Begrudgingly, we must accept Notre Dame is a football program like no other.
A quick examination into the history of competitive athletics in the United States shows the Irish are the most loathed and loved in this sport and every other. The New York Yankees are probably second, and if you just arrived on our little blue planet - welcome to earth, and you'll never believe which college football team most Yankee fans support.
According to a statistic I just made up that I'm willing to bet my life is directionally accurate, 38% of Notre Dame fans don't follow college football at all. They're just Notre Dame fans. They might enjoy other sports, or no sports at all. A program like no other. Begrudgingly.
You know how if you're from Ohio and went to, like, Bowling Green or Akron - it's acceptable and common for the Buckeyes to still be your preferred football team because that's how you were raised? But also, Go Falcons, Go Zips. You get it. The rest of America is exactly like that with the Fighting Irish along with whatever college or high school they dropped out of.
We're into our second century of college football existing, and exactly three programs have enjoyed significant win streaks against Notre Dame. The first two were the result of fortunate timing.
Michigan State won every game it played with Notre Dame between 1955-1963. The Irish scored a total of 48 points during the span; quick math - that's a cool six points per game for eight years. Sparty's peak as a nationally-relevant program came during an extended transition in South Bend.
Two months after Jesse Owens humiliated Adolf Hitler at the 1936 Berlin Olympics, Notre Dame beat Ohio State in football. The Irish have not beaten the Buckeyes since.
Their eight-game heater took place between the Frank Leahy and Ara Parseghian eras at Notre Dame, during which time the Irish were coached by Terry Brennan, Joe Kuharich and then Hugh Devore. Eight years, three coaches. That's when you get'em, and Sparty got'em.
The second program to eat at Notre Dame's expense was Southern Cal, who got eight in a row against Ty Willingham and Charlie Weis while Pete Carroll was lifting the Trojans to 21st century heights.
Both MSU and USC got their streaks in during over a single, consecutive-season span. It's easier to catch programs on upswings or in gutters when you get them every year. Exerting this kind of consistent mastery over a single, historic program against the course of several decades is far more difficult. It's too variable to chalk up to a bad coaching hire or three.
You saw where this was heading four paragraphs ago. The third and final program to put Notre Dame in a blender for an extended period since college football was conceived is your Ohio State Buckeyes, who have now beaten the Irish seven straight times spanning four decades.
The teams the Buckeyes have beaten during this active heater were all ranked, with the 1995 Irish coming in the lowest at no.15. Since then, it's been a top-10 affair every time - Notre Dame was ranked 5, 6, 8, 5, 9 and 5, respectively beginning with the 1996 rematch in South Bend and ending with the 2024 CFP title game in Atlanta.
The Irish made their My Favorite Things debut back in June 2000 in the throes of the pandemic. They've lost to the Buckeyes three more times since then, which calls for an episode refresh. Let's run it back. Wake up the echoes, as they say.
Shake down the thunder from the sky - here come the Irish again. Welcome back to My Favorite Things.
EPISODE 21: HERE COME THE IRISH AGAIN
*screeeeeeeeech*
So, should we just fast-forward to the natty? Skipping straight to Atlanta deprives us of that magical night when Syracuse's quarterback-in-waiting handed off to Arizona State's backup linebacker (who became Ohio State's 3rd string running back before becoming Kentucky's back-up running back but possibly Toledo's next starting running back) for the game-winner against an Irish defense choosing to play with only 10 guys.
A magical night indeed. It's not the stuff Buckeye fan tattoos are made of, but it happened and we were delighted in the moment. Is relitigating that evening productive or enjoyable?
SUB-QUESTION do we really need to relive Jaxson Smith-Njigba's junior season being derailed by an injury against the Fighting Irish during an evening whose pregame hype was far more memorable than the otherwise forgettable game which followed?
In 1935, the Ohio State Marching band was still 33 years away from Woody Hayes casually referring to it as "the best damn band in the land" during a pep rally and inadvertently renaming it.
We will not be skipping anything, comrades. The Buckeyes are national champions in an era - still in-progress - where we're learning valuable, necessary lessons about entitlement.
If the past five years have taught us anything, boring wins over Michigan are infinitely more enjoyable than exciting losses to the Wolverines. Take nothing for granted. Ohio State beating Notre Dame is special, even if the game itself was not.
But we're not jumping to where Episode 13 concluded in 2020 just yet. Episode 21 is a remix, so we're still starting 90 years ago when this non-rivalry all began. This is going to be comprehensive, but it won't take 90 years to capture it all. Nine thousand words, sure.
By 1935 when Notre Dame showed up on Ohio State's home schedule for the first time ever, the football program in Columbus had found its religion and its footing. The university constructed a brand-new cathedral in which to conduct Saturday services.
This was the second season the Ohio State Marching Band transitioned to the all-brass and percussion format it still uses today, in a move to be better heard in its massive, still-new stadium. The band was still 33 years away from Woody casually referring to it as the best damn band in the land during a pep rally, creating the nickname which stuck for the ages.
No one called them TBDBITL in 1935. But they were loud as hell, as was the football team.
The Buckeyes were riding a 10-game winning streak which spanned two seasons - they weren't even allowing five points a game during that stretch. Meanwhile, Notre Dame already had six national titles. This would be the first clash of major religions.
GAME 1: 1935 - GAME OF THE CENTURY
The 81,000 fans packed into Ohio Stadium was a new record, and not even the Great Depression could keep ticket demand down with a scalper rate starting at a cool $1,200 apiece in 2025 dollars.
Elmer Layden was the second-year Irish head coach and athletic director, having taken over for the late Knute Rockne. You might recognize Elmer as the second guy from the left in this picture. Here's the only highlight we'll hang onto, and not just because 85-year old football game film is hard to come by.
Insane: Football being played in the 1940s pic.twitter.com/XPJ5s7Esmf
— Dov Kleiman (@NFL_DovKleiman) March 15, 2025
This remix includes colorized ancient game film - yes, both teams are wearing their home kits. Gorgeous.
That's Frank Antenucci picking off Layden's younger brother Mike and then lateraling to Frank Boucher, completing an extremely rare Frank-to-Frank Ohio State touchdown in your box score. The Buckeyes owned the first three quarters of the game and Notre Dame was lucky to be in it at all.
But Layden the coach made terrific halftime adjustments while Francis Schmidt went into full Tresselball mode. Ohio State's 13-0 lead was shaved to 13-6, then 13-12 with two minutes remaining. The Buckeyes fumbled while trying to run out the clock and Bill Shakespeare (no relation, maybe) threw the winning touchdown pass with seconds remaining.
Look at this nightmare. It's 1998 Sparty dark magic 63 seasons in advance. We were warned!
| 1Q | 2Q | 3Q | 4Q | FINAL | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| notre dame | 0 | 0 | 0 | 18 | 18 |
| ohio state | 7 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 13 |
Imagine dropping over a G during the Great Depression to attend the biggest college football game up to that point in college football history - and being treated to an 18-0 heartbreaker in the final frame. Out-R-Inn and Varsity Club didn't exist yet, and Prohibition had just ended two years earlier. Our ancestors barely knew how to cope with that 4th quarter.
According to at least one historian, this game was the worst thing that happened in America during the Great Depression. But the losers knew they would have another shot the following year in South Bend.
GAME 2: 1936 - THE SEQUEL
The 50,000 fans packed into Notre Dame Stadium was a new record, and not even the Great Depression could keep ticket demand down - if this sounds familiar, it should. All good sequels have elements from the original. Unfortunately, all bad sequels do too.
Ohio State lost 7-2 on Halloween afternoon in a downpour. Notre Dame scored on the only drive it was able to sustain - which also ended up being the only touchdown the Buckeyes allowed over the final five weeks of that season.
In the end, the Buckeyes were screwed by officiating because it got dark in an era which predated stadium lights. This impaired everyone's vision, including those of the officiating crew. Notre Dame swept the series, and the Buckeyes and Irish would not schedule another game - or meet during the postseason - for six decades.
GAME 3: 1995 - GAME 2 OF 2 THE 2 CENTURY
The 95,537 fans packed into Ohio Stadium was a new record, and the Buckeyes hosted 18 members of the 1935 team during the pregame so the little millennial children could appreciate a piece of 60-year old bitterness before pads started flying.
Keith Jackson, who was seven in 1935, did the play-by-play for the reunion game, which had a year of hype leading up to it. Here's how he described the buildup to the 1995 game:
Sixty years in the making, a thunderous roll of hoopla
You read that in his voice. HOOP-la, it's all about the syllable emphasis with the voices you remember.
Sixty years earlier Ohio State was rounding into form as a major program, and 60 years later it was doing so again coming out of the 1980s when the entire Big Ten had relegated itself into regional relevance. Growing pains shifting from a two-team conference to something a little more competitive brought the two bullies down a peg.
Meanwhile, Notre Dame had won the 1988 natty and then came excruciatingly close to another in 1993. The last time the Irish warmed up on the field in Ohio Stadium, Orville Wright was sitting in the bleachers. Did he fly to Columbus that morning from Dayton? It's rhetorical, he flew to campus in our hearts. And possibly in an actual plane.
Eddie George's first carry was encouraging, which is a weird thing to read about him in 2025. In 1995, you were not quite yet convinced because in 1992 he wore the label of converted linebacker. In 1993 fans were annoyed he wasn't already at Robert Smith or Raymont Harris-level consistent. Eddie was just okay in 1994.
This was 1995. He was not a Heisman candidate, because it was September and in 1995 we weren't as impatient or wired to be clicky with September Heisman Candidate-bait as we are now. His first carry came on counter-left, and if Demetrius Stanley (RIP) makes his block - this might be a touchdown.
Ohio State didn't score. The Irish scored first on a 20-yard FG by Mike Kafka, no relation to Bill Shakespeare; possible relation to William. Ohio State could not get its shit together early on, and the visitors got ball back, drove a little further than they should have when Mike Vrabel roughed up Ron Powlus - leading to Randy Kinder punching it in to go up 10-0.
Roles had been reversed 60 years earlier when the home team had jumped out to a multi-score lead. Surely, the 18 refugees from the 1935 loss may have found comfort in believing nature brings balance, and a comeback would be imminent. Perhaps it would be the Buckeyes storming back late after the Irish clammed up in the 2nd half. Perhaps this is foreshadowing.
Perhaps you've forgotten Minnesota had both Smith and Korey Stringer at the same time. The Vikings had a well-timed bye that week in the NFL, which allowed them both to return home.
Lynn Swann asked Stringer what young Orlando Pace needed to do in filling for his absence, and Stringer was dumbfounded by the question. His answer was basically well, he's Orlando Pace, he should just do that and Ohio State will be fine. Good answer.
Buster Tillman made the Buckeyes' first big play of the afternoon. He was the fastest wide receiver Ohio State had entering that season, which was notable because Stanley wasn't exactly slow himself.
A former walk-on had made the starting lineup alongside those two, and earlier that spring he raised quite a few eyebrows with his speed and ability. More on him shortly. In case it's not already obnoxious, this section is going to contain gratuitous quantities of foreshadowing because 30 years after it took place, it's now lore. Readers of a certain age know what's going to happen, so we pretend for our own benefit that the inevitable is going to be sneaky. It hasn't been sneaky in 30 years.
That walk-on shows up toward the end of the highlight. It's Terry Glenn, casually breaking the sound barrier to throw a block to embarrass two Notre Dame defenders. Also foreshadowing.
Irish defensive backs Shawn Wooden and Allen Rossum entered the game hyped as the fastest players in football (Rossum would win the NFL's Fastest Player competition a full decade later). They were both burners, by any other measure. We're just throwing bits at you to remember a few paragraphs and GIFs from now.
This drive ended with Glenn scoring Ohio State's first touchdown against Notre Dame in 61 years. He had just had a decent outing the previous week in Pittsburgh, so he wasn't exactly coming out of nowhere yet.
George wasn't a Heisman finalist yet, but Glenn was creating Biletnikoff buzz earlier than any wide receiver in college football history. No hyperbole. The award had been created the previous year.
The Irish marched right back down the field and Kinder got his second touchdown. Would the 1995 Buckeye defense ever get run over like this again by a running back history has otherwise largely forgotten? What an awkwardly worded and horrifying question. The score was now 17-7 Irish, and the game was beginning to feel like a mismatch.
It was an era where Ohio State was losing big non-conference games, usually in postseason destinations which they had gotten to via heartbreaking losses. Being down 10 to a foreign program felt familiar, like they play a different sports than us tummy gurgles.
Ohio State QB Bobby Hoying alternated between underthrowing and overthrowing receivers on the next drive, while Pace was vomiting on the sideline and had to head to the locker room. It didn't feel good, but it was still early. Those who had watched the 1935 team take an 18-0 lead into the 4th quarter were unbothered.
Hoying's passing accuracy did not improve, which is why Stanley had to do this to close out Ohio State's next drive with a touchdown. This was supposed to be a back shoulder throw. Oops, wrong shoulder; didn't matter.
Wooden zigged (correct move!) and Stanley zagged (improvisation!) and *Keith Jackson voice* folks, we HAVE ourselves a FOOT ball game.
It was 17-14 heading into halftime despite feeling like Notre Dame should be up 21. Hoying was 10-17 for 152 and two TDs, with 51 of it being YAC on the Tillman catch/Glenn sonic boom.
The misses were striking but the makes were keeping the Buckeyes in contention with the rushing game largely absent. George had been every bit of the 1992/93/94 enigma which meant he was playing as every Buckeye fan expected him to.
Charlie Ream was one of those 18 guys from the 1935 team in the building that afternoon. He talked about Ohio State winning the 2nd half during his sideline interview like it was a foregone conclusion. The real ones: they always know.
Ream said this as Notre Dame was taking the opening kickoff down the field for a 17-play drive that ended with a field goal. It was evident Holtz was just trying to get out of town, having burned half of the 3rd quarter to the ground for three points.
It was a masterclass in Tresselball to that point, and the following Ohio State drive fizzled quickly. But then, the whole world changed. Tresselball works only when a team doesn't make catastrophic mistakes.
A break? In the 1990s? This type of fortune largely eluded the Buckeyes during the 1990s, and here's the scary thing - we were only halfway through the decade at this point. This felt like our fortunes turning, finally - perhaps the whole decade wouldn't be an orgy of missed opportunities!
The short field gave the Buckeyes what they needed and Hoying found Rickey Dudley for a touchdown in the middle of the field. Ohio State now had a one-point lead despite being outplayed for nearly three quarters.
Notre Dame's special teams had set up that score for the Buckeyes, and they wanted to make things right. But instead, they took the kickoff and did this.
Of course they recovered their own fumble. We had pivoted right back to 1990s normalcy.
Ohio Stadium was not conditioned to aw shucks the lost opportunity. The crowd was re-engaged and cheering at a high level, intent on giving the home team every possible advantage it needed to preserve and possibly build on its lead.
The visitors still chunked their way down the field, unbothered. But then on 3rd and 10, Ron Pawlus decided to pick on Shawn Springs. That rarely ever went well for quarterbacks at any level.
Springs got himself an interception. The following season, he barely participated in pass defense as offenses got wise to picking on less formidable defensive backs, like, uh, future Thorpe Award winner Antoine Winfield. BIA wasn't called that back in 1995, but then again Silver Bullets didn't exist as a name until the following season.
In any other game, a diving over-the-shoulder interception by a defensive back might be remembered more vividly as a turning point in a football game, except the 2nd half of the 1995 Notre Dame game had more jarring twists than the least complicated Christopher Nolan movie. Like, oh that's right that happened too.
I forgot about Springs' INT until rewatching the game, partially because I forgot about the years prior to the 1996 season, when Ohio State's opponents only used two-thirds of the field.
Hell of a catch, either way. Some cynicism, from Episode 13:
Had Springs picked this off in 2020, replay review would have eaten up 15 minutes before determining there was insufficient evidence to overturn it. Or maybe they would have overturned it. Maybe they would have given Clemson possession. Hey, who knows.
Hey, nothing has changed in 2025!
Sixty years of frustration had been promoted in the multi-year buildup to this afternoon. Ohio State has never beaten Notre Dame, ever story correctly said. But at this moment, Ohio Stadium didn't care about the 1930s.
It was ready to explode. Football isn't just a game of inches. It's a game of timing. The timing felt right.
It was at this moment the broadcast went to the sideline where Swann was now interviewing Actual Notre Dame Alumnus Regis Philbin, who pulled a Gutter From P.C.U. and wore the shirt of the band he was going to see to the concert.
There's nothing wrong with this, by the way. Wear whatever makes you happy. Regis was a spry 64 years old in 1995 and had already lived more life than most of us ever will. He was Rat Pack-adjacent as Joey Bishop's sidekick, he hosted a show with Mary Hart in the 1980s and a bunch of game shows you're too young to remember where no one won a million dollars.
He earned the right to wear whatever he wanted to, which is the same privilege you have. Swann asked him to predict what was in store for his Fighting Irish, and Reeg didn't hold back:
We're coming back! We're going to win!
You just read that in his voice. The very next snap could not have been timed any better.
The two turnovers the Irish lost became two Buckeye touchdowns, and the Regis interview marked the moment the 1995 Ohio State-Notre Dame game tipped in favor of the home team. Rossum was boat-raced by a former walk-on. That's 82 yards through the heart of the Hillbilly Vatican.
That single play was a complete emasculation of the Irish secondary. Even Josh Metellus wasn't humiliated like this back before a desperate Jim Harbaugh mortgaged the Michigan football program into becoming a vessel committed to systemic cheating so his career could be revived before escaping to the NFL and leaving multiple NCAA investigations for his alma mater to try and discredit.
Hahaha who are we kidding, of course Metellus was humiliated exactly like this 23 years later. As for 1995, that play produced one of the more memorable YACs Ohio Stadium will ever witness.
The offseason is ripe with debates over Best Plays, Loudest Moments, Mount Rushmores, etc - it is the opinion of the person writing this sentence that the moment it was clear the two fastest guys from the visiting team were going to be emasculated on this play, the sound briefly hit a holy shit level which had never been heard previously.
It hit again when Will Smith recovered John Navarre's fumble in the 4th quarter of the 2002 Michigan game and then minutes later again when Will Allen picked him off to end the game and Actually Beat Michigan. But they're different sounds, aren't they?
Glenn running faster than anyone ever had on that field was a holy shit, no way sound. Smith recovering the fumble was a holy shit, is this really happening sound. Allen ending the game was a holy shit, my spirit is leaving my body and going to Tempe without me sound.
Honorable mention to Chris Gamble's pick-six against Penn State from earlier that season, which produced a holy shit, we might go undefeated sound. Ohio Stadium crowd sounds tell you all you need to know. That sound never lies. Glenn was one of one, and this was the only play you ever needed to see to understand why.
The video, however glorious, will never do it justice. Being in the building as a play like this is unfolding in real time has no substitute. Prior to Holy Buckeye, this was what I watched on repeat if I ever just needed a jolt. Sometimes 20 seconds of giant teenagers doing great things reminds you that you're alive at a marvelous time in history.
Glenn had nine catches for 253 yards and four touchdowns the previous week against the Panthers. Eddie wasn't a Heisman candidate at this moment, but Terry was. People forget.
If you're the Notre Dame secondary and you're preparing for Tillman, Stanley and a Guy Who Had Nine Catches for 253 and Four Tuddies the previous week, you should focus on him.
The Irish, to their credit, focused on him. It didn't matter. They were now committed to making sure he couldn't damage them anymore than he already had. This, of course, created a wider berth for Ohio State's eventual Heisman winner to launch his own game-wrecking ability.
That fumbled punt changed everything and now all the Irish touched was slippery. Springs rattled them. Glenn sent them spinning. Notre Dame got the ball back and promptly let it go.
The visitors were spiraling. Matt Bonhaus recovered the fumble, Eddie punched it in a few plays later - and suddenly it's 35-20 Buckeyes. The Irish finally stopped fumbling and scored to cut it to 35-26. But they would get no closer.
We'll close with some icing that produced the Accidental Renaissance photo of Eddie, which has since been reproduced by a different Ohio State running back in every meeting. Tradition!
After another Eddie touchdown it was 45-26 Buckeyes. That ended up being the final score, and suddenly 1995 felt like a different season. It had taken 60 years, but Ohio State had finally beaten the Irish.
GAME 4: 1996 - NO REVENGE
The Ohio State offense looked almost entirely different: Hoying was now Stanley Jackson with a sprinkling of Joe Germaine. Eddie was now Pepe Pearson. Terry was now David Boston.
So, some things stayed the same. The opening kickoff set the tone for the entire afternoon.
That's how you start a damn football game. Stanley seemed surprised he had gotten past the 40 without being touched and didn't exactly have his afterburners on, which is evident since his slower teammates - like tight end D.J. Jones - are closing on him.
A team returning an opening kickoff like that should set the tone for the entire game, and in this case it was indicative of the outcome. That feels like a statistic which should have some iron-clad guarantees attached, but alas it doesn't. This is both good and bad if you're a Buckeye fan.
Eleven seasons later, Ted Ginn would take the opening kickoff of the first-ever BCS title game to the house, but the rest of the game didn't resemble those 12 seconds at all. This was bad.
Eleven years after that, Saquon Barkley housed the opening kickoff in Ohio Stadium, but the Buckeyes still prevailed. Opening kickoffs can be devastating, and maybe the 1996 Buckeyes didn't need this one. It certainly helped, however. This was good.
A week earlier, David Boston ran a punt in for a touchdown against Pitt where the Ohio State special teams unit only sent eight players onto the field. Best special teams unit ever? Unfortunately, special teams includes place kickers. The return game was delightful that season.
The Buckeyes punched it in with nothing fancy, only brutality. A home crowd primed to help right the previous season's wrong was quickly muted. Josh Jackson whiffed the PAT and it was 6-0 road team.
The defense forced a punt, but a deflected Jackson pass became an interception which gave the Irish the ball on the doorstep and an easy TD. Ohio State was now trailing for the first time that season. They trailed four more times that season, only losing once. The Usual, back then.
The 1996 Buckeyes weren't a team that played from behind, because when a team is as good as this one was - losing was a choice. Ohio State was significantly better than every team it faced that year.
On this afternoon visiting a stadium none of its predecessors had seen since The Great Depression, they did not seem shaken at all. They were favoring the left side of their offensive line, hitting it repeatedly with Pepe, Matt Keller and true freshman Michael Wiley.
Jackson was unfazed by his deflected pick and looked as good as he would look in his entire career that afternoon, following up that drive with dart after dart and throwing his receivers open.
Jackson hit John Lumpkin downfield, used what in that era would be considered tempo and then flipped a touchdown pass to Matt Calhoun moments later. It's not Jeremiah Smith running a half-orbit motion route and trotting in at their expense, but it's the same cruel philosophy against the same program on the same side of the field.
History always repeats itself. If you've gotten this far down and thought when is he going to draw a line from Matt Calhoun to Jeremiah Smith you can tap out now, we're done.
That's two very quick touchdowns in South Bend, sandwiching the mistake that had given the Irish their score. The Buckeyes would go for two and fail, keeping it 12-7.
We don't have to dwell on the importance of having a serviceable kicker, but here's the thing. It shouldn't be this hard. The 1996 Buckeyes made this too hard.
Sixty-one years earlier the Irish had missed all three of their PATs en route to their 18-13 victory. History would not repeat itself, but spooky college football rhythms are underrated ghosts of the game.
And this game was not competitive, at all. Score be damned. Ohio State should have had more points than this, but there was nothing mysterious about which team could command the other.
No one in the stadium had taken a pee break yet and it was already 127-19 Buckeyes in yardage - and recall Ohio State's first possession began deep in Irish territory on account of Stanley's kickoff return. This felt more inevitable than cautiously optimistic.
The only thing keeping this game from looking like the Pitt game the previous week was...right, Ohio State, which opened the 2nd quarter by missing a field goal and now there were five points missing from the Buckeyes' output.
Notre Dame had a decent little drive that ended with Luke Fickell getting the second and final INT of his career. Ohio State's ensuing 11-play drive produced a field goal, and it's now a 15-7 blowout.
Pearson, who backed up Robert Smith at Euclid, was now over 100 yards rushing in the 1st half. When this happens this quickly on a team's home field, quiet quitting becomes possible.
It's the phenomenon which takes place when a team is outmatched and every player simultaneously expects someone else to make a play and save them.
No one was making plays for Notre Dame, which created the appearance that they were playing half-awake. The coverage here is perfectly fine! But Wiley was intent on making the play, whereas his defenders seemed to be fine with just being in position. Result - chunk play.
Even though the scoreboard wasn't showing nail biter, the stats were saying otherwise. Ohio State's players even walked up to the line of scrimmage differently - like they were excited for every play to show Notre Dame how bad today was going to get for them.
Maybe it was something they saw on film, or enough season had already transpired in September that the players knew despite losing the Biletnikoff and Heisman winners to the NFL, they were truly a national championship-caliber team featuring a defense that would allow nine points a game while the Irish were at best as good as they were last season.
The parallels to the season we just finished enjoying with 1996 are eerie - both teams had true freshman superstars, the best defense in the country, special teams that could flash or fart during any given moment - and they both held Michigan to 13 points while losing at home.
This similarity is especially apparent when rewatching the 1996 Notre Dame game.
The yardage disparity is jaw-dropping, and yet this was a one-score game. The 2024 team got a redemption pass with the CFP. If you're old enough to remember watching these guys, imagine what the 1996 team could have done with a similar arc.
There's no hindsight involved - the answer is they would not have unlocked and uncorked their offensive potential as dramatically as the 2024 team did against Tennessee, Oregon and Notre Dame until downshifting with a sizable lead. They needed every one of the 60 minutes in Pasadena just to hit 20 points in beating previously undefeated Arizona State.
Some teams have to win with defense and grit, and this one almost did it. The 2002 team was the best example we've ever seen of this working to national title perfection.
As Gottfried Leibniz said to Christian Wolff and his rabid pack of math groupies: Fellas, scoring points makes winning easier. It sounds more profound in the original German.
The 1996 Buckeyes are in the argument for least efficient juggernaut in program history. They're in 1st-and-goal territory, so what's next here, another field goal? Nope, they'd save that puckery for the Michigan game (three times!) but Notre Dame produced no such red zone anxiety.
Pepe walked into the endzone on the next play. The 2nd half was more of Ohio State putting the home team in a headlock than lighting up the scoreboard. This game felt over about 20 seconds after the opening kickoff, and from that point on it was just sanctioned, beautiful cruelty.
Rude visitors making the little red splotches in the crowd happy and everyone else sad.
Jones scored the Buckeyes' final touchdown and the series was now tied at two. Rob Kelly picked off Powlus to close the business that afternoon, and here's Coop racing across the field to provide unsolicited security for what appeared to be a burgeoning riot.
It produced the only moments of interest in that 2nd half - game was long over, but ooh ahh are we going to get a brawl? The scuffle was stopped before it started, as was Powlus' Heisman campaign - which had begun his freshman year when the late Beano Cooke declared he would match Archie Griffin and win two of them before his eligibility was up.
Some people have compared Coop to Ryan Day for Novemberish reasons, but it's beyond debate that Ohio State has never had two coaches quite like them when it came to covering ground on the sideline.
For all the things Coop did and didn't get done during his years on Ohio State's sideline, we've memory-holed how often and quickly he matriculated down the sideline in moments of excitement.
Moments later, it was all over. These programs had exchanged sweeps, 60 years apart. And now Notre Dame was off the schedule. The Buckeyes and Fighting Irish would not see each other again until the 21st century.
GAME 5: 2006 - HOME AWAY FROM HOME
Charlie Weis was now running God's team, restoring the glory to Notre Dame that Ty Willingham had previously restored from George O'Leary and Bob Davie and yeah 10 years later Notre Dame was that dilapidated church that still had America's most loyal congregation.
Meanwhile, Tempe was where Ohio State lived in January - it was the third trip in four years, all of which featured the Buckeyes getting leads, squandering them by way of clamming up and then winning the game anyway! The only thing unpredictable about Tresselball was [NOTHING EXISTS HERE].
The Irish scored first on a drive punctuated by Darius Walker slicing up the Buckeye defense, which was jarring to the fans but the team did not seem to be the least bit concerned, because Ohio State correctly figured it had an unlimited number of big plays in them against this defense.
Like every Irish defensive back before him in the color television portion of this series, this game was Ambrose Wooden's worst nightmare. It turns out that dealing with Terry Glenn, David Boston, Michael Wiley and now Ted Ginn and Santonio Holmes is a bit unfair.
Let's enjoy one more angle. With apologies to Wooden, who gets beaten by 20 yards on this play, and Notre Dame fans who might be able to name five total players on the past 10 teams, who gets hurt by watching this replay 1,000 times in a row?
Nobody important, that's who. Thankfully nobody tackled Ginn in the endzone and knocked him out of the game with an injury. That would have been a friendly-fire nightmare! Let's hope that never happens. If it does, it won't make My Favorite Things.
A Troy Smith fumble gave the Irish the ball inside the Buckeyes' 15, but that drive ended like this.
Notre Dame QB Brady Quinn's sister-slash-A.J. Hawk's-then-girlfriend-now-wife was...this is the only face you can make in a game like that.
Four Ohio State-Notre Dame games from now, her future husband will be on the field again, but doing color for what can only be described as The Ocho, ESPN's alternative bro-y game broadcast with Pat McAfee.
That game was in Atlanta. During this one, McAfee was there preparing to face Georgia in the Sugar Bowl as a freshman kicker for West Virginia. Not a typo, it was held in Atlanta. Google Hurricane Katrina for further information.
It appeared early on, despite the Irish touchdown, that Ohio State's only path to losing was allowing Notre Dame to stop the Buckeye offense - or - playing a little too comfortably on defense. Is this foreshadowing for the 2024 CFP title game nearly two decades later? Everything is foreshadowing. Every moment of our lives is in syndication.
The telepathy between Smith and Ginn was on display in the ensuing drive, and at this point it becomes a grim reality that Notre Dame cannot deal with both Santonio Holmes and Ginn because the only team in college football history capable of locking them both down was Ohio State.
This fanbase, author included, loves to venture down dark paths about lost seasons like 1969, 1970, 1974, 1975, 1980, this is starting to hurt, 1993, 1995, 1996, ow make it stop 1997, 1998, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, why won't my fingers stop moving 2012, 2013, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023 - but we might be sleeping on 2005.
This game should have never happened. Ohio State should have faced Southern Cal in the Rose Bowl in Texas' place, but too many self-inflicted wounds got in the way. This What-If is so powerful, the 2005 team was the basis for creating the Time Squad series. We digress.
We are in love with our problems here in Buckeyeland, it's a major symptom of our shared disease. Smith throwing the Ginn and Holmes - with Anthony Gonzalez always leaking somewhere - is only stoppable if Ohio State decides to get in Ohio State's way. Notre Dame had no shot.
Here's the very next play, one of innumerable Ted Ginn did Everythin' timeless moments. First, let's celebrate the downfield blocking - it never took a village to spring Ginn, but it definitely helps. Holmes (4) and Rob Sims (77) clear out the speed bumps with brutal efficiency.
Look closely and you'll see a borderline targeting call on Holmes if this game were played today. Let's imagine a world where this play gets called back on account of a clean block. In that world it's probably a playoff game. Dabo Swinney is on the opposite sideline. We all know what happens next.
An Ohio State touchdown turns into an Ohio State ejection, points coming off the board, a Clemson 1st down, an elephant suddenly dying at the Columbus Zoo, a listeria outbreak at Jeni's - we've seen this happen before.
Here's the thing about making deals with the devil - it never works out in the end.
Notre Dame punted and pinned the Buckeyes on their own 2-yard line. Here's how that drive ended. But first, let's rewind:
a grim reality that Notre Dame cannot deal with both Santonio Holmes and Ginn
The grimmest reality. It was nearly impossible to overthrow either of Ohio State's top two receivers in 2005.
Smith had one of the best play-action moves ever, especially when he was scrambling well (which he was; this web site can only handle so many GIFs and the MFT series cripples everyone's bandwidth but we're in a pandemic and there are no rules).
The zigging, the zagging, the sticky mitts and the premature celebration: Vintage Santonio.
After the game Tressel said they worked on not overthrowing the deep ball in practice, because we knew it would be there and that is a) true b) as passive-aggressive as Tress has ever been c) a clear sign he got sick of hearing about Boy Genius Weis having a whole month to prepare.
This is a massacre. Ohio State was content to running plays which ate clock #tresselball but also dipping into gadget plays and field-stretchers which were going to have a near-100% success rate. Take those out of the game and Ohio State could have won a 10-7 non-classic.
Instead, we remember this game for the gashers. It was a massacre by the merciful, because the Buckeyes could have built the whole plane out of emasculating big plays.
Ginn's end-around touchdown is one of the crazier highlights we've ever seen. We glossed right over Doug Datish (no.50 in your media guide, shout out to our sleepy legend Paul Keels for crediting him with numerous Vern Gholston sacks the following season) chugging 40 yards downfield clocking a cool 5mph like the train from Mr. Rogers - and then, ope here comes Teddy.
The 2nd half was a classic Tresselball Hang on Sloopy affair, where - run it back from earlier in the segment:
the only team in college football history capable of locking them both down was Ohio State.
Why run up the score and humiliate Notre Dame's secondary when you can keep it nice and close. Who wants that, anyway. What is this, an homage to the 1996 team? The 2003 team? The 2024 Michigan game plan? It's none of those things, because when you win nothing hurts.
The Irish got within seven, and Smith pulled this on 3rd and 11. Eyes in the back of his helmet.
Outside of the Glendale Massacre, this was the type of play Smith built his Heisman Trophy campaign around for the better part of 2.5 seasons he got snaps. His pocket presence and feel for the game was like nothing we had seen. To this day it's without peer.
Think about how long Justin Fields lingered in the pocket while your stomach tumbled through your large intestine. They just don't make Ohio State quarterbacks like this anymore, and we're living in the golden age of Ohio State quarterbacks.
His escape on 3rd and 11 was a pre-homage to Terrelle Pryor running the post-Joe Daniels offense to perfection - absurdity which highlight reels ignore because 3rd down conversions in the middle of the field always take a backseat to touchdowns.
No.99 for Notre Dame wakes up to this day wondering how he didn't have Smith in the dirt on this play.
And when Smith turns your defense inside-out on a play he had no business surviving, you're irreparably broken. The Irish were cooked after that conversion, and Antonio Pittman seared them on the following play.
The Buckeyes had more than a 200-yard advantage and still needed this to seal the game. If the 1996 team was the least efficient juggernaut in program history, the 2005 team is on the medal stand.
Three Fiesta Bowl wins in four seasons, including that natty against Miami - and three straight against Notre Dame. The Buckeyes now led the series with the Irish and the Buckeyes would never ever ever play a football game in Arizona again. Don't look it up.
Oops, just one more. Here it is.
GAME 6: 2016 - CONSOLATION ROMP
Ten years later and we're only here by association, for the same reason we don't celebrate the 1999 Sugar Bowl over Texas A&M. It's because two generational Ohio State teams ended up in consolation bowl games instead of getting a shot at another placard in C-deck.
Generational is a funny word these days. The sport barely resembles what the 1995 team participated in, and every Ohio State edition steps onto the field in late August looking and behaving like Natty or Bust, even if only the most recent one said the quiet part out loud.
The 2015 team should have waltzed to a repeat title. It should have inverted veer-annihilated everything in their path back into the playoff and into another confetti shower, but alas. A deeply unsatisfying win over Notre Dame is still galaxies better than a hard-fought loss.
Imagine being upset about kicking that Irish ass. This is My Favorite Things, not The Worst.
We already knew Ezekiel Elliott, Cardale Jones, Joey Bosa and an untold number of other national champions would be playing their final game. The Buckeyes farewell tour opened by cruising down the field for a 7-0 lead.
They got the ball back quickly, and the first play that followed was Marcus Baugh's second catch of the season. Two plays later, we have reached the natural conclusion of the drive.
Three plays, 43 yards, 45 seconds. Yeah, this team would have mashed anyone in the country. It mashed Michigan. If it couldn't be in the playoff, mashing Notre Dame would be just fine as an encore. It was to be savored.
Here's what it looked like when Ohio State's tempo was working. This is what the entire season should have and could have looked like and unluckily for Notre Dame, they showed up on the track right as the Buckeye train engineers finally figured out how to control the damn thing.
Here's 40 yards of offense without catching your breath.
Another tempo drive later and it's now 28-7 Buckeyes. Zeke's third touchdown happened with eight of Notre Dame's defenders not in position or set yet - Ohio State telegraphed a dive play against them and he walked in.
Five possessions, four touchdowns. Ohio State then started thinking about what the world might have looked like had they entered the Michigan State game with any semblance of a game plan and Notre Dame scored twice while they were wandering around in that fog.
Were it not for Notre Dame as the opponent and a streak extending into multiple decades, this would have merely been the closing chapter of a season squandered by hubris and confusion - a team fielded too soon with the College Football Playoff expansion still nine years away.
But it's Notre Dame, and Ohio State was burying the Irish in a bowl game, again. Is this foreshadowing for bleep blorp blopp yes of course they even followed the same scoring cadence as they would in Atlanta this past January.
Zeke then found the end zone for the fourth time. Note the seam the Slobs provided here.
Ohio State sleepwalkdozed over Notre Dame instead of rematching with Alabama in the Cotton Bowl, and the Buckeyes now owned a 4-2 series lead with the Irish returning to the schedule in 2022 (Columbus) and 2023 (South Bend). The souls of the 1935 and 1936 team had been cleansed. Most of us have no idea what losing to Notre Dame feels like.
Was this the best BattleFrog Fiesta Bowl ever? Historians are unified - it most certainly was. No program in college football history which had faced Notre Dame at least six times has a better winning percentage than Ohio State does. In a clash of religions, the righteous prevail. The Buckeyes were now 4-2 against the Irish.
Thanks to the fruits of the Dave Brandon era in Ann Arbor, the Wolverines peeled off of Notre Dame's schedule and Gene Smith pounced on the opportunity - which is how the Buckeyes landed another home-and-home with the Irish in 2022 and 2023, mirroring the previous agreements in 1935-36 and 1995-96.
They would start in Columbus and end in South Bend. Notre Dame swept the first outing and the Buckeyes took all of the second. Could the third be a rubber match? No one said this. That's not how normal people think. It's how football-addicted freaks with the benefit of hindsight look at old football games during the throes of the offseason.
GAME 7: 2022 - OPENING NIGHT
How do you remember the 2022 Ohio State-Notre Dame game? Better question, how should we?
This was Jim Knowles' debut, and - gasp - he coached from the press box instead of on the field. The Buckeyes allowed 10 points instead of 40-something, which, hey that's good. Notre Dame's biggest play of the night was a 54-yard gain by current Buckeye defensive back Lorenzo Styles Jr.
Then-recruit Luke Montgomery was on the field chopping it up with famous Ohio State Subway Alumnus LeBron James, who was accompanied by his then-recruit son Bronny. Just about every star who had played for the Buckeyes the previous five seasons was in the house.
And then there were other notable athletes who had seemingly nothing to do with Ohio State.
Thats an autographed Ted Ginn Jr. jersey on Jayson Tatum: pic.twitter.com/EQkv0IICX9
— Griffin Strom (@GriffinStrom3) September 3, 2022
...like Duke one-and-done and Celtics star Jayson Tatum, who showed up wearing an autographed Ted Ginn jersey. There were two former Ohio State stars who arrived that evening as well, but they were not seen loitering on the Buckeyes' side of the field.
Marcus Freeman was leading Notre Dame and had hired his old roommate in Columbus, James Laurinaitis to coach linebackers. Freeman's ascent wasn't bothersome, but Little Animal never should have been allowed to end up on that staff - and this wasn't hindsight.
When a three-time consensus All America, eight-year NFL veteran and beloved former player whose jersey is still prominently seen in the stands at home games 13 seasons after his departure wants to be a part of the program you find a way to make it happen.
Nevertheless, Laurinaitis was over there while Knowles was taking on the big job of rebuilding Ohio State's tragic defense and pulling double-duty with the linebackers' room. A year later, the wrong would be righted - but on that evening it felt icky.
Joe burrow coming back to o state should tell u something ab the brotherhood!!
— Brandon Inniss (@Brandon1inniss) September 5, 2022
But not too icky, as the vibes were immaculate all the until the game started and both teams were clunky. Notre Dame sold out to stop CJ Stroud and Ohio State's passing attack, and the running game behind the offensive line we complained about from that night all the way until the Tennessee game could not take advantage.
Emeka Egbuka got the Buckeyes on the board for the first time since JSN's Rose Bowl clincher in January.
Ohio State's first touchdown of the 2022 season was a good one. pic.twitter.com/m5dtRPYLqD
— Eleven Warriors (@11W) September 4, 2022
Unfortunately, the prevailing memory of this game will be how it effectively removed JSN from Ohio State's season. The clunkiness through the first half of the season revealed how much of the offense was designed to flow through him; a testament to the revelation from Pasadena that if JSN is the center of attention, good things happen.
Like Marvin Harrison Jr. scoring three touchdowns, for example. Notre Dame's focus went to him (wearing Louis Vuitton cleats?) leaving Zone 6 completely out of position in a receiver jumble that had receivers lined up where they had not practiced the previous month.
Xavier Johnson stepped into the slot vacated by JSN and put the Buckeyes ahead for good in the 3rd quarter.
No. 2 @OhioStateFB has the lead. pic.twitter.com/nAKP5Uhuh2
— Big Ten Network (@BigTenNetwork) September 4, 2022
The home team put some comfort between themselves and the visitors with a 14-play, 95 yard touchdown drive punctuated by a two-yard Miyan Williams touchdown plunge. He and TreVeyon Henderson combined for 175 rushing yards but didn't eclipse five per carry, which gave the performance a decidedly sluggish feel.
Defense was a different story, mercifully for fans who had gotten too used to oponents running up points against the unit previously known as the Silver Bullets. The Irish were held to their lowest output going back to pandemic season, and middle linebacker Tommy Eichenberg played the part of Guy Who Was Everywhere, a sight for sore eyes.
As for Stroud, who entered the game with Heisman buzz - along with JSN - he went 24/34 for a modest 223 yards and two touchdowns. It was definitely a football game, but as we will always remind ourselves - boring wins beat exciting losses 100% of the time.
Ohio State had taken the first game of the set. The teams would meet again in South Bend in a year.
GAME 8: GREEN WITH ENVY
Years ago when you started this column (you're like 8,000 words and almost as many GIFs into it) our remembrance began with a single colorized play from the 1935 game.
It's just about all we have to remember it by, until A.I. finds a way to reproduce that game in 4K with pre-WWII era Pat McAfee spitting takes from closed end of the Horseshoe.
Today, we get short cinematic films which capture the essence of every big game Ohio State plays in. The players themselves tell you, between clean shots and crisp highlights what it was like and how it all felt.
The Buckeyes visiting South Bend for a prime time top 10 clash with the Irish wearing green jerseys for the then-57th time in program history counts as a big game. Here's ten heavily-produced minutes on that night in Notre Dame Stadium.
I can't compete with this level of production. It's worth your time. State television gives this game dignity that I don't have the discipline to do for a series committed to Remembering Good Things.
: Notre Dame pic.twitter.com/UrUPQkNLjk
— Ohio State Football (@OhioStateFB) September 27, 2023
This was the game which cemented the urgency for Day to find and secure the right guy to redesign a stale and ineffective running game - there were more 3rd and 4th and shorts during this evening than any of us care to remember.
The road team won the game, which as they say is all that matters. But it provided the kind of eventual hindsight that allowed us to see the elements Day's program from achieving its goals. It's one of the uglier big wins you'll ever see, which makes it better than 100% of the losses. End section, Buckeyes win. Irish lose. Life remains good.
GAME 9: NATTY OR BUST
Is it unfair or totally appropriate to end this 90-year journey with the first game of its kind?
It's a little of both. Ohio State does not have another quasi-rival quite like Notre Dame - a regional, historic bully it has intersected with three times in scheduled rarities and the other three in postseason serendipities. Nine games include The Game of the Century, a championship clash and seven meetings in between, all of which were national spectacles.
The Buckeyes and Fighting Irish will play again, possibly this season - but putting the capstone of the most outrageous, gratifying, stupefying and comprehensively enjoyable Ohio State postseason in history at the end of a 90-year semi-feud with Notre Dame feels unfair to journey, the feud and the 2024 Buckeyes.
If they gave out Green Pants for beating the Irish (note, they actually wear gold pants more often than Michigan does these days) then the juniors and everyone older would have three pairs now. But that doesn't exist, and our responsibility to this time capsule is to remember the real.
Lee Corso really predicted Notre Dame to win, and unsurprisingly so did Lou Holtz. Corso wasn't out of diapers the last time the Irish beat Ohio State, while Holtz - to use an ancient metaphorical foreshadowing device - had not yet gone to a picnic with his father and gone home with his mother yet.
Both men should have seen what the Buckeyes did to the Volunteers, the Ducks - future My Favorite Things plug - and the Longhorns, so expecting them to trip on Notre Dame with the velocity they were riding into the national title game felt decidedly contrarian.
We cannot talk about the 2016 BattleFrog Fiesta Bowl without mentioning the squandered 2015 national title defense season. We couldn't dive into the 1996 game at South Bend, and all of the dominant but inefficient ruthlessness of that afternoon without pointing to how that same element would cost that team immortality and haunt it forever.
And we can't bring up the Notre Dame game from this past January without the three-game prelude which led to it. The program produced a 25-minute movie which like the recap following the 2023 game, my words cannot compete with - so they will not.
The game itself mirrored the 2006 Fiesta Bowl, with the Irish slicing up the Buckeye defense on the opening drive and punctuating it with a rushing touchdown. When the teams went into the locker room at halftime, it was 21-7 Ohio State.
Notre Dame was allowed to hang around a little too long in the 2nd half, but the Buckeyes put the game away late and won the trophy. Marcus Freeman was on the Ohio State sideline for the first version of this story and on the opposing one when they ran the same sequence back in January.
The ninth and most-recent Ohio State-Notre Dame meeting was for a national title, and for the seventh straight game the victor was the team from Columbus. This streak began four decades ago, which means that in its history, no opponent has consistently beaten America's favorite and most loathed college football program like the Buckeyes from multiple generations have been able to do.
Which means begrudgingly, the Irish must accept Ohio State is a program like no other.
