Notre Dame and Ohio State have reached the same postseason destination with rosters built much the same way.
The programs set to play in the College Football Playoff’s national championship game Monday night — kickoff is set for 7:30 at Atlanta’s Mercedes-Benz Stadium, with ESPN carrying the main telecast — sign elite recruiting classes from the high school ranks year after year. That has been and continues to be the foundation of their rosters.
While many coaches relentlessly mine the NCAA transfer portal in hopes of finding gems, Notre Dame’s Marcus Freeman and Ohio State’s Ryan Day have used that avenue judiciously, equally and with great success while putting together their current teams. Why? Because they can.
Freeman’s seventh-seeded Fighting Irish (14-1) and Day’s eighth-seeded Buckeyes (13-2) are college football royalty and can offer NIL riches to go with the exposure and coaching enhancing a player’s chance of winning a championship and getting to the next level.
Notre Dame quarterback Riley Leonard said he had mixed feelings about going into the portal in December 2023 after three years at Duke — but he wouldn’t be in the position he’s in right now if he hadn’t made the move.
“You don’t really understand the magnitude of going to a big-time school until you kind of live it, and I tried to prepare myself for every situation possible, but you’ve just got to go through it to understand what it’s like to play quarterback at a blue-blood school,” he said.
AP photo by Matthew Hinton / Notre Dame receiver Beaux Collins (5) celebrates with quarterback Riley Leonard after they connected on a 13-yard touchdown pass against Georgia during the College Football Playoff's Sugar Bowl quarterfinal on Jan. 2 in New Orleans.According to AP research using 247Sports data, the Buckeyes and the Irish have signed 26 scholarship players from the portal apiece since 2022, Freeman’s first year as head coach (Day took over at Ohio State ahead of the 2019 season). That’s an average of 6.5 per year in that stretch, among the lowest in the Football Bowl Subdivision.
The Buckeyes, with eight claimed national titles, and the Irish, with 11, can be selective when dipping into the portal — and they’ve predictably had a high success rate with the few players they’ve taken.
Five of the 22 Ohio State starters in last week’s Cotton Bowl semifinal win over Texas were transfers, and all have played major roles for the Buckeyes.
Fifth-year senior quarterback Will Howard (Kansas State transfer) has completed 73.8% of his passes for 919 yards and six touchdowns over the three playoff games, running back Quinshon Judkins (Ole Miss) rushed for two touchdowns against Texas, and Will Kacmarek (Ohio) has come back from an upper-body injury to start all three playoff games at tight end. On the other side of the ball, Caleb Downs (Alabama) had a late interception to finish off the Longhorns last week, while cornerback Davison Igbinosun (Ole Miss) has a combined 11 tackles and two pass breakups in the three games.
For Notre Dame, four starters in last week’s Orange Bowl semifinal against Penn State were transfers. Leonard is one of two power conference quarterbacks to throw for 2,600 yards and run for 700 this season, Beaux Collins (Clemson) is the team’s leading receiver this season and Kris Mitchell (Florida International) has been both a steady target and a big-play threat at the same position. Defensively, RJ Oben (Duke) made a strip-sack to set up Notre Dame’s only offensive touchdown in its Sugar Bowl quarterfinal win over Georgia.
The transfers for both teams complement the bevy of high school talent that joins the programs each year.
Nineteen players who signed with Ohio State out of high school have combined for 513 starts, and Day’s classes have landed in the top five in the 247Sports composite rankings six straight years. Freeman has had recruiting classes ranked from seventh to 12th.
The distribution of experience on the rosters is fairly even. Ohio State leans older, with 13 of its starters in their fourth or fifth years; the only first-year starter is star receiver Jeremiah Smith.
Notre Dame has nine starters who are either first- or second-year players and five who are fifth- or sixth-year players. The only freshman starters are offensive lineman Anthonie Knapp, who will miss the championship game because of injury, and cornerback Leonard Moore.