Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - BIG 10 SQUAD - Should Iowa Fans WANT Ohio State to Win the National Championship?

Episode Date: January 17, 2025

Ohio State Buckeyes are set to clash with Notre Dame Fighting Irish in a high-stakes national championship showdown. Can the Buckeyes' formidable defense and star players like Travion Henderson and Quinn Sean Judkins overpower Notre Dame's strategic plays? Join Craig Sheman and guests, including Spencer McLaughlin and Jay Stevens, as they dissect Ohio State's journey to the championship, analyze the upcoming matchup, and explore the impact of Tom Allen's move from Penn State to Clemson. Discover how Ohio State's defense has been a game-changer and why Notre Dame might surprise with their tactics. The episode also touches on Oregon's recent performance and fan reactions, adding depth to the college football landscape.Tune in for expert insights and predictions on this thrilling championship game. Don't miss out on the in-depth analysis and engaging discussions that could redefine your understanding of college football's biggest stage.

Well, when we entered the college football playoffs, we had four Big Ten teams in the mix. We're down to one. It's up to Ohio State. By the way, they're going to crush Notre Dame. Let's talk. It's Lockdown Big Ten squad time. You're talking ball with the Big Ten squad. Sponsored by Game Time. From USC to Ohio State, from Michigan to Oregon, from Nebraska to Washington, it's the local experts of the Locked On Podcast Network,

bringing you scoops, breakdowns, and the most comprehensive preview of the upcoming Big Ten weekend. No hurt feelings and thin skin allowed. Squad up. You're part of the Big Ten squad. That's right. Squad up. Welcome to Locked On Big Ten. The squad. Sit back. Enjoy. We're going to shoot the breeze. Hustle each other a little bit, have a good time. We've got a championship game on Monday night to talk about involving Ohio State. I'm Craig Schumann, the host of Lockdown Big Ten,

and today's episode is brought to you by FanDuel. For big upsets, the game-winning drives, NFL playoffs, they're here, they're ready to go, the better than ever with FanDuel. FanDuel customers can bet $5 and get $200 in bonus bets guaranteed win or lose. Visit FanDuel.com to get started. Today, we have Spencer McLaughlin from Lockdown Ducks, Lockdown College Football, Lockdown Everything, Jay Stevens from Lockdown Buckeyes in the National Championship.

We got Zach from Lockdown UCLA and Roman from Lockdown Huskies as well. Gentlemen, I want us to settle one thing here first before we get going because I was talking about this on my podcast and my radio show. So hypothetically, if Ohio State comes up short on Monday night, what do we call the Buckeyes? For example, no matter what happens, the Ducks will be the defending Big Ten champions. But what do we call the Buckeyes if they come up short, having won three playoff games, no championship? What do we call the buckeyes if they come up short having won three playoff

games no championship what do we call them jay the national runner up okay we get runners up runners up collectively plural yeah yeah that's a catchy banner i i don't know if we even hang that but But I was just – I wouldn't hang a banner for it. Absolutely not. That's kind of weird. But, no, I mean, they're runners-up. They're second place.

Second place isn't first. It sucks. But, I mean, it's kind of what they've earned right now, being a team that's representing the Big Ten in the National Championship. Yeah. I just – I love the frustration on Jay's face. He was like, I mean, this is what it is. I don't want to think about a loss on Monday night.

I absolutely don't. But since Craig wants to start on a little negative note for the Buckeye fans, Buckeye people, I'm not thinking like that right now. I don't think Craig is either. However, they've earned it. They've earned this right. It's really weird to think about this. I told Spencer.

I told some other people. I didn't think Ohio State would even be here right now. And they've happened to defy all odds and do some things in the postseason they didn't do in the regular season, and they've wound up in the national championship. Well, you know, you talk about you didn't think they'd be here. Going into the season, we all thought it was a possibility because this is a $20 million roster, man.

They started playing here in the postseason how we thought they could play all season long. They were good all season long, but now they're at this whole another level. Yeah, another level, but they're doing things in the postseason they didn't do in the regular season. Like the defense is playing out of their minds, which they had been playing like that all season long. But offensively, it was a very slow, methodical approach. Let's kind of save the bodies of the players because we might play 16 or 17 games. And so Ryan Day, this coaching staff of the offseason, really looked at the science behind the extended season and the time off in between games once you're starting to play in this

part of January, trying to figure out the best method to save the bodies of the athletes. And it seems like it's done something okay. And now you've got Cody Simon banged up and Tua Malawa's banged up and Sawyer's banged up and Denzel Burke's banged up. Like, you have a lot of your guys that are still playing right now that are banged up. But the bodies of the players, I believe they're going to give their all on Monday night.

And Ohio State's defense is the biggest story to me right now for this team because without this defense, I don't believe at all they'd be in the national championship. Spencer, how are the Ducks fans handling this? You're thinking all along this could have, would have, should have been you guys. Well, yeah, I mean, there's some element of that. I just kind of started laughing at your first question of how are Duck fans handling this? I mean, really? Well, obviously, there's been no overreactions.

Both coordinators should apparently be fired. We're back to Oregon will never win a national championship. And the coaching staff is a disaster. Every player sucked. Dylan Gabriel is a bum and all these other things. Now, this is a minority of Oregon fans, to be sure. But I bring this up to say it's still a mourning period of sorts. I actually had someone who I'm in an EA College Football 25 online dynasty with who is a regular listener in my show.

We played a user game recently and we were hopping on the headset and talking and he goes i i gotta be honest man i haven't listened to you in like two weeks just ever since the game i haven't been able to and i'm like i get it i get it like i listen to our locked on mariners guys they're great once we miss the playoffs by one game for the second straight year i'd take a hiatus so i i think there's still a lot of looming frustration and there are different avenues to channel it. The poor coaching, the day of poor play by a couple of guys, particularly on defense, the long layoff, the bad format. Those are just all avenues where Oregon fans are expressing their frustrations. I think a lot of that is justified. But at the end of the day, you know,

I saw Arizona State make adjustments during the game after a long layoff and a slow start, and Oregon just never did. And Oregon fans just have to sit with what is an all-too-familiar feeling at this point. You think we'd be battle-tested at this point, Craig, and a lot of us unfortunately are. I hear a lot of people text me on mine when I talk about the Ducks, something about a curse. Oh, a curse. This is the way it always is. We're used to it.

It's not even the curse of, you know, it's not like the curse of the Bambino or anything like that. It's just, nah, this is just how it goes. We just don't get all the things we want. We get a lot of them. But I mean the the quickness the speed with which everyone has forgotten inside or outside of the program that oregon went 13-0 and won the big 10 was immediate after the rose but like that has been you you could talk to some oregon fans who'd say this was a disaster of a season wow uh zach and roman how do you guys see all this shaping up, looking at these two programs? For the Oregon side of things, cry me a river.

Yeah, that's – there's no point where I feel bad about anything that happened. I know I haven't been on here in a couple weeks, so I need to take a couple seconds to just be like, oh, man, that sucks. Yes, classic Washington. The best day of the season is when Oregon loses to someone else. Wasn't that exactly what Oregon did when Washington lost to the actual national championship? You cannot find a single tweet of mine last year that indicates that. You go through my entire Twitter account.

I don't delete tweets. Both of them. Did I say you? All three of them. I run three, actually. Did I say you, or did I say the program as a whole? Spencer, I tweeted something about like a Washington NCAA tournament game yesterday. And I had Duck fans in my mentions being like, Oregon is so much better than Washington.

Oregon's the mecca of college sports. So I was like, you know, this is its own thing. But I just I need to take a second to relish in that because, Spencer, the other $20 million roster in college football, oh, too bad, so sad. I feel like Zach feels the same way as I do. Zach, go ahead. You've been very polite. Yeah. The one thing Oregon didn't have, it's not like they ever had Kenny Dillingham.

Oh, wait, you know, a couple years ago. And then it's not like they had Cam Scadaboo of Arizona State just to go manhandle some Buckeyes when they're down big in the first half. But the thing is, Oregon had a successful season. It was just a terrible matchup. And do we think that first win against Ohio State was more of a fluke? If you think about it weeks before, Spencer's never going to say that. But, you know, what do you think about that, Jay?

Is that first win a fluke way back when, considering Oregon pulled out all the stops? No, not at all. I've never actually considered that when being a fluke um interesting i've never even considered that honestly because i just feel like that was just an organ win but had you're playing with 12 defenders on the field yeah i was gonna say had it been 60 minutes and three seconds long you would have won the game though yeah it's a 60 minute game the flag was thrown for 12 men on the field. I get confused by people who are like, well, Oregon had to use this. They cheated.

They broke the rules. Like, yeah, they were flagged for it. The flag was thrown. What are we doing here? Like, they committed a penalty, and it works in their favor. The penalty was called. All right. Fair enough.

Dan Lanning, a game-changing coach in college football how about that that's right not what matters but but he could but he couldn't figure out what what were they down by it with 10 minutes to go in the second quarter he couldn't figure that out in the rose ball down what 35 to 3 or something was it what was no, no, no. We're not dodging this one. 34-0. That was one of the best first halves I've seen out of any team that's not on the college football video game in my life. Ohio State was doing whatever they wanted to, and Oregon couldn't stop them.

Dan Lanning's a good coach. He couldn't do anything in that first half. You know what's funny about that, Jay? Roman, you'll get it, and Zach, I guess, as well. You'll get a kick out of this. So going into the game, in my final segment on Locked on Ducks before the Rose Bowl, I had some advice for Oregon fans for a superior viewing experience because I know that these things are incredibly stressful.

People can get worked up, and it can just be a whole ordeal, right? One of the things that I advocated for was don't overreact to the first half oh it's a four-quarter game college football games are launched and then even when it was 17 nothing i look no no joke i my heart rate was not up when it was 17 nothing i was like no trailed by 17 in the Pac-12 title game, came back, take the lead in the third quarter. Oregon's fine. Like, it's all good. Oregon can do it.

Once it hit 24, I was like, oh. Then it hit 31. I'm like, okay, all right. Well, we can throw that piece of advice out the window. I mean, you're going to react. Women's basketball team of a couple days ago. All right. We are just warming up the squad.

I want to get a little deeper into the actual Ohio State-Notre Dame matchup and these guys' thoughts on all that. That's coming up in a minute as we continue with the Locked On Big Ten squad. FanDuel, from the biggest upsets, the game-winning drives, the NFL playoffs, they're here, they're better than ever, and they're better than ever with FanDuel because right now new customers can bet $5 and get $200 in bonus bets guaranteed. That's $200 in bonus bets.

Win or lose, the FanDuel app gets you everything you need for live bets, same-game parlays, and so much more. Just visit FanDuel.com and join today and get started with $200 in bonus bets. That's FanDuel.com. FanDuel.com. Make this playoff season unforgettable with Fanduel, an official sportsbook partner of the NFL with Fanduel. Guys, we're rolling here on the Lockdown Big Ten Squad. All right, so the Natty,

Monday night, Ohio State, already a big favorite against Notre Dame. a big favorite against Notre Dame. My thumbnail on this is, look, Notre Dame's got a quarterback that can kind of run and kind of throw and does both. They've got a good running back. They've got a good defense. Ohio State's better at them at wide receiver, two running backs, their quarterback. I think their line, their defensive line, secondary.

I don't see this game being close. Jay, I'll start with you i think it might be closer than a lot of people think because i do think that notre dame is going to try to do something similar to what texas did to take away jeremiah smith and it all goes to being a factor of if ohio state is going to shoot themselves in the foot like they did against texas if ohio state doesn't shoot themselves in the foot like they did against Texas. If Ohio State doesn't shoot themselves in the foot against Texas, that game's a blowout. There was nothing Texas could do.

If Ohio State just didn't make boneheaded penalty, you got a running back punch on somebody, you have a holding call, you got a false start, you have unsportsmanlike conduct. Bad read from Will Howard handing it off to Quinshawn Judkins. He might have scored. He threw an, he threw an interception. Another one should have been picked off. If you just don't have Ohio State getting in

their own way, Texas gets blown out. But also Texas gave a little bit of a blueprint to kind of slow down Ohio State's passing attack and take away Jeremiah Smith. I know Notre Dame's defense is not as good as Texas, and I don't think they match up as well as Texas did. However, I do think Notre Dame is going to do a few things to try to take away Jeremiah Smith. And my gut says Ohio State might do some things that are uncharacteristic. Again, the lights are bright. It's the biggest stage.

You know that this is the last game of the season, and you might want to go a little bit too hard at times, and that can lead to a 15-yard penalty. Or you may want to go a little bit too hard at times and that can lead to a 15-yard penalty or you may want to go a little bit too hard on a block and it could lead to a holding i think the self-inflicted wounds that ohio state produced against texas a couple of them might show up against uh notre dame in the natty but if they don't craig i'm like you this game's a blowout like there's nothing i think notre dame can do to slow down the buckeyes offense if they're hitting on all cylinders spencer how you see it well I think Notre Dame's defense is capable of slowing down but not stopping Ohio State their secondary like Texas is very good

they're incredibly well coached I think Freeman will have a great game plan and such but my issue for Notre Dame is can someone explain to me how they're scoring more than 17 points? I cannot, can not see it. I just, with the way that Ohio State is playing, the safeties are dialed. Corners have improved from, you know, earlier this season, particularly in the matchup against Oregon, but have mostly been great otherwise as well. Linebackers are playing well. JTT and Jack Sawyer with Tyleek Williams, like I just, I see no weaknesses that you can exploit. So again, as you point out, Jay, this comes down to does Ohio State make enough mistakes to allow Notre Dame to hang around? Maybe they will. They certainly did against Michigan. They had a foundational mistake of, you know, trying to go away from what they do well offensively

and trying to prove a point there. But when they don't do that or like against Texas, when they don't get in their own way, no one's really, you know, consistently slowed them down, at least not in the last month. So I think Ohio State wins by 15 to 20. And I think Notre Dame absolutely deserves to be in this spot because they went out and Marcus Freeman has done the best coaching job of anybody in college football. I mean, they have just jimmied their way into this national championship game with great coaching.

But you're going to run into a good staff on the other side with way more talent than what the Irish have got. Speaker 2, Speaker 3, Speaker 4, Speaker 5, Speaker 6, Speaker 7, Speaker 8, Speaker 9, Speaker 10, Speaker 11, Speaker 12, Speaker 13, Speaker 14, Speaker 14, Speaker 13, Speaker 14, Speaker 15, Speaker 16, Speaker 17, Speaker 18, Speaker 19, Speaker 20, Speaker 21, Speaker 22, Speaker 21, Speaker 22, Speaker 22, Speaker 23, Speaker 24, Speaker 24, Speaker 25, Speaker 25, Speaker 26, Speaker 27, Speaker 28, Speaker 28, Speaker 29, Speaker 30, Speaker 31, Speaker 29, Speaker 30, Speaker 31, Speaker 31, Speaker 32, Speaker 32, Speaker 33, Speaker 34, Speaker

32, Speaker 33, Speaker 34, Speaker 35, Speaker 36, Speaker 37, Speaker 38, Speaker 39, Speaker 40, Speaker 40, Speaker 41, Speaker 42, Speaker 42, Speaker 43, Speaker 42, Speaker 43, Speaker 44, Speaker 45, Speaker 44, Speaker 45, Speaker 46, Speaker 47, Speaker 46, Speaker 47, Speaker 48, Speaker 49, Speaker 50, Speaker 51, Speaker 52, Speaker 52, Speaker 51, Speaker 52, Speaker 53, Speaker 52, Speaker 53, Speaker 53, Speaker 53, Speaker 53, Speaker 54, Speaker 54, Speaker 55, Speaker 56, Speaker 56, Speaker 56, Speaker 56, Speaker 57, Speaker 57, Speaker 58, Speaker 58, Speaker 59, Speaker 59, Speaker 59, Speaker 60, Speaker 60, Speaker 61, Speaker 61, Speaker 61, Speaker 62, Speaker

62, Speaker 62, Speaker 63, Speaker 63, Speaker 62, Speaker 63, Speaker 63, Speaker 64, Speaker 64, Speaker 64, Speaker 64, Speaker 65, Speaker 64, Speaker 65, Speaker 64, Speaker 65, Speaker 67, Speaker 67, Speaker 67, Speaker 68, Speaker 68, Speaker 68, what Notre Dame is going to be able to do offensively. And just the more I look at this, the more I look at what Ohio state's defense has done in the second half of the season, the more I just, I look at it and I say, I, I don't see a path for them to really come up and over the top. Unless Jay, as you said, unless they find a way to shoot themselves in the foot again. Yeah. Which is so weird to even think about that,

that Ohio state's doing that in that moment. But sometimes during the season was the coaches that were getting in the way. Then it was the players against Texas, which is the only reason that was a 14-point win. It should have been a whole lot larger. But if everybody's hitting like they should, and you guys are correct, that defensive line has been insane. The fact that you're getting Tyler Williams playing the best ball of his career when he was banged up during the season, but also his running mate, Ty Hamilton,

who doesn't get any praise at all. He's been a great run- run stopping defensive tackle all season long really all throughout his career but he's playing his best ball now he is a big reason why late in the game texas couldn't run the ball on the goal line and a lot of teams all season couldn't run the ball in ohio state those two guys in the middle are just plugging gaps every single play and i know jeremiah love is banged up banged up and that's just another bad thing for notre dame because these safeties are flying downhill and they're ready to take your head off zach anderson yaksmar how do you see the game monday night well if notre dame is going to be a winner it's going to be an ugly ugly game i'll take like

a special teams return for a touchdown dropping the ball on the three kind of like how it took them to win a couple of games ago against Georgia. For Ohio State, you know, even if they give up a touchdown early, like they did to Indiana a month ago or so, right, they can still blitz them with 28-0 run in the blink of an eye that Notre Dame, if they get down a score early, they just can't do. But they have a blueprint with what they've been doing defensively. They have to win the special team side if they want to make this game close all right uh Zach Senko has slipped in here from locked on Nittany Lions Zach man you guys are this close we could be talking about an all Big Ten final for the last 33 seconds I was worried that my team lost and we're just going to pretend that I'm not that I'm not part of the show so I guess it's a I guess it's a penance, right? I guess it's deserve it here because I went on the

record saying that Penn state would win and that's how close it was right. Drew Aller hits one different pass, literally one pass. And we're talking about a Penn state versus Ohio state rematch. The way that I see this game is pretty simple. If you lean on Quinn, Sean, Judkins and Trey beyond Henderson, Ohio state will have no issues winning this game. It's part of it because that, yeah, you got a talented backfield on an offensive line that is playing well enough for Ohio state. Y'all see, you can get, Will Howard hasn't run a lot, but you can get his legs involved too. I don't think you necessarily need to, but Notre Dame's front seven is just not what it was throughout the season. They, they are struggling. Part of that has to do with injury.

Part of that has to do with, I mean, maybe they're just not, I don't know how much I want to say this because Penn State had lost to Notre Dame, but Nicholas Singleton, Kate Tron Allen, and Penn State's offensive line had its way with Notre Dame's front seven. Hindsight's 20-20. You could have leaned on the ground game maybe a little bit more since Drew Aller was so shaky, but when you have future NFL running backs, I know that all too well over here in the penn state side of things jay travion henderson and quinshawn jenkins could easily both have 100 rushing yards in this game especially when i will stand by this notre dame's offense is not built to play from behind they have to play within a single score game or they have to have the lead. That's where their game plan is most effective.

So you use the ground game, then the clock becomes Notre Dame's biggest enemy. Hypothetically speaking, had we had the all-Big Ten final, that would have been a rematch. Do you think it would have been different? Before you got on, we all kind of agree, I think we see a path to Ohio State having a big win. Would the game be much different if it were penn state you guys already played each other zach would would it be different the second time around from what it was a couple months ago i think it'd be a little higher scoring and i know that's saying something given that i think ohio state is just getting it's it

jeremiah smith is getting better right all of these guys the the elite of the elite players are the ones that get better as the season progresses. And I think we saw that with Ohio State, but we also saw that with Penn State. Tyler Warren continued to get better. And I know that's not really, you don't need to point that out because of how good he was, but he got better down the stretch. Drew Allard just kind of ran into a buzzsaw himself.

I don't know because he was getting better as the season went along. saw himself. I don't know because he was getting better as the season went along. And then, I mean, Notre Dame is a top five defense objectively, especially in that secondary. So Warren Singleton, Allen, they really could have leaned on those guys. I think there would have been room for more points and just the way that Ohio state just really kicked into gear 40 plus against Tennessee, 40 plus against Oregon, right? These are the best of the best teams that, honestly, not Tennessee, but Oregon should have made the national championship if they were on the other side of the bracket. They just happened to run into Ohio State earlier.

So I think we would have seen more points instead of maybe a defensive slugfest, but I don't think the result would have been any different. I think maybe Ohio State wins by possibly 10 to 14 instead. I just think that you're getting the best production you could imagine from that offense finally getting into rhythm after that Michigan game. I think they needed that. Honestly, they needed to lose to Michigan that way. Seiko with the accidental knife just straight through my heart. I mean, goodness gracious. A nice warm-up game against the Boise would have been really nice to get the rust off there for

Oregon. Yeah, beating Boise is easy. I mean, Oregon did it by three whole points. Yeah, exactly. All right, we'll be back for final word, getting ready for Monday. And I also got another question for Zach about Tom Allen leaving the defensive coordinator all of a sudden. Will we continue with the Lockdown Big Ten

squad? And this message is brought to you by PrizePix, the place to get real money sports action with over 10 million members and billions of winnings. PrizePix has changed the game of daily fantasy sports, whether it's the playoffs or the regular season. PrizePix has made it easier than ever to win big while enjoying all the football action. This is great. You take a couple of players, maybe a bunch of players, and you pick more than or less than on

stats and just sit back and have fun. It's a total blast. Get ready to run your game the rest of this postseason for the football season. Download the app today and use the code LOCKEDONCOLLEGE to get $50 instantly after you play your first $5 lineup. That's right. Just $50 for playing. Simple. Easy. Run your game.

Don't wait. Take your game to the next level with PrizePix. PrizePix. Run your game. As we continue here on Locked On Big Ten, the squad. Get a final thought from these guys getting ready for the championship. But first, I do want to ask Zach Sacco. Soo so uh tom allen surprised a good year defensively for penn state he leaves he goes to dabbo sweeney and and clemson was there a personality conflict between those two

or was he told to leave i was a little surprised by it because now you're looking for your third defensive coordinator in four years you hit the nail on the head. There was certainly a cultural conflict to an extent, personality conflict. Tom Allen just did not fit in. Okay. And I think this is a match made in heaven over at Clemson. Him and Dabo Sweeney are going to get along very well. They have no prior connections, but honestly, I feel like there's a spiritual connection to it in a sense. And I don't mean to make light of that because they are stout in their religious beliefs. So they believe similar things. They have similar philosophies, similar mottos in the way that they can conduct themselves.

And I'm not saying that didn't work for Tom Allen at Penn State, but I think he's going to fit in a lot better at Clemson. Let me try to sum it up as briefly as I can. Because Tom Allen had a top 10 defense for Penn State. Why would you be moving? Because Penn State didn't exactly fight to keep him. Clemson made it very apparent that they wanted Tom Allen. And that was their preferred candidate above everybody. They, they made the phone call and Tom Allen reciprocated. And then Penn state said, okay, if that's what you want to do, that's what you want to do. There was no, no discussions,

no debates because it happened very quickly. It went from a fringe rumor to the actual report. And then five minutes later, all of a sudden, uh, he, he is the official coordinator for, for Clemson. There were communication issues. Tom Allen went from, so he wants to be on the sideline. Penn state moved him up to the booth. Was that his decision? No. That, and did he agree with that decision? The results vindicate it, but I wonder if he still felt some type of way about it, being on the sideline versus being up in the press box. And then the calls went from him to Dan Conner, a defensive analyst, to the players. The communication was just not good it was is there any bad blood is anybody mad

or anything about that well you shouldn't be because they all went to the national semi-final but i think where tom allen is at the stage of his career he's sitting on a 15 million dollar buyout family certainly plays a lot a big part in this tom allen as much time as he spent in indiana has spent a lot of time in the southeastern part of the country, whether that's in Florida as a high school football coach, Ole Miss, it just made so much more sense for him to do this. I wish him nothing but the best. But Penn State absolutely needs to knock it out of the park for this one. They can't get somebody that's going to need time to settle in.

They basically need either a veteran of the game, kind of like a Manny Diaz or a Tom Allen that fits culturally more, or the Andy Kotelnicki equivalent on defense. All right, good. I thought that was a bizarre story this week. Zach Anderson, your final word on Monday night, Buckeyes and Notre Dame. If Ohio State loses, they're soft. If you choose against Ohio State in this game, you're delusional. And I think the most interesting thing about Notre Dame football in the last 40 years has been the documentary about Manti Teo's girlfriend. And that'll still be the most interesting thing about Notre Dame's football season come

January 21st. I've been waiting for someone to bring that up. And it wasn't going to be me. I was going to let one of you other people decide that. But good job, Zach. Good job. Solid answer. Solid answer.

Roman, final word. I have a couple of friends that are big Notre Dame fans. I feel really bad for them. I don't think this game is going to be pretty. I've got Ohio State 31-13, and it's going to look a lot worse than that. Okay. All right. Spencer, your final thoughts on Monday night.

Yeah, I think Ohio State wins by somewhere in the 15-20 point range. I think they are just too talented for Notre Dame to really keep up. And I can't wait for Kirk Herbstreit to come out after the game and question Notre Dame's validity as a playoff team because you shouldn't just look at wins, you know? That's good. Can't wait for that. I'm sure it'll arrive.

But not from him on Twitter because his son runs all that. He'll use the word physicality within the first two minutes of the game you watch that's another thing that he likes he's gonna backtrack on everything he said too he's gonna be like no no i never i never said that that's not what i was talking about just don't call him soft no don't do that jay stevens the final word before the championship game ohio state's been working for this since these guys got on campus for the past four or five years ago. From Jack Sawyer, Denzel Burke, Latham Ransom, they've all gone through a grind. They've all had their ups and downs. They've all had their injuries. They've all had great games. They've had bad games. But this season has been built towards this moment. And for Ryan Day, I believe he understands what's right in front of him. He's

going to have Ohio State's players ready to run through a brick wall and ready for them to just fire on all cylinders. I got Ohio State winning this one. No surprise. We're all on the same page here. And it really shouldn't be close. I don't want to go as high as I think my natural thought would be if Ohio State wasn't my team.

But I think Ohio State wins between 14 and 17 points. And Notre Dame had a great season but this Ohio State team is playing too well and it's all not just because of the offense this defense is one of the best defenses we have seen in a very long time and they're going to show up once again on Monday night and play phenomenal football for all four quarters Jack Sawyer went from a guy that couldn't go get a burger on campus after the Michigan game to they're going to build a statue of that guy after that play. Man, 80-plus yards on the right sideline after getting a strip sack

of your former roommate. That's stuff that you kind of think about, dream about, but you don't think it's actually going to happen. And then it does. He gets to the 30-yard line. He doesn't want to trip like Will did. And we are talking about this once again. And Jack Sawyer, Captain Jack,

he was a big reason why these guys stayed in school. A lot of these guys could have gone off to the NFL, but Jack Sawyer was the first one to kind of announce he's going to stay at Ohio State and forego the NFL for one more year. Then everybody else kept staying. And of course it helps when Caleb Downs and Will Howard come over

and kind of fill in some of the holes on the team. But Jack Sawyer, Captain Jack, love that play, love what he's done, and he has just been a fighter all season long. He's a big reason why Ohio State's in this spot right now. I like the Buckeyes by at least 14 as well. To our audience out there, these guys do a great job every single day covering all your favorite teams in the Big Ten. Spencer, locked on Ducks, locked on college football.

Jay Stephens, locked on Buckeyes. Jack. Spencer, locked on Ducks, locked on college football. Jay Stevens, locked on Buckeyes. Jack Sacco, locked on Nittany Lions. Zach Anderson. Sorry, what Sacco? What Sacco? Zach Sacco, locked on Nittany Lions. That didn't sound right in my head.

Zach Anderson, Yaksmeyer, locked on UCLA. And Roman Tomaschop on locked on Huskies. I'm Craig Schiemer for Locked On UCLA, and Roman Tomaschop on Locked On Huskies. I'm Craig Schumann for Locked On Big Ten. Follow and subscribe all these guys. Your favorite Big Ten teams right there. We'll be covering all your favorite teams every day throughout the season. And don't forget, again, I've got you covered on Locked On Big Ten as well. Part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. Talk to you next time.