Notre Dame wins a classic against Penn State to earn a chance at college football’s national championship
Wake up the echoes, the Notre Dame Fighting Irish are once again going to play on college football’s biggest stage.
Notre Dame beat Penn State 27-24 in a classic College Football Playoff semifinal, a heavyweight slugfest that saw two teams match each other blow for punishing blow throughout four quarters of tough, Midwestern football.
It will be Mitch Jeter’s name that will go down in the history books, after the kicker belted a 41-yard field goal through the uprights with seven seconds remaining to give the Irish the win. But it took the heroics of Christian Gray and the rest of the Notre Dame defense, along with quarterback Riley Leonard overcoming a slow start to the game to spark the Irish offense in the second half, to put the senior kicker in position to win the game.
It was Gray who picked off Penn State’s star quarterback, Drew Allar, with 33 seconds to play – the first big mistake Allar had made all night – and it was Leonard who converted the tough third downs in the final stretch of the game that ensured the Irish kept the ball moving against Penn State’s nasty defense.
The senior quarterback, who transferred from Duke so he could live his childhood dream of playing at Notre Dame, put Jeter in position. He still had to make the fourth quarter go-ahead kick, something that had not been done in College Football Playoff history up to that point.
The ball wobbled dangerously close to the goal post as it soared through the air but it knuckled and spun true down the middle, sending the Irish to the national championship game on January 20 where they’ll play the winner of Texas-Ohio State, who play in the Cotton Bowl on Friday night.
“He’s been clutch all year,” said Marcus Freeman, the Notre Dame head coach who makes history as the first Black head coach to lead a team to the College Football Playoff national championship game.
When asked about that historic achievement, Freeman said, “I’ve said it before - I don’t ever want to take attention away from the team. It is an honor and I hope all coaches - minorities, Black, Asian, White, it don’t matter. Great people continue to get opportunities to lead young men like this. But this ain’t about me, this is about us. We’re going to celebrate what we’ve done because it’s something special.”
The first half of the game was much of what was expected: Two tough, hard-nosed football teams fighting out the game in the trenches of the offensive and defensive lines.
Both teams found it hard to move the ball in the first quarter as the stout Nittany Lion and Irish defenses lived up to their billing. The first big play game with 4:43 remaining in the first quarter when Penn State’s Zakee Wheately soared through the air to intercept an errant pass from Leonard, who had missed his receiver badly. Still, it took an athletic play from Wheately to come down with the ball and gave his team good field position near midfield.
Allar moved his team down the field, but the drive eventually stalled at the three-yard line after the junior quarterback missed running back Nicholas Singleton, who was wide open in the right flat and would have had an easy touchdown with a better thrown ball. Instead, it was a field goal that opened the scoring to make it 3-0 early in the second quarter.
After another dominant sequence from their defense, Penn State got the ball back deep in their own territory. But that was no matter for the Nittany Lions, wearing their traditional blue and white as they imposed their will during a long drive that finished in the end zone.
The key play of the drive was a fourth-and-2 play from the Notre Dame 16-yard line with four minutes to go in the second quarter. Allar found his star tight end, Tyler Warren, for a short pass that picked up the first down. A few plays later, Singleton plowed through four Irish defenders to get the ball over the goal line and putting Penn State up 10-0 and looking like they were about to physically crush the Fighting Irish.
When Leonard took a big shot from Dvon J-Thomas in the final two minutes of the first half and had to leave the game in order to be assessed for a concussion, it seemed like the Irish were headed into the danger zone. Instead, backup Steve Angeli entered the game and finally got the Irish moving downfield, throwing for first downs and avoiding a catastrophic turnover when Notre Dame jumped on a loose ball caused by a Penn State pass rush. The drive ended in the Irish’s first points, a field goal as time expired in the first half to make the score 10-3.
“We knew this was going to be a heavyweight fight. That’s a really good team we just faced that wasn’t going to quit,” Freeman said to ESPN after the game. “But I told our guys, ‘We’ve been here. We’ve been here in this very position before.’ And they believed and they got the job done. I’m really proud of them.”
Leonard reentered the game after the intermission and the Irish offense suddenly looked totally different. After failing to establish themselves on the ground against Penn State’s tough front seven, the Irish were now running the ball at will and moving their offense down the field like they had ever since a shocking loss to Northern Illinois in September. Leonard took a quarterback keeper up the middle for a touchdown to tie the game 10-10 on the first drive of the third quarter.
The rest of the quarter was the kind of tough football both teams have played all year. The teams traded punts as the defenses asserted themselves again, but the Irish were no longer getting pushed around like they were in the first half.
The touchdown run from Jeremiyah Love to put the Irish up 17-10 epitomized that shift in momentum. Love took the ball and rushed to his left, and was immediately met by a Penn State defender. Love shook off that first tackle and got back to the line of scrimmage, only to meet another Nittany Lion waiting for him. He carried that defender with him as he endured two more hits from would-be tacklers, eventually churning his legs forward and stretching the ball over the goal line in a run that would make the ghosts of Notre Dame proud.
Penn State fired right back with a long drive of their own, this time through the air as Allar started to hit receivers for big chunks of yardage. Singleton eventually made another tough run, lowering his shoulders and blowing through Notre Dame’s Xavier Watts to tie the game at 17-17.
The twin touchdown drives seemed like the turning points in the game, with the offenses starting to finally overpower two dominant defenses. But Dani Dennis-Sutton of Penn State quickly put an end to that with a massive interception of Leonard. The defensive end had dropped into coverage and Leonard tried to sneak a ball past him on the opening play of the drive. No such luck for the veteran quarterback – the pick gave Penn State the ball inside the Fighting Irish 40-yard line.
The Nittany Lions received a big break when an apparent interception on a deep Allar pass was waved off for a pass interference penalty on the Fighting Irish, a call that so upset the Notre Dame fans that some threw trash onto the field in protest. Two plays later, it was Singleton again, rushing to his left and burrowing through his blockers to reach the end zone and put Penn State on top again, 24-17.
But the Fighting Irish were not done. After methodically moving the ball toward midfield, Leonard found Jaden Greathouse wide open on the right sideline after the Nittany Lions defender covering him fell when the wide receiver made his move to release from coverage. Greathouse had one man to beat after he caught the ball, cutting back and leaving safety Jaylen Reed sprawled out on the turf as he sprinted toward the end zone.
“History is written by conquerors and we’re holding the pen,” Leonard told ESPN after the game. “We decide how we want to write our history. I’m a firm believer in whether you think you can or you can’t do something you’re right. We believed that we can do it and we went out there and did it.”
As the game got into crunch time, the defenses once again stiffened and snuffed out drives in the final two minutes. Pressure on Allar and Leonard meant the star quarterbacks could not make the kind of plays they had made earlier in the quarter, with Leonard in particular taking a killer sack near midfield on a third-down play that meant the Irish would have to punt with less than a minute to play.
When Penn State got the ball, Allar eventually would make the critical mistake that these kinds of games so often hinge on. Throwing across his body as he moved to his left, Allar threw into tight coverage and Notre Dame cornerback Christian Gray made a diving interception at the Penn State 42 with just 33 seconds to play.
Leonard took the ball up the middle on the first play of the drive, getting five yards. On the next play, he took the ball again, getting another two yards as he worked to set up the opportunity for Jeter. On third down, Leonard went back to Greathouse for a 10-yard gain that moved the Irish to the 25 yard line. Leonard took the ball and brought it to the center of the field, setting Jeter up for the 41-yard field goal attempt that would put him into the storied history of the Irish.
It sailed through the uprights and now the Irish are 60 minutes from their first national championship since 1988.
“We’re a special group. You find out a lot about your team at its lowest moments. And this is a group that continued to stay together,” Freeman said. “They trust each other. They leaned on each other, and they got better. … I’m proud of this group. I’m proud of this place. Proud of this university.”
CNN’s Jacob Lev and Homero De La Fuente contributed to this report.
Notre Dame gets late pick and field goal to make title game with 27-24 win over Penn State
MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. (AP) — Penn State quarterback Drew Allar said he was trying to throw the ball into the ground. Notre Dame defensive back Christian Gray dove for it anyway and — luck of the Irish — the ball ended up right in his hands.
A few seconds later, Gray and Notre Dame found themselves with a spot in the national title game after a thrill-a-minute 27-24 victory Thursday night in the Orange Bowl.
Gray’s snag of Allar’s ill-advised pass across the middle at the Penn State 42 with 33 seconds left, set up a 19-yard drive that ended with Mitch Jeter’s winning 41-yard field goal.
The Irish (14-1), seeded seventh in this, the first 12-team college playoff, will have a chance to bring their 12th title and first since 1988 back under the Golden Dome with a game Jan. 20 in Atlanta. Their opponent will be the winner Friday night of the Texas-Ohio State semifinal in the Cotton Bowl.
“Just catch the ball. Just catch the ball,” Gray said about his interception. “That was going through my mind and I knew I was going to make a play.”
Allar explained he saw his first two options covered on the play, then wanted to throw the ball into the dirt. But the throw, under pressure and across his body, didn’t have enough zip on it to reach either receiver Omari Evans or the ground before Gray slid in.
“Honestly, I was trying to ‘dirt’ it at his feet,” said the junior quarterback. “I should’ve thrown it away when I saw the first two progressions were not open. I didn’t execute.”
It was the most memorable play of a game that was the best of what’s been a sleepy few weeks of playoff football. It featured three ties and three lead changes, along with 31 points in the fourth quarter alone.
In the final, Irish coach Marcus Freeman will try to become the first Black coach to win the title at college football’s highest level. Freeman, whose mother is South Korean, also is the first coach of Asian heritage to get this far.
“We found a way to make a play when it mattered the most,” Freeman said. “In my opinion, great teams, great programs, find a way to do that.”
Penn State coach James Franklin fell to 4-20 with the Nittany Lions against teams ranked in the AP Top 10. The sixth-seeded Nittany Lions ended the season at 13-3.
“Everyone wants to look at a specific play,” Franklin said. “But there’s probably eight to 12 plays in that game that could have made a difference. I’m not going to call out specific plays or specific players. There are a ton of plays where we could have done better.”
Notre Dame quarterback Riley Leonard shook off a hit late in the second quarter that sent him to the medical tent to be checked for a concussion. He came back and led the Irish on four scoring drives in the second half, including the last one.
“He’s a competitor and competitors find a way to win, and that’s what Riley does,” Freeman said. “That’s what this team does.”
Leonard finished with 223 yards passing, including a key 10-yard dart to Jaden Greathouse to convert third-and-3 on the last drive. Leonard also had 35 yards rushing, and passed and ran for a score each.
With 4:38 left in the game, the senior quarterback hit Greathouse for a 54-yard score to tie it at 24 after a defender slipped.
The game started slow (and boring), but Riley’s injury injected life into things. He led Notre Dame on TD drives of 75 and 72 yards in the third quarter to take a 17-10 lead.
At that point, the fun was just getting started.
Penn State had its chances, and Allar, considered a first-round pick by some if he leaves for the NFL, will spend the offseason reliving that last throw — or trying to forget it.
Penn State forced a Notre Dame punt and looked assured of at least going to overtime when they took over at their 15 with 47 seconds left.
After a gain of 13, Allar dropped to pass and had pressure coming. He threw across his body to the middle of the field, where Gray dove for the pick.
A review showed it was a catch, and the Irish were onto the next step on a road that looked all but impossible when they fell 16-14 to Northern Illinois back in September.
“To see how far we’ve come after the hiccup early on, just to know that we have one more guaranteed, one last one guaranteed, it’s just so exciting,” Notre Dame linebacker Jack Kiser said.
Nick Singleton ran for 84 yards and all three Penn State touchdowns. Off target for much of the day, Allar finished 12 for 23 for 135 yards with the interception.
“He’s hurting right now. He should be. We’re all hurting,” Franklin said.
The quarterback didn’t duck questions about the play or his role in the loss.
“We didn’t win the game so it wasn’t good enough, it’s plain and simple,” Allar said. “I’ll try to learn from it, do everything in my power to get better and just grow from it.”
When Leonard went out, backup Steve Angeli came in and injected life into the Fighting Irish offense on the way to its first score.
Angelli went 6 for 7 for 44 yards and moved Notre Dame to field goal range to trim its deficit to 10-3 just before halftime.
“We have a lot of confidence in Steve,” Freeman said when asked why he allowed the Irish to play aggressively when he entered.
The kickoff temperature was 56 degrees, unseasonably cool for South Florida — and making it the second-coldest Orange Bowl ever, next to the Georgia Tech-Iowa game in 2010 that started at 49 and felt like the upper 30s.
Notre Dame will face either Ohio State or Texas in the CFP national championship game on Jan. 20. Penn State opens its 2025 season at home against Nevada on Aug. 30.
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Notre Dame advances to national title game on last-second field goal vs. Penn State: Highlights
Notre Dame clinched its spot in the College Football Playoff final Thursday, beating Penn State 27-24 in a down-to-the-wire thriller.
Fighting Irish kicker Mitch Jeter hit a 41-yard field goal with eight seconds left for the winning score. The kick was set up after an interception of Nittany Lions quarterback Drew Allar on the previous possession gave Notre Dame the ball in Penn State territory.
The semifinal, played at the Orange Bowl in Miami, started quite slow. The teams were scoreless after the first quarter and combined for only 13 points in the first half before they combined to score 31 in the fourth quarter alone.
After three punts to start the game, the Nittany Lions intercepted Fighting Irish quarterback Riley Leonard in the first quarter to set up the game’s first score. Penn State picked up 55 yards on 14 plays after the pick, getting as close as the 1-yard line before ultimately settling for a short field goal.
After another punt, the Nittany Lions put together a bruising, 15-play drive of 90 yards for a touchdown, giving them a 10-0 lead in the second quarter. Though Leonard had to leave to get checked for a possible concussion, Notre Dame would answer the touchdown with a field goal, thanks to a drive largely led by backup QB Steve Angelli.
Leonard came out to start the second half and tied the game by spearheading an eight-play, 75-yard drive that ended with him running for a short score.
Three drives later, the Fighting Irish would move 71 yards for another score early in the fourth, which that began the game’s frantic finish. Trailing 17-10, Penn State put together a 75-yard touchdown drive to tie the game, then intercepted Riley and scored once more to take a 24-17 lead.
But Notre Dame answered quickly, tying the game less than four minutes later courtesy of a 54-yard touchdown catch by Jaden Greathouse.
After the teams traded punts, the Nittany Lions had the ball with two timeouts and 47 seconds to go to mount a game-winning drive, but Allar was intercepted on the second play of the possession. That led to Jeter’s go-ahead kick 26 seconds later.
The Fighting Irish will play in the national championship game Jan. 20 against the winner of Ohio State and Texas on Friday.
Jeter's clutch FG lifts Notre Dame over Penn State in CFP semi
MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. -- There were moments this season when Mitch Jeter simply could not make a kick, as injuries to his hip and groin ruined his form and threatened to sink his confidence.
But over the past month, as he got healthy, he turned into "Mr. January." As a result, Notre Dame is headed to its first national championship game since 2013, with an opportunity to win its first title since 1988.
The Irish say they have built their season on resilience -- and it is possible nobody on the team embodies that more than Jeter. As he lined up for a 41-yard field goal attempt with the score tied at 24 and 12 seconds left on the clock against Penn State on Thursday night, all he could think was: "Let's go make it."
Jeter pushed the football through the uprights to give Notre Dame a 27-24 win in the College Football Playoff semifinal at the Capital One Orange Bowl. In doing so, he became the first kicker to make a go-ahead field goal in the fourth quarter of a playoff game.
"Coach [Marcus] Freeman talks a lot about delayed gratification," Jeter said. "He's been talking like that all the way back to Week 2, when the [loss to Northern Illinois] happened. So it's kind of been my mindset, going through an injury, having delayed gratification now to be able to come out and give our team a chance to go win a national championship."
In addition, Freeman is the first Black head coach to have a chance to win a college football national championship.
Jeter was not the only player who stepped up big Thursday night. Many of those clutch performances came from unexpected players. Cornerback Christian Gray came up with a huge play to set up the game-winning field goal, when he intercepted Penn State quarterback Drew Allar with 30 seconds left.
Defensive coordinator Al Golden called the play by the sophomore "amazing" because he recognized what Allar was doing and beat his receiver to the ball.
"Christian got a great break on it," Golden said. "And generally speaking, that kid works really hard on his hands, so if he has an opportunity to catch it, he usually does."
Added Freeman: "In that moment, Christian had to make a play and he did and was a huge reason why we won that game."
A game that was an offensive slog for the first three quarters turned into a back-and-forth contest in the fourth, as the teams combined to score four touchdowns in less than 10 minutes.
Notre Dame running back Jeremiyah Love, playing with a knee brace and at less than 100%, got the scoring going in the final quarter with a remarkable second effort from the 2-yard line, when he jumped through one tackle, stayed on his feet and dragged a defender with him into the end zone as his legs refused to stop moving to give the Irish a 17-10 lead.
Love usually celebrates his touchdowns by making a heart shape with his hands. But he forgot in the heat of the moment.
"I don't know what I was on that play, but I felt like some extra strength," Love said. "I just wanted to scream and rage. I just felt like the Hulk or something. I wasn't even thinking about throwing up the heart. It was just expressing the dominance I just asserted over them."
Penn State answered with two touchdown drives to take a 24-17 lead with 7:55 remaining. That is when Irish sophomore wide receiver Jaden Greathouse took his turn in the spotlight. On second-and-8 from the Notre Dame 46-yard line with 4:38 to go, Riley Leonard stepped back to throw. Greathouse made a move on Cam Miller, who fell down -- leaving Greathouse wide open in the middle of the field.
Leonard lofted the ball, and Greathouse caught it. He had a safety to beat, and one juke move later, Greathouse was in the end zone for a 54-yard touchdown pass to tie the score at 24.
"While I was out there, I really got a flashback to my 7-on-7 days in high school, and it was a similar play," Greathouse said. "And I was like, 'I just need to cut inside and I'll be in the end zone celebrating.'"
Greathouse finished with seven catches for 105 yards and a score -- the first 100-yard game of his career. He missed two days of practice earlier in the week because he was sick but said he woke up Thursday and believed, "Tonight is going to be my first 100-yard game."
That brought things back to Jeter and his opportunity to break a tie at 24. His injury saga goes back to Week 4, when he took a hit to a hip on an errant field goal snap against Miami (Ohio). He played through it, but a few weeks later against Stanford, he injured his groin. As time went on, his bones were not in perfect alignment -- and that affected his form.
Jeter missed four of his five field goal attempts in the final four games of the regular season. His father, Andrew, works as a chiropractor and offered to help get his body back into alignment. He would come to South Bend on Thursdays and then stay for several days to help Jeter get his body aligned so everything could heal properly.
"Bones were in places that they shouldn't have been," Jeter said. "That was my femur, my back, my hips. He was able to move those bones back into position where they're supposed to be, which allowed the healing process to almost accelerate."
Once the playoffs started, Jeter felt 100%. It has shown in his performance, as Jeter has gone 7-of-8 in three playoff games -- including several clutch kicks in the quarterfinal win against Georgia too.
Quarterback Steve Angeli -- another player who stepped up big, leading a field goal drive late in the first half with Leonard out of the game -- said the team has nicknamed Jeter "Mr. January."
"He is a confident guy, man," Freeman said. "There is no moment too big for Mitch Jeter. I had a lot of confidence in him in that moment that he was going to do exactly what he did, and he did a great job at doing that."
What's next for Penn State after Orange Bowl loss? It starts with James Franklin, who's 1-18 vs. top-5 teams
Penn State reached the College Football Playoff for the first time, but big missteps in big moments led to a heartbreaking 27-24 loss to Notre Dame in the Orange Bowl. Just like that, a promising season ends in the semifinals -- one win away from a national championship appearance.
Penn State (13-3) built a 10-0 lead, watched it evaporate and then traded jabs in a classic, back-and-forth fourth quarter that ultimately ended with Drew Allar throwing the game away with an interception. He entered the night with the best touchdown-to-interception ratio in Penn State history and had some NFL Draft analysts wondering if he should forgo another year in college, but he didn't look the part of a big-game quarterback, let alone an NFL star.
Making matters more frustrating: the Nittany Lions couldn't get much going offensively outside of tight end Tyler Warren, who is NFL Draft-bound after a 105-catch season, and running back Nick Singleton, another PSU star who could be headed to the pros. For Singleton and other members of a vaunted 2022 recruiting class that ranked No. 8 nationally, this season saw the fulfillment of expectations as the Nittany Lions made history in reaching the CFP and winning two games. But as the jewels of that class head off to the NFL, it's relevant to note Franklin has not recruited nearly as well in the time since. Does that mean a regression is coming?
It's been the same ol' story for the Nittany Lions over the last decade. They look like national contenders, only to fold in the biggest games of the season -- and it's not always for the same reasons or poor performances by certain players. Like water, the problems that plague Penn State can never be pinned down.
Penn State rushed for 204 yards and seemed unstoppable in the first half, but Notre Dame adjusted and held the Nittany Lions to only 63 yards on the ground in the second half. Still, Penn State led with five minutes remaining but then came a breakdown in the secondary for a Notre Dame touchdown and then Allar's big mistake. Also, Penn State was out-coached and out-gunned throughout the final 30 minutes.
What's next for the Nittany Lions as Franklin licks his wounds after an 11th season leading the program? Let's look ahead to 2025 by starting with the big man himself.
Has Penn State bumped its head against the ceiling with Franklin leading the program? The question is valid and the criticism is warranted. Heck, he's repeatedly banged his head against that barrier, actually. He dropped to 1-15 at Penn State in games against top-5 teams in the AP poll and 1-18 overall in his career with the loss Thursday night.
"Big Game" James has earned the moniker for all the wrong reasons. The close losses, the frustrating coaching decisions in tight games and critical situations, the lack of adjustments and, most damning, his demeanor with fans after losses add up as a combustible mix that oftentimes leads to sadness rather than happiness in Happy Valley.
On Thursday, Franklin impressively found a new way to choke. A 1-point favorite at kickoff, Penn State led Notre Dame 10-0, then fell apart and played catch-up for most of the second half. The Nittany Lions are an incredible 34-2 in games when leading by 10 points, but both losses occurred this season in the biggest games of the year (Ohio State and Notre Dame). Yikes.
The coach has made some tremendous off-the-field decisions, particularly with his hiring practices, but he seemingly negates that with in-game coaching and sideline presence. He puckers in the big ones -- whether it's a top-5 opponent or Big Ten rivals Ohio State and Michigan. There's no outlier here. Franklin has already painted a clear picture for us, and don't let your eyes tell you otherwise: he always falls short of expectations.
Penn State was in control in the first half Thursday night, dominating both lines of scrimmages and the coordinators were calling circles around their counterparts at Notre Dame. Then, adjustments were made by Notre Dame and Penn State didn't have enough answers in the back-and-forth fourth quarter as quarterback Allar again and again misfired in the backfield.
Simply put, Franklin caved under the pressure and Penn State's players subsequently followed his lead and collapsed. Players are a reflection of their coach. They look good on the field most of the time, but "close" doesn't win championships.
What else can Franklin do to change his ways and alter his course?
Penn State is set to lose at least five defensive linemen should superstar Abdul Carter jump to the NFL as many expect. And what about edge rusher Dani Dennis-Sutton, who was incredible in the CFP?
Call it blind confidence, but Penn State should be just fine along the defensive front. The Nittany Lions always produce amazing players in the trenches, and though Zane Durant might join Carter in the NFL Draft, there's enough up front to build for the future.
The Nittany Lions also lose safety Jaylen Reed but free safety Zakee Wheatley will be back after announcing in December his intention to return for another year. Safety Kevin Winston Jr., whose season ended in September due to injury, is also headed to the draft.
Andy Kotelnicki was exactly what Penn State needed this season to get over the hump, and there's reason to believe things will only improve in Year 2. Kotelnicki's creative scheme fueled Kansas in previous years and it was obvious he upgraded the Nittany Lions' offense in his first season, allowing Penn State to make its first-ever push into the CFP with a pair of wins.
Most notable: Penn State's hamstrung passing game, which ranked 109th in passes of 20-plus yards in 2023, jumped to 28th this season.
Allar announced in December he intends to return next season, his third straight as the Nittany Lions' starter. If he sticks with that decision, he gives Kotelnicki a pillar to build around in Year 2 of his offense in Happy Valley.
Penn State desperately needs more production and a gamebreaker at receiver. Julian Fleming didn't provide that this season in his return home after transferring from Ohio State. On Thursday night, the Nittany Lions didn't complete a single pass to a receiver.
The big question: what does this offense look like without Warren to rely upon? He had over 100 catches, received consideration for the Heisman Trophy, and was easily the most productive player on the field. Harrison Wallace III was the second-leading pass catcher, but finished with less than half of the catches Warren accounted for this season.
Meanwhile, running backs Singleton and Kaytron Allen have decisions to make about the NFL, too.
Our suggestion: scour the transfer portal and pay big bucks for a couple more receivers. Two such players are in the fold right now, but neither look like superstars and two won't cut it.
Notre Dame rallies to beat Penn State on last-minute field goal, advances to CFP national championship
Notre Dame is playing for a national title for the first time in 12 seasons.
Mitch Jeter made a 41-yard field goal with seven seconds left to give the Fighting Irish a 27-24 win over Penn State in the Orange Bowl on Thursday night. The Irish will play the winner of Friday's Ohio State vs. Texas matchup in the College Football Playoff title game on Jan. 20.
The kick came after Notre Dame's Christian Gray intercepted Penn State's Drew Allar with 33 seconds to go in Penn State territory.
Click here for Nick Bromberg's full game story
