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Ryan McGee, ESPN Senior Author
Redemption. Retribution. Revenge.
Whichever of those R-words you revere most, all of them relate because the College Football Playoff rolls into the reckoning that’s this week’s semifinals — a quartet of tales which might be wildly diversified, however at their core basically the identical.
The long-awaited expanded playoff that started with a dozen groups is right down to 4. Obviously absent from the remaining discipline are the groups which have dominated the CFP since its inception. Clemson and Georgia have been eradicated. Oregon, ranked No. 1 for a lot of the season, additionally has been despatched residence. Former champs Alabama and LSU, together with final yr’s finalists Michigan and Washington, did not even make the sphere.
All of that has opened the doorways to those remaining 4 applications, giving them an opportunity to reverse their longtime reputations — in some instances, very, very longtime — with the large gold magic eraser that’s solely two wins from their grasps.
Notre Dame versus Penn State in the Orange Bowl. Ohio State versus Texas in the Cotton Bowl. Two of those groups will transfer on and get a shot at easing their perpetual ache. The opposite two will enter one other winter amid the acquainted vicious cycle of ice chilly doubt.
“I feel that a lot of that storyline in these video games will heart across the coaches, and that is high quality. We’re huge boys, we will deal with that,” stated James Franklin, in his eleventh season as Penn State’s head coach however in his first CFP. “However to me, the true story is the chance all of us must reward these nice universities and the individuals who have supported us via thick and skinny. To convey that championship feeling again to this city, that can make each single step to get there value it.”
There have been so many steps. However for these 4 applications, it appears each stride with traction has been inevitably outnumbered and slowed by slips and journeys on the turf of their most-despised rivals.
“The identical guys are within the room as was there a month in the past,” Ohio State coach Ryan Day stated late final week following his staff’s revenge win over Oregon, a staff it had misplaced to in October in Eugene. “Nothing that is occurred up to now or actually the noise that is [outside the] constructing has something to do with our preparation and our focus and our course of. That is what we have been diving into.
“We do not want any further motivation to win this recreation. One factor that does inspire our staff is a chance for the staff to play for an additional week collectively.”
The Buckeyes, with their much-ballyhooed NIL-powered roster, misplaced two video games in the course of the common season, most manifestly The Recreation in opposition to Michigan, a gross 13-10 defeat to the unranked Wolverines, their fourth rivalry loss in a row, therefore Day’s reference to “a month in the past.” It has been a decade since Ohio State celebrated its final nationwide title, this system’s eighth, earned within the very first version of the CFP. Even now, after rolling to playoff victories over Tennessee and Oregon, a big swath of OSU social media continues to be offended at Day for his lack of Huge Ten titles and wins in opposition to That Staff Up North.
Ohio State faces Texas, this system that coined the phrase “We’re again” solely to repeatedly lose that coin beneath the seat of its burnt orange pickup truck. The Longhorns spent a while this season, their first within the SEC, ranked No. 1 within the nation. However additionally they misplaced the 2 largest pre-CFP video games they performed, each in opposition to fellow part-time prime spot resident Georgia. Their final natty was earned in maybe the best faculty soccer recreation ever performed, closing out the 2005 season by beating USC within the Rose Bowl. However that was almost a decade earlier than the playoff existed, earned as a substitute within the eighth version of the BCS Championship Recreation.
“The historical past of what a spot is and the way it grew to become what it’s, is the very cause you wish to work right here, however there’s a stability in utilizing that previous to push into the longer term as a substitute of resting on laurels,” stated Steve Sarkisian, who’s in his fourth yr at coach in Austin however lived that very same past-as-prologue stability throughout stints at USC, Alabama and even his time as a participant at BYU.
“Individuals ask me concerning the stress from the followers, the individuals who have beloved the College of Texas their complete lives, however to me, it comes from doing proper by the names on the buildings and the statues and work you see of the coaches and gamers who had been right here earlier than us. I inform our guys that now we have an opportunity to be a type of folks. Eternally. However provided that we care for the right here and now.”
Your entire Notre Dame campus appears like what Sark described: one large soccer museum. Literal woken echoes standing watch over each quad and each hallway. South Bend is undeniably one of many cornerstones of faculty soccer. The place of Knute Rockne, the 4 Horsemen and a room stuffed with Heisman Trophies.
However whereas that Golden Domed historical past has all the time been its best asset, it has additionally proved to be its heaviest anchor, consistently pointed to as the one cause the unbiased program is allowed to stay within the huge room with the Energy 4 conferences. Critics have screamed, why else would a program that has been bounced out of two earlier CFP appearances and blown out in its lone BCS title recreation go to (a 42-14 loss to Alabama in 2012) hold getting postseason appears to be like? The freshest of the varsity’s 11 nationwide titles was received in January 1989, within the waning days of Ronald Reagan’s second time period as president. This season’s 13-1 staff has just one blemish, however it’s the equal of getting a large crimson pimple on the tip of 1’s nostril, an inexplicable Week 2 residence loss to Northern Illinois, which completed seventh within the 12-team MAC.
And no faculty soccer program has been dealt extra denial of glory than the one in State School, Pennsylvania. Like Day, Franklin is routinely ripped by his fan base, sad together with his file in huge video games. When the Nittany Lions defeated No. 8 Boise State within the CFP quarterfinals, Franklin’s mark in opposition to top-10 groups improved to 4-19. That file contains losses this season to Ohio State and Oregon, ranked No. 4 and No. 1, respectively, on the time.
However the unhappiness in Joyful Valley runs a lot deeper than merely this season. The Nittany Lions have posted 13 undefeated seasons however have solely two nationwide titles to point out for it, as Joe Paterno had 5 unbeaten groups that had been infamously denied nattys by pollsters and politics. The 1994 squad carried two Heisman finalists and 15 future NFL draft picks, received the Huge Ten and stomped Oregon within the Rose Bowl, however within the pre-BCS period was voted second behind Nebraska in each main polls. The varsity’s solely two nationwide titles additionally got here throughout Reagan’s presidency, received in 1982 and 1986.
For perspective, here is cell telephones from years of every CFP semifinalist’s final nationwide title: Ohio State, 2014. Texas, 2005. Notre Dame, 1988. Penn State, 1986. pic.twitter.com/EgL96u7h7z
— Ryan McGee (@ESPNMcGee) January 3, 2025
4 proud manufacturers. 4 basic faculty cities. 4 all-time powerhouse applications, all ranked among the many seven winningest groups within the 155-year historical past of the game. All, lastly, with the likelihood for renewal, revival, resurrection … no matter motivational R-word you select. So long as it leads to the discharge of repressed revelry Jan. 20 in Atlanta.
“This job is like no different due to what it’s, the place it’s, and I feel the opposite three coaches will in all probability inform you an identical about their jobs,” stated Marcus Freeman, in solely his third full season as Notre Dame’s head coach. He celebrated his first birthday the week after Penn State received its final nationwide title and blew out three candles proper after Notre Dame’s natty. He’s additionally a former All-Huge Ten linebacker at Ohio State who performed in opposition to Penn State and Texas. “One in every of my favourite facets of this job, and I feel they’ll inform you an identical, is the prospect to teach folks on the unimaginable historical past of this place. The possibility so as to add to that historical past, restore a few of it and the satisfaction that comes with it, that is not stress. That is a privilege.”
