Notre Dame’s secondary is preparing to stand toe-to-toe with an Ohio State receiving corps held above all others in college football.
It’s not that the Fighting Irish opt exclusively for man-to-man over zone coverage schemes, but man-to-man is their bread and butter. Notre Dame plays Cover-1 – that’s one safety in a deep zone and man coverage for the rest of the secondary – at a rate higher than anyone else in college football, per Pro Football Focus. The Domers have done so with great success, ranked third nationally at just 5.8 yards allowed per pass attempt.
And they don’t intend on changing their identity when they face off with Buckeye wideouts Jeremiah Smith, Emeka Egbuka and Carnell Tate in the College Football Playoff national championship game on Monday.
“A lot of teams have went to the zone mindset when playing them,” Notre Dame cornerback Leonard Moore said on Wednesday. “I think Penn State played a decent amount of man. That's their identity. But I think that going into this game we're not going to change who we are. We're going to play man coverage like we do every week. We're going to go out there and challenge their receivers.”
Texas was able to table Ohio State’s passing attack for stretches of the CFP semifinals on Dec. 10.
The Longhorns, the No. 1 pass defense in college football at 5.7 yards per attempt, have been a zone-heavy team for the past four seasons under defensive coordinator Pete Kwiatkowski. With Thorpe Award-winning cornerback Jahdae Barron leading the charge, Texas might have been the first team to successfully remove Smith from Ohio State’s passing attack as he finished with just one reception for three yards.
Quarterback Will Howard’s final stat line was solid, going 24-of-33 (73%) for 289 yards, but he also tossed an interception and six other Ohio State drives ended in punts. Still, he piloted a 13-play, 88-yard touchdown trek on the Buckeyes’ final full possession of the game that proved the winning score of a 28-14 victory.
“I think they rolled some things to Jeremiah to try to take him away, some bracket coverages and a guy inside, guy outside, guy over the top,” Ohio State offensive coordinator Chip Kelly said. “Will did a great job of diagnosing what they were doing. I think Carnell had a huge game for us. Mek had five (receptions). Carnell had seven. I thought the tight ends, the combination of Gee (Scott Jr.) and Will (Kacmarek), did a great job. And then obviously the backs out of the backfield. So the beauty of what we have is we have more than one weapon.”
Notre Dame’s statistical output in pass defense – the Fighting Irish are also No. 2 in pass yards allowed per game at 165.3 – is even more impressive considering they lost their top cornerback, Benjamin Morrison, to a season-ending hip injury on Oct. 12. But they still have plenty of pieces remaining.
Safety Xavier Watts joined Ohio State’s Caleb Downs as a consensus first-team All-American after a fantastic 2024, collecting 74 tackles and six interceptions with a pick-six and nine pass breakups. As Cover-1 centerfielders go, Watts is arguably the nation’s best.
Flanking him are cornerbacks Christian Gray and Moore as nickel Jordan Clark matches up with slot receivers. The trio have a combined six interceptions and 24 PBUs.
“They got a little more size on them. They play man,” Tate said of Notre Dame’s cornerbacks. “That's what they've been doing all year, so they’ve got a lot of reps at it.”
Rounding out the defensive backfield is strong safety Adon Shuler, who’s pitched in 55 tackles and three interceptions with a pick-six and five PBUs this season. All told, Notre Dame is No. 5 nationally with 19 interceptions and has returned five of them for touchdowns, the most in the country.
“You look at how much man they play, and the reason they do it is because they can,” Kelly said. “And no one's really exploited that with them. So I think they all can cover. It's not like, well, just stay away from him and throw against this guy. I think all of them are really, really skilled. And I think how coordinated it is with the whole group, that they all have an understanding of where they're supposed to be, when they're supposed to be there.”
Still, there is perhaps no group of wide receivers harder to man up against than Ohio State’s. Smith has still been an absolute beast with 71 receptions for 1,227 yards and 14 touchdowns in his first year at the collegiate level. Egbuka needs just three catches to set the Buckeyes’ career receptions record and 95 yards to collect that career record, too. As the team’s third wideout, Tate has 234 more receiving yards (698, all told) than Notre Dame’s leading receiver, Jaden Greathouse.
“I think 29 (Gray) and 15 (Moore) both do a great job,” Howard said. “I think No. 1 (Clark) in the slot is a solid player. I think obviously the No. 0 (Watts) is a stud. I think all across the board, man, they got guys. But I mean, we got guys, too.”
“I think all across the board, man, they got guys. But I mean, we got guys, too.”– Will Howard on Notre Dame's secondary
The Fighting Irish will still throw plenty of looks at Howard and company other than Cover-1, but the prevalence of man will be something Ohio State has seen very little of this season. If the Buckeyes can reliably win matchups, it will often directly lead to open receivers.
“Al Golden does a great job with that defense,” Kelly said. “They mix and match their coverages. I think they're one of the top pass defenses in the country, and it shows. I think they're well coordinated, their front and back end work really well together. That's a challenge that we're going to have on Monday night.”
Should Ohio State’s passing game get rolling as it did against Oregon and Tennessee – both 300-yard outings for Howard and 100-yard outings for Smith – it will go a long way toward the Buckeyes’ first national championship in a decade.
“We've come all this way, but it means really nothing if we don't finish it the right way and win this last one,” Howard said. “I mean, it's the national championship. I would hope that we don't need much more motivation than that.”
