Though they were ranked higher on this year’s AP poll and came into the College Football Playoff as a higher seed, Notre Dame enters the National Championship Game on Monday night against the Ohio State Buckeyes as significant underdogs. The Buckeyes have looked unstoppable, slicing through the top teams in the country like hot butter. Stephen A. Smith believes the key to an upset is for the Fighting Irish to “bring their hard hats.”
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Notre Dame needs to come ready to be physical and play tough against this uber-talented Ohio State roster. It’s a hard hat, lunch pail type of performance that Stephen A. is looking for from the Fighting Irish. Because based purely on talent, the Buckeyes have them beat, and by a wide margin.
“Now we’re looking at Notre Dame, and I’m looking at the physicality of the Notre Dame Fighting Irish. And here’s what I love: that’s the only chance they have. You can’t be the softer team tonight, you’re playing smash-mouth football. You’ve got to go up against Ohio State, which is clearly more talented offensively, and you’ve got to punk ’em to some degree. “
It’s pretty clear that Ohio State is the more talented team, not just “offensively,” as Stephen A. Smith points out, but on defense too. According to NFLDraftBuzz, 16 Buckeyes players rank in the top 200 prospects for the 2025 NFL Draft. By contrast, the Fighting Irish have just six of their players.
That said, Stephen A. was spot on: Notre Dame needs to play tough to have a chance as the underdog. It’s a recipe as old as time in sports. If you’re the underdog and you know your team has less talent than the opposition—and this is especially true in football—you need to turn what could be an unwinnable track meet into a winnable rock fight.
They can’t allow Ohio State’s speedy and talented skill players to fly around. As Smith says, they need to hit them hard, and hit them early, so whenever they go back out on the field they have the reminder of that hit in the back of their mind.
“You’ve got to put a hat on him. You’ve gotta put some elbows on ’em. You’ve got to let them know, this is a game tonight, you better bring your hard hat.”
The Buckeyes had a little hiccup when they lost their biggest rivalry game of the season as huge favorites against unranked Michigan on the last day of November. although, since then, Ryan Day’s group looked like a real juggernaut. In the CFP, they’ve beaten No. 7 Indiana by 25 points, No. 1 Oregon by 20 points, and No. 3 Texas by 14 points. And if they wish to continue this trend to a natty, playing tough and dirty will be necessary.
Co-host Shannon Sharpe also agreed that the Fighting Irish need to get down in the dirt and bring the Buckeyes with them in this game. However, the Hall of Fame TE also acknowledged that the most important thing is to keep this game close at all times — something none of those last three opponents were able to do.
“This needs to be a one-possession game. I don’t want Ohio State to be able to run and hide with a 21-point lead going into the 4th quarter. Because the longer this game goes, Ohio State’s like ‘Hold on, we’re better than this team. We supposed to be up 13, we supposed to be up 20, and we up 3? That’s the only chance Notre Dame has, is to get this game late.”
Notre Dame enters this game as surprisingly hefty +8.5 point underdogs on the spread. It will be interesting to see what quirky tactics the Fighting Irish use to overcome such a talent gap.