped establish Canaan fir as a reliable option for growers, combining good needle retention, strong branching, and most importantly for growers like Smith, the ability to grow in clay soils.

Many landscape plants are propagated from cuttings to ensure genetic consistency, but Smith explained that Canaan fir trees are grown from seed, and Ohio plays a significant role in that process.

Seed orchards near the OSU Agricultural Research and Development Center in Wooster produce Canaan fir seed from the best of the original “mother trees” bred by Dr. Brown’s team. That seed is sent to Weyerhaeuser, a large forestry company based in Washington state, where it is stored, tested for viability, and grown into seedlings by request from tree farms like Sugargrove.

When Smith receives them, the trees are already two years old and about 18 to 20 inches tall. From there, he grows them on for roughly eight more years before they’re ready to sell.

“That’s a decade of work for one tree,” Smith says.

That timeline helps explain why growing conditions matter so much. National data and maps of Christmas tree production show that Michigan, North Carolina, Oregon and Washington produce 80 to 90 percent of the trees grown in the U.S., with just a few counties accounting for half the total.

According to Smith, trees grown in North Carolina can reach six feet in five years thanks to its ideal climate and sandy soils, half the time it takes in Ohio’s heavier clay soils.

Sugargrove supplements some of its stock from North Carolina, but Ohio-grown trees remain central to the farm. Smith grows Canaan fir, Fraser fir, Norway spruce and white pine.

(However, the early bird gets the tree; Sugargrove began selling trees on Black Friday and sold out by December 14 this year.)

Each species has tradeoffs. Fraser firs are popular for their shape and sweet scent, though Smith notes they’re less tolerant of stress than Canaan firs. White pine can be a good option for lighter decorating styles.

“Think 1950s,” Smith says, “Popcorn strings, tinsel, and lights,” but no heavy ornaments so as to avoid the Charlie Brown tree effect.

Fragrance can also be a factor in tree choice. Smith jokes that old-fashioned blue spruce (which he no longer sells due to diminishing demand) smells like cat urine to him, but he acknowledges some people associate it strongly with Christmas.

Canaan fir has a citrus-like scent, while Fraser fir has a sweeter scent “that smells like Christmas” to him. Pines do not have much fragrance on their own, but combined with garlands and wreaths, a home can still achieve that treasured holiday smell.

Many families debate whether to get a real or artificial tree, but there are differences even among real trees.

Choosing a Christmas tree from an Ohio tree farm supports land that stays in agricultural production rather than being developed. When a tree from a tree farm is cut, it is replaced with a young tree that absorbs carbon as it grows.

Compared with a natural tree shipped from Oregon or the Pacific Northwest, a locally grown tree avoids thousands of miles of transportation and supports regional agriculture. And if a cut tree is composted after the holidays, its carbon is returned to the soil.

Whether a Christmas tree is the only plant you’ll have all year or just another member of your plant family, the care comes down to: choose a species that fits your home and decorating style, keep it away from heat, and above all, keep it watered.

And if you choose a tree from an Ohio tree farm, you continue a cycle that can begin with an Ohio-grown seed and ends, years later, at the center of a family’s Christmas story.

Source link

Ohio

4-star 2026 recruit released from agreement with Tennessee, set to sign with Ohio State football

Published

1 day ago

December 17, 2025

Press Room

4-star 2026 recruit released from agreement with Tennessee, set to sign with Ohio State football

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Four-star 2026 recruit Legend Bey has been released from signing with Tennessee and quickly flipped his decision to Ohio State.

As reported by Rivals on Tuesday, Bey no longer was a member of Tennessee’s program by the evening and quickly joined the Buckeyes’ 2026 class. He is free to play immediately in Columbus.

Bey committed to Tennessee before his senior year began, but flipped his decision to Ohio State in November, after he took an official visit. He then flipped his decision back to Tennessee on Wednesday, Dec. 3, on National Signing Day, in a dramatic flip that seemingly came out of nowhere.

Reports then surfaced that his mother, and other family members, influenced Bey’s decision to attend Tennessee.

Bey posted on X (formerly Twitter) a statement that was quickly deleted a day after signing with the Volunteers. His post read: “Good Afternoon, I was just recently logged out of my IG and probably will be logged out of this account as well by my older brother who has access to my account because I won’t sign to the school him and my mother wants – Legend Bey”

A week later, he posted pictures of himself on Instagram with the caption, “Imma do my own thing.”

Now, Bey is a member of Ohio State’s class.

From North Forney High School in Texas, he’s the No. 175 overall prospect and No. 9 athlete in the 247Sports composite rankings. He’ll come to Columbus with the positional versatility to be used in a hybrid running back/receiver role, as former Buckeye Curtis Samuel was, and should be an immediate contributor on special teams.

Bey is Ohio State’s 28th member of the 2026 recruiting class. Barring any more surprises, he should be the last addition.

Source link