The Ohio State Buckeyes will play the Notre Dame Fighting Irish tonight at 6:30 p.m. in the College Football National Championship to determine the best team in the inaugural 12-team playoff.
Each team’s road to this game was difficult as neither was awarded a bye and both won three games en route to the National Championship Game at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta.
Ohio State took down Tennessee in the first round and proceeded to knock off Oregon and Texas in the following rounds to make the biggest game of the season.
Similarly, Notre Dame cruised through a matchup with Indiana in the first round before defeating Georgia and winning a tight matchup against Penn State in the semifinal game.
Notre Dame and Ohio State both feature some of the most impressive defensive units in all of college football, with each team’s ability to slow down the opposing offense standing out as the most important factor in this game.
Specifically, both Notre Dame and Ohio State rank inside the top 10 in college football for defensive yards allowed, passing yards allowed, points allowed, and red zone defense, per Fox Sports.
Notre Dame also ranks fourth in the country for third-down defense while Ohio State ranks as the fifth-beat in rushing yards allowed.
Both programs will enter this matchup with some of the most decorated histories in all of college football.
Ohio State has claimed eight national championships in program history, including two of these championships coming in recent memory as the team claimed victories in both 2002 and 2014, per The Columbus Dispatch.
The Buckeyes have also had an impressive run since the expansion of the college football playoffs in 2014, appearing in the playoffs six times, according to The College Football Network.
Although Notre Dame does not have the recent success of Ohio State at this level, the program has an extensive history with the fourth-most National Championships of any university.
Notre Dame has a total of 13 National Championships dating back to 1919, trailing just Princeton, Alabama, and Yale for the most in the history of college football, per ESPN.
Both head coaches from these teams praised their opposition leading into the game, which is a common theme for these two programs that have provided respect to each of their opponents during the season.
Buckeyes Head Coach Ryan Day praised Notre Dame over the weekend and said they are a “very, very good team” that has been “very disciplined” throughout the season.
“A lot of good players, very well coached, as you know. Certainly complimentary in all three phases, put pressure on you. So we know we have to be at our best. And that’s the goal in this game, is to play our best game of the season. I still don’t think we’ve done that, and that’s the goal,” he said, per 247 Sports.
Notre Dame Head Coach Marcus Freeman gave a similar statement about Ohio State before the game, telling reporters that the team and program do things the “right way.”
“You can aspire to win national championships, but you also want to develop the young men that come through your program, and I think both of our programs do a great job of that,” he said, per Sports Illustrated.