By Cort Street | @cort_street

Sports Capital Journalism

MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. – On an everlasting night that had seemed unreachable in late summer, the Notre Dame Fighting Irish fans in Hard Rock Stadium shared in the ecstasy of a program that had anticipated this return to glory for so long — and had so consistently fallen short of the nation’s elite.

When Mitch Jeter booted home the game-winning 41-yard field goal with seven seconds left on the clock, set up by Christian Gray’s interception, Notre Dame redefined modern history in the College Football Playoff Semifinal at the Capital One Orange Bowl. The wild 27-24 comeback win over the Penn State Nittany Lions advanced the Irish to the national championship game against Ohio State or Texas on Jan. 20.

Notre Dame earned the chance to play for the school’s 12^th national championship, the first since Lou Holtz’s 1988 Irish beat West Virginia in the Fiesta Bowl. Notre Dame reached a national championship game for the first time since the 2013 Bowl Championship Series loss to Alabama.

Notre Dame (14-1) had to overcome an early 10-point deficit, the first time the Irish trailed in the second half since the jarring early-season loss to Northern Illinois; the alarming, temporary loss of quarterback Riley Leonard, who went through a concussion protocol late in the first half; and the loss of starting offensive linemen Anthonie Knapp and Rocco Spindler.

“So proud of this group,” Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman said. “What a gritty performance, and they found a way when it matters the most to get their job done. I had a lot of respect for [Penn State] coming into the game but have more after the game. It’s a really good team, well-coached, and it was a tough match-up. But these guys are resilient, and they found a way to make a play when it mattered the most.”

The game began as a plodding, defensive affair, one that was reminiscent of the two storied programs’ quintessential clashes that dominated the college football landscape from the 1980s into the early 1990s. It was a matchup that was decided by the teams’ physicality in the trenches; one that was decided by the players that fought for just a few more yards; but, most importantly, one that was decided by the stars that came through in the defining moments of the game.

It was Penn State defensive end Abdul Carter’s tenacity on the line of scrimmage, despite an injured left shoulder, that delineated the first half of the affair and caused Notre Dame to break first. An early, ill-advised pass from Leonard floated into the hands of safety Zakee Wheatley to gift the Nittany Lions with critical early momentum. It was star tight end Tyler Warren’s ferocity and strength that was evident when he fought through a tackle on a critical fourth-and-1 in the red-zone to earn a key first down, and his energy ultimately set up the Nittany Lions to take an early 10-0 lead on running back Nick Singleton’s 5-yard rush, the first of his three touchdowns, just three plays later.

The dominance of Penn State’s resulting 10-3 halftime performance seemed to indicate a pessimistic outlook for Notre Dame’s title game hopes, but the Irish refused to back down as the second half got underway. Leonard, who had gone down with a potential head injury with 1:30 to play in the first half, was replaced by sophomore backup Steve Angeli, whose 6-of-7 passing for 44 yards guided the Irish to Jeter’s 41-yard field goal, and a reason to believe, on the last play of the half.

Leonard completed 15 of 23 passes for 223 yards, seven of them, for 105 yards, to Jaden Greathouse. Leonard reentered the game at the start of the second half and capped off a determined eight-play, 75-yard drive to with a physical 3-yard touchdown run to tie the game at 10-10 and inject life into Notre Dame’s undaunted fans.

“It just shows the toughness and grittiness of our offense,” said senior linebacker Jack Kiser of his team’s refusal to back down. “We weren’t executing as we should obviously, but you know, that shows the toughness and mentality that we have, and the trust and love that we have together. I didn’t even doubt for a second that our team had what it took to come together and find a way to win this game.”

The touchdown set off an eventual fourth quarter of urgency and passion, one that saw three lead changes, two ties, and 31 points. Notre Dame running back Jeremiyah Love gave the Irish their first lead of the game on a 2-yard run in which he fought off both the physicality of would-be tacklers Zion Tracy, Wheatley and Carter and the weight of an Irish program that had come up so painstakingly short of their championship potential.

“It speaks volumes to the heart he has,” Freeman said of the overall performance of Love, who was battling an injury coming into the game. “He gave everything he had to this place. He did not have to play today. Nobody would have batted an eye. But he put the team in front of himself and how he felt, and we’ve got a whole bunch of guys like that in this locker room, and that’s why we’re in this position.”

Notre Dame gained 101 of its 116 rushing yards and 261 of its 383 total yards in the second half. The Irish limited Penn State to one successful third-down conversion in the second half and just 3-of-11 for the game.

Through all the fourth quarter turmoil, it was Notre Dame that ultimately refused to let this moment – an opportunity to change the modern landscape of college football – slip away. With Penn State driving down the field with a chance to end the game late in the fourth quarter, Gray came up with his team’s nation-leading 32^nd turnover, a play that will be forever immortalized in the catalogues of Irish history.

Penn State quarterback Drew Allar dropped back, searched for an opportunity and launched the football across the field with pressure in his face, hoping that the ball would hit the ground and give the Nittany Lions a chance to play another down. But Gray dove toward the ball and came up with the interception of his career, his outstretched fingertips holding the hopes of a new era of Notre Dame football.

“That’s what Christian Gray does,” said Freeman of the sophomore cornerback. “He makes plays when it matters the most. In that moment, Christian had to make a play and he did, and he was a huge reason why we won that game.”

With pressure like never before, Jeter – despite all the turmoil he had faced in a regular season in which he had battled through injuries and finished 6-for-12 on field goal attempts – stepped up and felt nothing but expectancy as his 41-yard game-winning field goal floated through the uprights.

“Freeman talks a lot about delayed gratification,” Jeter said. “It’s been kind of my mindset, you know, going through an injury, having delayed gratification now to be able to come out and give our team a chance to go win a national championship.”

Penn State (13-3) had hoped to win the school’s first national championship since the 1986 season. For coach James Franklin, the heartbreaking loss continues one of the most prominent losing records in all of college football. Franklin is now 1-15 against top-5 opponents during his tenure at Penn State, a worrying trend for a program that has memories of championship-level football that grow further in the rearview mirror with every passing season.

“I wanted it for the guys in the locker room and the staff,” Franklin said after the game. “As you can imagine, there’s a thousand different emotions going on and feelings, but as the head coach, I’ve got to put on the right face for the guys in the locker room for what they need right now and for my family.”

Linebacker Kobe King offered his perspective on what the year has meant to the team as a whole.

“We’ve learned so much together,” King said. “We fail, we have success. But I just think it’s the connection we made with each other, everything we learned from each other, and for the young guys coming up, it’s something they’ll be able to look back and reflect on for the rest of their lives.”

With the win, Freeman will become the first Black head coach in the history of college football to lead his team in a major college national championship game. The accomplishment so vividly elicited the historic nature of the 2007 Super Bowl, a moment in history in the same stadium that Franklin had pointedly recalled in the lead-up to Penn State’s Orange Bowl clash.

In that matchup of two teams led by Black head coaches, it was Tony Dungy’s Indianapolis Colts that prevailed over Lovie Smith’s Chicago Bears on a rainy day to elevate Dungy as the first Black head coach in history to win a Super Bowl. Now, the city of Miami had set the stage for another momentous day in history – a day that had the potential to spark a new wave of change for a future generation of Black coaches.

In a much less prominent light, the win elicited the memory of Penn State’s 24-21 win over Notre Dame in the 1990 encounter. That crushing Irish loss, one that was decided by a field goal from Nittany Lions kicker Craig Fayak with four seconds to go made possible by Darren Perry’s interception with 59 seconds remaining, prevented the Irish from playing for a national championship. Notre Dame’s stark reversal of history in this year’s Orange Bowl came in a remarkably similar fashion to many of those championship teams of the past, with a gritty offensive performance and a defensive unit that refused to give up until the very end.

But, for all the historic imagery this matchup evoked, Notre Dame’s win had a clear identity of its own. This was a new era of Irish football – one that was determined to no longer be defined by its failure to overcome the challenge of the spotlight, but one that embraced its culture of team glory as the key to success in a sport that has lauded individual glory more than ever before.

“What I think the country is learning about our program, I think the biggest thing is just culture wins,” Leonard said. “You see a bunch of talented guys across our locker room, but you can see that anywhere in the country. Nobody is thinking about draft stocks or next year or anything like that, we’re all thinking about the man beside us. I think we kind of proved throughout the season that culture wins, and it’s a special place for a reason.”

Freeman believed these fundamentals have a broader scope of application that transcend the game of football.

“I hope people see a bunch of individuals that put team in front of themselves, and that’s a lesson that is going to help you achieve great things in football but also great things in life,” he said.

“You have to be selfless to achieve anything great.”