Ohio State football will be heading to the desert for New Year’s.
After an 11-1 regular season that saw them finish second in the Big Ten East Division behind eventual conference champion Michigan State, the seventh-ranked Buckeyes will face number eight Notre Dame in the 2016 Battlefrog Fiesta Bowl. The game will take place at University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, AZ on January 1st at 1 PM ET.
This forthcoming matchup between blue blood Midwestern programs that have both won eight AP/BCS national titles is perhaps the most intriguing of the four New Year’s Six bowls. Both teams arguably could have made the College Football Playoff if not for heartbreaking last-second field goals by the opposition in late season games. In the case of OSU, it came in the penultimate game of the year against MSU. For the Irish, their hopes ended as time expired in their regular season finale at Stanford.
It will mark the sixth all-time meeting between the two teams. Ironically enough, the last time they played was 11 years ago in this very same bowl game. That year, it was Jim Tressel patrolling the OSU sidelines facing Charlie Weis in his first year as ND head coach. The Buckeyes would inevitably prevail 34-20, extending their winning streak in the series to three dating back to 1995.
Urban Meyer Praises Brian Kelly for Role in Notre Dame’s Revival
Buckeye head coach Urban Meyer discussed certain aspects of the impending showdown in his weekly address to the media. He was particularly high in his praise for Irish head coach Brian Kelly, particularly what he’s done in bringing one of college football’s most prestigious programs back towards elite status. In his six seasons heading up the ND program, Kelly has a .724 overall record, has won three bowl games and led the Irish to their first national championship game appearance in 24 years back in 2012.
“He’s made Notre Dame where Notre Dame belongs and that’s one of the top five programs in the country,” Meyer noted. “He’s done it with hard work. He has excellent personnel and, you know, he’s stabilized a great university and a great football program.”
The challenges facing Kelly in 2015 was, in many respects, similar to what Meyer faced the previous season. In particular, it had to do with replacing the original starting quarterback after a season-ending injury to the incumbent. Much like J.T. Barrett coming in for the injured Braxton Miller and filling in admirably, Notre Dame’s DeShone Kizer did a wonderful job in replacing Malik Zaire after the latter broke his ankle in the Irish’s second game of the year against Virginia.
Similar to Barrett, the redshirt freshman Kizer exhibited rather profound proficiency as a dual-threat signal caller. He finished the regular season with 2,600 yards passing and 499 yards rushing (third-best on team) while adding 28 total touchdowns including nine on the ground. His 8.73 yards per completion was top 20 nationally.
The underlying narrative surrounding Notre Dame’s season has been the ability to successfully manage a myriad of injuries while maintaining their national championship hopes virtually all the way to the end. That “next man up” philosophy is something Ohio State is distinctly familiar with as being a staple of their title run last year. Kelly deserves a great deal of credit given those circumstances, particularly given ND’s only two losses on the season were by a combined four points.
It’s a testament to the personnel that Kelly has recruited to South Bend, as Meyer mentioned above, that the Irish had the depth to accomplish what they did in 2015. That depth will ostensibly be put to the test in Glendale on New Year’s Day against a Buckeyes team with playmakers on both sides of the football. Either way, there’s no doubt that this will be one of the bowl season’s most anticipated games.
“It’s two legendary programs, two programs I’m very familiar with,” Meyer emphasized. “(I have) a great deal of respect for the Fighting Irish, and (it’s) a great bowl game, one I’ve personally been a part of. I know Ohio State has a great tradition there as well, so (I’m) very excited.”
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