2016 FIESTA BOWL
January 1,
2016 University of
Phoenix Stadium Glendale, AZ
Notre Dame Fighting Irish
Location: South Bend, IN
Stadium: Notre Dame Stadium (80,795)
Coach: Brian Kelly (6th year):
55-22 at ND/226-79-2 overall, 0-0 v OSU
Series: OSU 3, ND 2
Last
Meeting: 1/1/2006:
2006 Fiesta Bowl OSU 34, ND 20
Last
Notre Dame win:
10/2/1936 ND 7, OSU 2
Coach Meyer: (4th year) 49-4 at OSU/153-27 overall, 0-0 v ND
2014 Ohio State Buckeyes (14-1)(9-0) 2014 Notre
Dame Fighting Irish (8-5)
34 at Navy (Baltimore) 17 48 Rice 14
21 Virginia Tech 35 31 Michigan 0
66 Kent State 0 30 Purdue 14
50 Cincinnati 28 31 at Syracuse 15
52 at Maryland 24 17 Stanford 14
56 Rutgers 17 50 North
Carolina 43
31 at Penn State 24 (2OT) 27 at Florida State 31
55 Illinois 14 49 at Navy 39
49 at Michigan State 37 31 at Arizona State 55
31 at Minnesota 24 40 Northwestern 43
42 Indiana 27 28 Louisville 31
42 Michigan 28 14 at Southern Cal 49
59 Wisconsin 0 31 Louisiana State 28
(B1G Championship) (Music
City Bowl)
42 Alabama 35
(Sugar Bowl)
42 Oregon 20
(National Championship)
2015 Ohio State Buckeyes (11-1)(7-1) 2015 Notre
Dame Fighting Irish (10-2)
42 at Virginia Tech 24 38 Texas 3
38 Hawaii 0 34 at Virginia 27
20 Northern Illinois 13 30 Georgia Tech 22
38 Western Michigan 12 62 Massachusetts 27
34 at Indiana 27 22 at Clemson 24
49 Maryland 28 41 Navy 24
38 Penn State 10 41 Southern Cal 31
49 at Rutgers 7 24 at Temple 20
28 Minnesota 14 42 at Pittsburgh 30
28 at Illinois 3 28 Wake Forest 7
14 Michigan State 17 19 at Boston College 16
42 at Michigan 13 36 at Stanford 38
J1 Notre Dame Ohio
State
(Fiesta Bowl) (Fiesta
Bowl)
OHIO STATE OFFENSE v NOTRE DAME
DEFENSE: Notre Dame’s
strength on defense has been against the pass, while they have been about
average against the run. However, the
Irish have some talented defenders among their front seven. Up front, the Irish are led by senior DT
Sheldon Day, who was named a first-team All-American by USA Today and made the
second team on the AP and Football Writers’ lists. Day leads the Irish with a whopping 14.5
tackles for loss and showed his athletic ability in helping to shut down Navy’s
option run game. Sophomore Daniel Cage
will be next to Day. He has recovered
from a concussion suffered early last month that caused him to sit out two
games to post 17 tackles and three tackles for loss on the year. The bookend positions are manned most capably
by junior Isaac Rochell and senior Romeo Okwara. Rochell leads all defensive linemen in
tackles with 58 and ranks fourth on the team with 7.5 tackles for loss, while
Okwara comes into the Fiesta Bowl with 43 tackles, 12 tackles for loss and
eight sacks. Junior Jaylon Smith is one
of the quickest, most athletic linebackers in the country, and like Day, Smith
was named a first-team All American.
Smith was also a semifinalist for the Bednarik, and Lott awards as
well. He leads the Irish with 113
tackles and also has nine tackles for loss and five pass break ups and is
coming off three consecutive games of ten or more tackles. His cohorts in that linebacker corps, senior
Joe Schmidt and sophomore Greer Martini, are also very capable. Schmidt served a team captain this year and
comes into the game with 65 tackles, three tackles for loss and two sacks. Martini has filled in well for injured
starter James Omwalu and comes in with 35 tackles and 2.5 tackles for
loss. The Irish secondary has shown itself
to be the equal of the passing attacks that have faced them. They are led by junior FS Max Redfield, who
has shown himself to be equally adept at run support and covering deep
routes. Redfield comes in with 64 tackles,
two tackles for loss, and three pass breakups.
Opposite Redfield, senior Elijah Shumate has shown his run support
ability with 6.5 tackles for loss to go along with his 57 total tackles. Juniors Devin Butler and Cole Luke man the
corner positions. Butler has eleven
tackles, while Luke comes in with 35 tackles, a TFL, and six pass
breakups.
Ohio State
seemed to solve an issue with the ground game against Michigan by slightly
changing up the blocking schemes by getting the TE (Nick Vannett) and a WR or
other blockers to the point of attack more quickly than previously. The Buckeyes ran roughshod over a top-ten
defense by using double-TE sets quite a bit and motioning TE Nick Vannett to a
fullback spot while TE Marcus Baugh moved next to the tackle on his side. This forces teams to try to get more
defenders spread out to cover in space, where Ohio State will attempt to use
superior speed and athletic ability at the point of attack to get past
them. Notre Dame may counter with a 46 “Bear”
front and split-safety schemes to try to keep their safeties free to provide
run support and keep J.T. Barrett and Ezekiel Elliott from breaking off long
runs. If the Buckeyes can get their
skilled athletes past the split-safety scheme and get a blocker on Jaylon
Smith, it would almost certainly lead to an Ohio State win by double digits.
OHIO STATE DEFENSE v NOTRE DAME
OFFENSE: Notre Dame junior
WR Will Fuller is one of the best receivers in the country. Named Notre Dame’s MVP for 2015, as well as a
second-team All American, Fuller ranks sixth nationally in TD catches (13) and
15th in receiving yards (1145).
Fuller is adept at running any kind of route, but has been lethal on
opposing defenses on the deep ball; seven of his TD receptions have been for 45
yards or more. Seniors Chris Brown and
Amir Carlisle complement Fuller very well in the Irish passing attack. Brown is second behind Fuller with 44
receptions and had his career-best with eight against Georgia Tech. Carlisle will usually line up in the slot and
contributes 30 receptions for 341 yards and a score. Dual-threat sophomore quarterback DeShone
Kizer pulls the trigger for the Irish offense; his nine rushing touchdowns is
the school record for a quarterback. In
fact, his 143 yards on the ground against Stanford are the second-most in a
game by a Notre Dame quarterback. Running
is not his only strong suite, as Kizer threw for over 300 yards in games against
Temple and Clemson. Speaking of running,
while much has been made of Ezekiel Elliott, the Irish have a thousand-yard
rusher of their own. Senior C.J. Prosise
managed 1032 yards and 11 touchdowns, averaging 6.6 yards per carry. He received at least one honorable mention
All-American award and was a semifinalist for both the Maxwell and Doak Walker
awards. The Irish offensive line is one
of the best in the nation, led by senior LT Ronnie Stanley, an almost certain
first-round pick in the 2016 NFL draft.
The Irish can also run behind the other tackle, junior Mike McGlinchey,
a 6-7, 310 pound behemoth. Senior center Nick Martin, sophomore Quenton Nelson
at LG and junior RG Steve Elmer round out the men up front for the Notre Dame
offense.
Ohio State’s
run blitz packages off the edge have been a problem for every opposing offense;
even Michigan State struggled against two of the best edge defenders in the
country in Darron Lee and Joey Bosa.
Notre Dame will need to solve this puzzle to have any chance of success
on the ground. Covering Will Fuller, on
the other hand, could be a real challenge, as he averages over twenty yards per
catch. He is very athletic and can do
damage over the top or on a quick route and since he usually lines up to the
outside on the wide side, he’s hard to bracket with a safety and a cornerback. The typical Cover 1 and Cover 4 coverages the
Buckeye secondary use has made them vulnerable, at times, to deep fades to an
outside receiver and deep routes to a slot receiver. The Buckeyes will need to get Bosa, Tyquan
Lewis, and occasionally a blitzing Darron Lee free to get pressure on Kizer.
SPECIAL TEAMS: Justin Yoon has been a very
accurate kicker this year, hitting on 15 of his 17 field goal attempts, with a
long of 52. Tyler Newsome has averaged
44 yards punting with a long of 62. C.J.
Sanders will handle both the kickoff and punt return duties, returning one of
each for a score.
SUMMARY: Two of the game’s most storied
programs meet again in the Fiesta Bowl exactly ten years after they last met on
the same field. A compelling matchup of
teams chock full of future NFL stars will see the Buckeyes and Irish trade
punches throughout much of the game.
Ohio State seems to have their power run game and speed option and read
option offense on a high level the way they performed against a top-ten defense
in Ann Arbor. Look for that offense to
eventually get to the edge and Ezekiel Elliott to eventually wear down the
Irish defense. The Ohio State defensive
line could have its hands full, playing without Alphonso Washington, which may
require a linebacker, such as Darron Lee to play up closer to the line of
scrimmage to help out on run support. If
he is successful, that leaves the secondary free to concentrate on covering
Fuller and have a good chance against the Irish passing attack. If this can be achieved, Ohio State
eventually wears down Notre Dame and grinds out a Fiesta Bowl win.
OHIO
STATE 34, NOTRE DAME 17
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