Notre Dame kicker Mitch Jeter issues bold challenge to Yankees great Derek Jeter

Mitch Jeter has already had quite the January, but could the Notre Dame kicker actually outperform “the Captain” Derek Jeter in a hypothetical battle of skills?

He certainly seems to think so.

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Despite a rollercoaster regular season in which he made just 1-of-5 field goals in the month of November, Mitch Jeter has been automatic in the College Football Playoff, nailing all five field goal tries of 40-or-more yards. That includes drilling the game-winning 41-yard field goal to secure a 27-24 win over Penn State in the Orange Bowl national semifinal on Jan. 9.

Now, ahead of Monday’s CFP National Championship Game against Ohio State, the emboldened Fighting Irish kicker is confident he could outduel the New York Yankees great and first-ballot MLB Hall of Famer in a hypothetical competition where the two Jeters try their hand at the other’s skill of choice.

During Saturday’s CFP National Championship Media Day event inside Atlanta’s Mercedes-Benz Stadium, a SiriusXM reporter asked Mitch Jeter if he could hit a baseball better than Derek Jeter could kick a field goal, and the Notre Dame specialist had little doubt.

Mitch Jeter: ‘I don’t know if every kid grows up kicking a football’

“Probably. I feel like kicking is such a more – obviously hitting a baseball is very hard – but kicking a football is such a refined skill, as is hitting a baseball as well,” Mitch Jeter said. “But I feel like every kid grows up hitting a baseball, where I don’t know if every kid grows up kicking a football.”

That’s certainly a bold suggestion given the obvious difficulties involved in hitting a baseball.

After all, the 50-year-old Derek Jeter is a 14-time All-Star and five-time World Series champion who has 3,465 career hits with a .310 career batting average. That means even Jeter, one of the most celebrated Yankees in franchise history, averaged just 3.1 hits every 10 at-bats over his 20-year MLB career.

Meanwhile, Mitch Jeter is 13-of-20 (65-percent) on field goals this season and 36-of-45 for his college career between Notre Dame and South Carolina.

Marcus Freeman explains play-calling decisions leading to game-winning field goal

Marcus Freeman’s Notre Dame squad executed wonderfully during the waning moments of the College Football Playoff Semifinals at the Orange Bowl, leading to the Fighting Irish clinching their spot in the National Championship Game.

When Penn State’s Drew Allar was picked off by Christian Gray with less than a minute remaining, Freeman knew Notre Dame had a chance to drain the clock and kick a game-winning field goal. That’s exactly what they did, and the Fighting Irish are headed to the CFP finale due to the leg of Mitch Jeter.

“Nobody panicked. It was great communication. Riley [Leonard] kept everybody under control, and we knew we in range where Mitch [Jeter] could make that field goal,”  Freeman said in his postgame press conference.”He is a confident guy, man. There is no moment too big for Mitch Jeter. I had a lot of confidence in him, in that moment, [that] he was going to do exactly what he did, and he did a great job of doing it.”

Steve Samra contributed to this report.