On Saturday, #6 Ohio State faces #9 Notre Dame at Notre Dame Stadium (7:30 pm, NBC). It’s the top offering on a weekend when 12 of the AP’s Top 25 face each other.
Wow! That’s the only word that fits college football’s Week 4 schedule. It’s rare to have so many top-ranked teams squaring off before their respective conference seasons begin. In addition to the long-anticipated OSU-ND matchup, there’s #19 Colorado at #10 Oregon, #22 UCLA at #11 Utah, #15 Mississippi at #13 Alabama, #14 Oregon State at #21 Washington State, and #24 Iowa at #7 Penn State.
With so many top teams in action against each other, it’s certain that the AP Top 25 rankings will look different come Sunday.
But the winners won’t have an automatic advantage come College Football Playoff selection time. That’s because this weekend’s losers (potential one-loss teams) are still in the running, pending how conference play turns out.
Win or lose vs. ND, for Ohio State that means beating two other top-ranked teams on its schedule (Penn State and, of course, Michigan), taking care of business against Maryland, Purdue, Wisconsin, Rutgers, Michigan State, and Minnesota, and winning the B1G conference championship game.
And history is on its side this Saturday. While the Buckeyes and Irish haven’t squared off often (only seven times over the years), ND hasn’t beaten OSU since back-to-back wins in 1935 and 1936. The Bucks were victorious in the other five meetings, in the Fiesta Bowl (twice) in 2006 (34-20) and again in 2016 when QB J.T. Barrett (coach, Detroit Lions) passed for 211 yards and one touchdown, rushed for 108 yards, and nabbed offensive MVP honors in a 44-28 win. Then, last year in Columbus, QB C.J. Stroud (Houston Texans) passed for 232 yards and two touchdowns in a 21-10 victory.
Current Ohio State QB Kyle McCord (815 yards passing, six TDs), WR Marvin Harrison Jr. (304 yards, three TDs, 21.7 avg), RB TreVeyon Henderson (191 yards, four TDs), and LB Tommy Eichenberg (15 solo tackles/20 total tackles) lead the Buckeyes into South Bend.
There, they will face a Fighting Irish team averaging 45-plus points and nearly 510 yards of offense per game. Notre Dame QB Sam Hartman (Wake Forest transfer) has eclipsed the 1,000-yard mark already by passing for 1,061 yards and with 13 TDs, and RB Audric Estime has 521 yards rushing on 63 carries (8.3-yard average and six TDs). LB Jack Kiser anchors the Irish defense with 26 total tackles, 17 solo.
An Irish will keep ND in national championship contention as they go into consecutively tough games against Duke (home, September 30), Louisville (away, October 7), and USC (home, October 14). Challenges continue later in the season against Clemson (away, November 14) and Wake Forest (home, November 18).
ESPN’s Matchup Predictor gives OSU a 65%+ chance of winning, and the oddsmakers have OSU -3.
Either way, college football fans will be treated to an early-season delight when the Buckeyes (college football’s all-time leader by percentage wins, .733) roll into South Bend to face the iconic Irish of Notre Dame.
