Moving the Chains: Takeaways from College Football 2024 – Semifinals

By Scott Ludwig, [email protected]

Orange Bowl: #7 Notre Dame vs. #6 Penn State.  

Played on the same day Georgia quarterback Carson Beck decided to forego the NFL draft (a smart move) and enter the transfer portal instead (most definitely a move Smart wouldn’t approve of), the Fighting Irish and the Nittany Lions played one of the most snooze-worthy first halves of the season, with the higher-seeded Lions taking a 10 – 3 lead into the locker room.  

And just like that, it’s already official.  Carson Beck will be taking snaps at Miami next season. 

 Imagine how the Atlanta automobile dealer

 from whom Beck got his $270K Lamborghini must feel.

Then again, Beck reportedly spent his own money for the car, 

so it’s his prerogative to take it down to south Florida. 

 His NIL money, I mean.

The rest of the game, however, was worth staying up for (which ended just after 11 p.m. on the east coast), as the offensive units on both teams traded blows throughout – and saved the best for last.  The Irish took the second half kickoff and went 75 yards in 8 plays to tie the game at 10, where the score stayed until the fourth quarter – where the momentum changed on virtually every possession.

Jeremiyah Love scored for the Irish on a two-yard run to start the fourth quarter, giving his team a 17 – 10 lead.  Penn State answered on a seven-yard run from Nicholas Singleton to tie the score for the second time, followed by an interception by Irish quarterback Riley Leonard at their own 40-yard line, which led to another Singleton score – his third of the game – to give Penn State a 24 – 17 lead with just under 8 minutes remaining in the game.  

However, Riley answered with the most explosive play of the game: a 54-yard touchdown throw to Jaden Greathouse that made it 24 all, tying the score for the third time with just 4:38 remaining.         

On the next possession, PSU quarterback Drew Allar threw an ill-advised pass which would be his only interception of the game – and it would be a costly one.

Notre Dame now had the ball with 33 seconds left in the game and drove the ball down to Penn State’s 24-yard line, setting up Irish kicker Mitch Jeter to nail a winning 41-yard field goal.  There were just  a few seconds left in the game as the ball cleared the uprights, which wasn’t nearly enough time for the Nittany Lions to score and send the game into overtime.

Final score: Notre Dame – 27, Penn State – 24.  With the win, Irish coach Marcus Freeman becomes the first Black coach to take his team to the National Championship.  To be fair, had Penn State won, that distinction would have gone to their head coach, James Franklin.  

Regardless, primarily thanks to the fireworks from both teams in the fourth quarter, the game became an instant classic.  

Cotton Bowl: #8 Ohio State vs. #5 Texas.  

For the third straight game in the playoffs, Ohio State scored a touchdown on their first possession of the game, a 9 yard touchdown run by Quinshon Judkins that gave the Buckeyes a quick 7 – 0 lead that held up through the first quarter.  It also ran Ohio State’s first quarter scoring advantage in three playoff games to 42 – 0, which is most impressive considering it was compiled against Tennessee, Oregon, and now Texas.  

The two teams traded punts for the rest of the first half, before Texas finally put an end to the scoring drought with an 18-yard TD pass from Quinn Ewers to Jaydon Blue with 20 seconds left in the first half.  Just when it appeared the teams would go to the locker room tied at 7, someone forgot to let the Texas defense there was still time on the clock, because just 7 seconds later Buckeye running back TreVeyon Henderson caught a short pass from QB Will Howard and streaked down the right side of the field – virtually untouched – for a 75-yard touchdown to give Ohio State a 14 – 7 halftime lead.  

Near the end of the third quarter, Ewers once again connected with Blue for the Buckeyes’ second touchdown, this one from 26 yards to knot the game at 14 going into the fourth quarter.  With 7 minutes left in the game, Judkins scored his second rushing TD, this one from one yard out, to give the Buckeyes a 21 – 14 lead with 7 minutes left in the game.

Ewers followed that up by driving his team down to Ohio State’s one-yard line with a first and goal – thanks to back-to-back pass interference calls against the Buckeyes in the end zone – with a chance to tie the score with just over two minutes left in the game, which appeared to be destined for overtime.  Only …

… from there the Longhorns went backwards, and Ewers, faced with a 4^th and goal from the 8-yard line, was hit as he attempted to pass and fumbled the ball, which was scooped up by his former roommate at Ohio State, Jack Sawyer, who took the ball 82 yards for numbing TD and an insurmountable 28 – 14 lead.  (Question for Longhorn coach Sarkisian: Did it ever cross your mind to bring in backup QB Arch Manning and put him in the wildcat formation when you had the ball 4^th and goal from the one?  If Manning had four tries to do it, certainly he would have picked up ONE YARD, don’t ya think?)

One last possession for Texas gave Ewers a chance to toss a game-ending interception to pair with what should have been his game-ender, the aforementioned fumble, which allowed Ohio State to run out the clock for a 28 – 14 win.  Buckeye QB Will Howard will now be making his next appearance in Atlanta to face Notre Dame, while the Longhorn’s Quinn Ewers will make his in Green Bay to face the NFL draft.  

***

So the slate is now set for the National Championship on January 20, matching #8 Ohio State against #7 Notre Dame.  

It’s worth noting that, as it was in all four quarterfinal games, both of the lower-seeded teams, Notre Dame and Ohio State, won their semifinal games as well.  

Don’t be surprised if it happens again in the final game of the season.