ATLANTA — The pass seemed to hang up there forever. Did it feel like seven weeks? Did it feel like 10 years? What a great debate for Ohio State fans to have forever. When that teardrop of a throw from Buckeyes quarterback Will Howard on third-and-11 finally landed, light as a feather, in the hands of receiver Jeremiah Smith late in the fourth quarter Monday, Ohio State had locked up what would be a 34-23 victory over Notre Dame for its sixth national title and first in a decade.
It was that 56-yard gain that snuff ed out a feverish Notre Dame comeback and made the Buckeyes the champion of the sport's first 12-team playoff , just as they were champions of its first four-team tournament a decade ago. "They were running man coverage and I said, 'Hey, I'm gonna let this loose and let him make a play on it,'" Howard said of a play that felt about 100 years removed from Ohio State's once program-defining "Three yards and a cloud of dust." This was a win that hardly anyone thought possible a mere seven weeks ago — Nov.
30 — when a 13-10 loss to Michigan led to a near-riot on the field and questions over whether coach Ryan Day would keep his job when the calendar flipped. "It's a great story about a bunch of guys who have just overcome some really tough situations, and at the point where there's a lot of people that counted us out (they) just kept swinging and kept fighting," Day said. Buckeyes were on cruise control, then suddenly, Notre Dame came to life It might be that much.