What they’re saying about Notre Dame’s 34-23 loss vs. Ohio State in the national championship game
Notre Dame’s tremendous 2024-25 season ended Monday night with a 34-23 loss against the Ohio State Buckeyes, but it’s a year that Fighting Irish fans should be proud of. Notre Dame secured their first major postseason bowl win since 1993 (Cotton Bowl vs. Texas A&M) when it beat Georgia in the Sugar Bowl, and it did it once again when the Irish beat Penn State in the Orange Bowl a week later.
In this article, we’ll take a look around at what the media is saying about the Fighting Irish’s setback against the Buckeyes, including Blue & Gold’s Mike Singer and Tim Hyde giving their instant reaction to the game in a YouTube live show. You can watch the replay of the show in the video player below.
Tyler Horka, Blue & Gold: How Notre Dame is in ‘a better place’ even after losing national championship game
ATLANTA — There’s a natural reaction elicited by the human body when you want something — need something, like you need oxygen to breathe — and you either break through and obtain it or fall short and watch someone else acquire what you can’t have.
You cry.
It’s either tears of joy, of which were aplenty for Ohio State inside Mercedes-Benz Stadium on Monday, or tears of inconsolable sadness, as was the case on the Notre Dame side. Much more of the latter than the former, as to be expected.
Linebacker Jack Kiser and quarterback Riley Leonard, two Notre Dame team captains, one from each side of the ball, and two of 16 Fighting Irish players on scholarship who exhausted their collegiate eligibility at triple zeroes of a 34-23 loss to Ohio State in the national championship game, could hardly get through their time in front of reporters on the main postgame press conference stage. Waterworks came easier than words. Nobody blamed them. The final game of their college careers will always be associated with crippling cheerlessness.
Someday soon, though, they’ll realize all was not lost in Atlanta on the 20th day of 2025. Kiser played 70 games in a Notre Dame uniform, more than anyone else in the history of the program. Leonard, a Duke transfer, just 16. And those 14 others who make up the 16 players who will never play another down in a blue and gold jersey, their games played totals land somewhere in between. Those appearances can be quantified, but what each and every one of them meant to head coach Marcus Freeman’s program cannot.
Inside devastated Notre Dame locker room after national championship loss
ATLANTA — Jordan Clark sat motionless in the Notre Dame locker room. His mouth was slightly open, his eyes wet with tears. As a reporter interviewed his teammate, sophomore safety Adon Shuler, all Clark could do was stare at the wall across from him.
When they returned to the locker room after their postgame press conference, Riley Leonard and Jack Kiser’s eyes were as red as the confetti on the field.
Jayden Thomas shouted expletives at a group of reporters, upset at a question about Ohio State freshman wide receiver Jeremiah Smith asked to sophomore cornerback Christian Gray. “Have a heart!” Thomas exclaimed.
Gray covered his head with a towel as he made the short walk to the postgame meal station. His gaze never left his feet.
No music played after Notre Dame lost the national championship game 34-23 to Ohio State. No one tried to inject levity into an awful situation. It was not a group of people who were grateful to be there and compete with the immensely talented Buckeyes. It was a group of people who came to Atlanta to win and believed they could do it.
When it didn’t happen, the Irish were distraught.
Jay Busbee, Yahoo! Sports—’Sling the rock and trust your guys’: How Riley Leonard made himself an Irish legend despite Notre Dame’s title game loss
ATLANTA — At Notre Dame, the bar for legendary status is high. This is the school that gave us Rudy, after all, and the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, and Knute Rockne, and “Win One For The Gipper.” You’ve got to work hard to etch your name alongside those legends.
That said … leading your team to a stunning touchdown, displaying your faith on national TV, and then puking on the sidelines, all in the space of about 30 seconds, might just qualify.
Riley Leonard and Notre Dame did not win the national championship on Monday night, losing to Ohio State, 34-23. Truth be told, they weren’t really even in the game for very long. Ohio State scored on its first five possessions, posted a 31-7 lead, and never worried too much about Notre Dame after that opening drive.
Oh, but what an opening drive it was. An 8½-point underdog coming into the game, given little to no chance by most analysts, Notre Dame took the opening kickoff and, under the guidance of Leonard, crafted an 18-play, 75-yard drive that devoured the first 9:45 of the clock.
The drive featured not one, but two fourth-and-1 all-in gambles as Leonard threw himself into the teeth of the Ohio State defensive line. He converted both, then took the ball into the end zone himself. Leonard’s final line on that possession: 31 yards passing, 34 yards rushing, one touchdown.
Heather Dinich, ESPN: Freeman rues Notre Dame’s mistakes in CFP loss to Ohio State
ATLANTA — Following his team’s 34-23 loss to Ohio State in Monday night’s College Football Playoff National Championship game, Notre Dame coach Marcus Freeman sat in the middle of his two teary-eyed team captains and took ownership for a multitude of mistakes that ultimately were too much to overcome when it mattered most.
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With quarterback Riley Leonard sitting to his right and sixth-year senior linebacker Jack Kiser on his left, Freeman said there were uncharacteristic mistakes and breakdowns in communication that put the Irish in a 24-point hole in the third quarter they couldn’t overcome.
“You’re always making mistakes, but those type of detrimental mistakes when you play a really, really good football team cost you points,” Freeman said. “I think that’s probably the biggest thing that has stuck out to me even in between series, the communication. ‘Hey, we’re good, we got it.’ Well, we can’t make mistakes. It falls on my shoulders. And as the head coach, we have to prepare and be better prepared for this moment. These guys gave everything they got.”
Notre Dame, which was seeking its first national title since 1988, had its 13-game winning streak snapped and suffered its first loss since Sept. 7 against Northern Illinois. After opening with an 18-play, 75-yard scoring drive, during which Leonard ran nine times for 34 carries, including the game’s first touchdown, Notre Dame’s offense fell flat.
Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman
Opening statement from postgame press conference:
“Obviously, tough moment, tough outcome. There’s reasons why we didn’t get the outcome we wanted. Credit to Ohio State and their ability to execute on both sides of the ball. Obviously, in the special teams, they made a field goal that mattered at the end of the game.
“We obviously didn’t play the way we needed to to get the outcome we want, but as I said to the guys in the locker room, there’s not many words to say when everybody is hurting.
“I’m just proud of them and proud of what they’ve done. I’m proud of who they are, the way they represent themselves, and it’s just an honor to be on this journey with them.
“There’s going to be a lot of guys, seniors, that this was their final game with Notre Dame football, but they’ve left this place a better place and very grateful to be on the journey with them.”
Ohio State head coach Ryan Day
Opening statement from postgame press conference:
I just can’t say enough about our guys and what they’ve overcome to get to this point. They now have something to show for it. I thought Notre Dame had a great season, and I think Marcus does a great job and they have a very, very good team and had a really good game plan.
That first drive went right down the field. I thought we responded in a big way, never flinched. And I think, again, if you think about the run we’ve gone on here in the playoffs, a big part of the way we’ve responded coming off the end of the season, but then even the way the Texas game went and the way we responded early in that first quarter, and then even in the second half, just continued fighting the momentum because Notre Dame was fighting to get it back.
We just kept swinging and got a huge stop there on 4th down on defense, got the missed field goal, kept swinging, kept playing. And I give this guy a lot of credit right here, Will Howard. I think he ran the ball 16 times in the game. We knew it was going to be that way. It was the last game we had so we were going to let out all the bullets, and he really put the team on his back and really delivered a huge 3rd down conversion which sealed the game.
We just felt like in this game the No. 1 goal was to win. That’s where it started on offense, defense and special teams, find a way to win the game, and that’s what we did here in the playoffs.
Now the stories of these guys will be told because they’ve cemented themselves in Ohio State history, the ninth national champ and the third really in the last 50 years. There’s been some great, great teams in the last 50 some-odd years at Ohio State. Great teams, great players. Only three of them have been national champs, and these guys are one of them.
