There came a point Thursday night in Hard Rock Stadium where the tendencies and the numbers and the analytics all stopped driving where the Notre Dame football program was headed, and hopped in the back seat.
And let the magic take over.
Then again, maybe it was something even more powerful, like destiny. Or maybe this is what happens when you dare to dream big and have the courage to fight through all the turbulence trying to extinguish it.
For as much as Mitch Jeter is likely to remember his 41-yard field goal attempt with 7 seconds left in a 27-24 College Football Playoff semifinal/Orange Bowl victory over 6 seed Penn State … how it fluttered toward the right upright, then curved back away from heartache … the grad transfer from South Carolina will never forget how Irish coach Marcus Freeman never gave up on him.
Through a midseason hip injury that became chronic. And wobbly confidence that was baked into the recovery process.
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And cornerback Christian Gray too, whose interception with 33 seconds left at the Penn State 42-yard line set up Jeter’s inflection point. In a season full of them for the seventh-seeded Irish (14-1), who never flinched at any of them, but instead continued to redefine themselves and redefine the way the rest of the college football world looks at them.
With a chance on Jan. 20 in Atlanta to party like it’s 1988, and bring home a national title.
“I often tell them, in your lowest moments you find out the most about yourself,” said Freeman, who celebrated his 39th birthday at the stroke of midnight.
And what the Irish found out is that maybe this isn’t some weird outlier season, where all the tumblers fell perfectly into place for one shot. Maybe it’s actually the beginning of something — something enduring — regardless of what the next chapter looks like against the winner of Friday night’s CFP Semifinal/Cotton Bowl between 5 seed Texas (13-2) and 8 seed and Freeman alma mater Ohio State (12-2).
“What I think the country is learning about our program, I think the biggest thing is just: Culture wins,” said Irish quarterback Riley Leonard, the transfer from Duke, who continues to defy narratives about what he is not and when the dead end will come.
“You see a bunch of talented guys across our locker room, but you can see that anywhere in the country. I think at the end of the day, it's guys who are putting their bodies on the line and doing everything they can for the man next to them. Nobody is thinking about draft stocks or next year or anything like that — any type of individual glory. We're all thinking about the man beside us.
“I think we kind of proved throughout the season that culture wins, and it's a special place for a reason.”
And it was on display all over the field as the Irish overcame a 10-point first-half deficit, a fourth-quarter momentum swing back to the Nittany Lions (13-3), a statistical deficit in the rushing column that ND usually wins (204-116), and a lost turnover battle (2-1) for the first time since the 16-14 home loss to NIU on Sept. 7.
A game that made every subsequent Irish matchup something with Pop-Tart Bowl implications if they lost, but instead became the reference point for every leap of faith and buy-in.
Like Charles Jagusah’s. The sophomore slated to be Notre Dame’s starting left tackle in 2024 suffered a torn pectoral muscle in early August and wasn’t cleared to practice again until December. Coming into Thursday night, he had played five special teams snaps this season — all Jan. 2 against Georgia — with zero game action at offensive guard since the Sun Bowl in December of 2023.
It's actually the only college game he had ever played in, because of a knee injury he suffered as a senior in high school and the long recovery that followed.
But he believed. And Thursday night Jagusah resurfaced as THE right offensive guard after starter Rocco Spindler hobbled off with an injury during the first half.
And Tosh Baker, who was next in line to replace Jagusah at left tackle after the injury, but who eventually lost the job later in August to freshman Anthonie Knapp. And yet continued to practice like it would matter — until it finally did.
Knapp also left the game Thursday night early with an injury, and Baker — with 64 mostly mop-up snaps all season — stepped in and stepped up.
As did sophomore wide receiver Jaden Greathouse after a mostly quiet season statistically, On Thursday night against Penn State, he hauled in a career-high seven catches for 105 yards, including a 54-yard TD pass from Leonard with 4:38 left in the game that tied the score at 24-24.
And junior backup QB Steve Angeli, who stayed out of the transfer portal in the spring knowing the job would eventually go to Leonard. His 6-for-7 passing for 44 yards late in the first half — when Leonard was being checked out for a possible concussion — was the beginning of Notre Dame’s pushback.
The Angeli-led drive culminated in a Jeter 41-yard field goal on the last play of the half that pulled the Irish to within 10-3.
“I think playing quarterback here and with the culture of our room, my coach prepared me well to step in there,” Angeli said. “It's really just about my teammates, trying to be the best I can for those guys and putting them in the best position. We’re leaning on them and doing the best they can for me.”
Added Freeman, “We've got a lot of confidence in Steve and all those other guys that had to step up when their numbers are called. They earn that confidence in practice. And so, if you're thrust into this opportunity out in a game where everybody else can see you, that's when they get to learn about you.”
One aspect that did go fairly consistently according to the season script was the ability of Notre Dame defensive coordinator Al Golden — a Penn State tight end in his college playing days — making impactful in-game adjustments as well as coaxing ND’s nation’s-best pass-efficiency defense to look every bit of that.
To the latter. Penn State’s wide receiver corps didn’t have a single reception. And while Penn State unanimous All-America tight end Tyler Warren was a handful (6 catches for 75 yards), he wasn’t a game-wrecker and had very similar numbers in the passing game to ND’s own starting tight end, senior Mitchell Evans (5 catches for 58 yards).
As for Penn State junior quarterback Drew Allar, whom the Irish tried to recruit in the same cycle they ended up with Angeli, he came in 10th nationally in passing efficiency (157.2). He left with his lowest efficiency mark of the season (92.8) after completing 12 of 23 passes for 135 yards, no TDs and the interception that Gray collected late.
“I'm not going to call out or talk about specific plays or specific players,” said Penn State coach James Franklin, now 1-15 vs. top 5 teams in his 11 seasons at Penn State, “because there's a ton of plays that we're going to look back on from that game that we could have did better and that we should have did better and that we could have called better.
“But it starts with giving Notre Dame credit. That's a good football team. We lost to a good football team that's led by a good man. I don't know Marcus very well, but he's a class act after the game. One of my good friends, Gerad Parker worked for him, and he thinks he's the best, thinks he's a great guy.
“If you're going to lose to somebody — I don't want to lose to anybody, to be honest with you. But you've got to give Notre Dame credit, and I know Marcus will do a phenomenal job, and I'm happy for him and their university.”
And yet there’s unfinished business still ahead. With plenty of uncertainties before the Irish leave for Atlanta next Friday.
That includes whose bodies will be ready for the title matchup against either Texas or Ohio State three days later.
But there’s no question about whose hearts are ready, exemplified Thursday — and really the whole playoff run by star running back Jeremiyah Love, who’s been playing through a sprained right knee since suffering the injury against USC on Nov. 30.
“Yeah, he was banged up, and he is a tough individual,” Freeman said of the on-ramp to Thursday’s gutty 11-carry, 45-yard performance with a two-yard TD run early in the fourth quarter.
“He didn't get a lot of practice reps. We were very calculated on what we asked him to do in practice. There was maybe a little doubt on my end, but the closer we got to the game I said, ‘OK, he's going to give it a go.’
“The statistics maybe weren't there in the first half, but him being out there means something to everybody on that offense and everybody on our team. In the second half he made some ‘Jeremiyah Love’ plays. “It speaks volumes to the heart he has.
“He gave everything he had to this place. He did not have to play today. Nobody would have batted an eye. But he put the team in front of himself and how he felt. And we've got a whole bunch of guys like that in that locker room, and that's why we're in this position.”
Making their own magic. Driving their own destiny. Pushing aside the pain.
“That moment in that locker room when we're singing that fight song and we're celebrating together,” Freeman said, “ it numbs the pain. I'm just proud of them. Proud of them and grateful that we have these guys in our locker room.”
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