Category: 2025 College Football Playoff

By Chris Schumerth Sports Capital Journalism Program SOUTH BEND – It did not seem like an accident that Notre Dame quarterback Riley Leonard appeared at the post-game press conference in a Jeremiyah Love T-shirt after the Irish beat an upstart Indiana team, 27-17, in the inaugural first-round game of the expanded College Football Playoff. “I’ve …

By Cort Street | @cort_street Sports Capital Journalism Program SOUTH BEND – No other result would have been sufficient. There was no arrogance to the processional as the No. 7 Notre Dame Fighting Irish trotted off the field following a 27-17 victory over the No. 10 Indiana Hoosiers. There was, more noticeably, an air of …

My paternal grandfather, a Notre Dame graduate, lived out his life in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, as a high school football coach who won several state championships. He was Catholic, though my own father didn’t pass it on to my siblings and me. My mother is from just north of Pittsburgh, and when my parents tired of …