Inside Tez Walker’s long fight for eligibility — and his immediate star turn
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Andrea Adelson, ESPN Senior Writer
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — Just before heading into the locker room to prepare for kickoff against Miami on Saturday, North Carolina receiver Tez Walker came to the sideline to give his high school coach a hug.
Josh Harris has been a father figure to Walker for nearly a decade. They still talk every day. As Walker prepared for his first game fully incorporated in the North Carolina offense, Harris peppered him with questions about how it was going and what he thought of the Miami cornerbacks he would face.
“They’re physical,” Walker told him.
“But can they run with you?” Harris asked.
“Nah,” Walker replied.
That became apparent in the first quarter, when he easily scored an 18-yard touchdown as a flummoxed Miami secondary lost track of him. Then he scored another, a 56-yarder on a perfectly placed ball from Drake Maye after Walker blazed past Jaden Davis. By the time he scored his third, the Hurricanes had no answers.
Walker had become the star of the game.
Six catches. 151 yards of total offense. Three touchdowns. Multiple statements made: To the NCAA. To his opponents. To himself.
When Walker transferred from Kent State to North Carolina in December, he envisioned games just like this one. But then the NCAA declared him ineligible this season because he was a two-time transfer. Walker had no idea it would take a seven-month fight with the NCAA — one that included a public pressure campaign, legal intervention and half a football season — to play in a game for the first time.
“I’m glad they changed their mind,” Walker said. “Very blessed and thankful they were able to do that for me.”
WHEN WALKER BEGAN classes at North Carolina on Jan. 9, he expected some challenges from the NCAA in getting his waiver to play in 2023 granted because he was a two-time transfer, but the NCAA had previously granted them in other cases. He and North Carolina believed he qualified for multiple reasons, because mental health was his reason for transferring and because he never played at NC Central, with the pandemic having canceled the season.
Two days later, he got an indication of just how challenging getting a waiver would become. On Jan. 11, the NCAA announced it was cracking down on waivers for two-time transfers and would grant them only if “student-athletes demonstrated and adequately documented a personal need for medical or safety reasons to depart their previous school.”
Walker tried not to panic.
He had lost football before — because of injury and the pandemic — and always found his way back onto the field. His road to North Carolina was not easy.
Coming out of high school, most colleges wanted Walker to play defensive back. He insisted on playing receiver. Few offers came his way. He took one from East Tennessee State in 2019, but a torn ACL derailed those plans.
Walker decided to stay home in Charlotte and took a job working at Bojangles to help pay his rehab bills. One day, three NC Central coaches walked in the door after watching game tape Harris had sent them. Walker stared at them, stunned, not expecting their arrival.
“I tried to play it cool, but it was heartwarming to see a team still take a chance on me when I thought nobody really was,” Walker said.
The clouds lifted, but only temporarily. The pandemic canceled the fall 2020 season and a planned spring 2021 season. Walker entered the portal again in 2021 and went to Kent State. While he was there, he grew homesick and began struggling with his mental health. Walker had served as the primary caregiver for his grandmother, Loretta Black, a role he took on in high school after she had multiple knee operations and could not walk on her own. Walker did whatever she needed — including bathing her, cooking, administering her medicine, cleaning and running errands while his mother worked two jobs to support the family.
While he was gone at Kent State, he constantly worried as she struggled with her physical health. Black reassured him she was doing OK, but, she says, “I couldn’t travel to see him, my feet swell, it’s hard for me to get around, and I can’t do that much walking because my body gets so tired and weak,” she said.
He opted for North Carolina because it was closer to her — Chapel Hill is a 2½-hour drive from his home in Charlotte, whereas it takes more than 7 hours to drive to Kent State in northeastern Ohio. He and North Carolina knew the fight with the NCAA might take some time, but both believed his circumstances would be enough to get that waiver.
THE NORTH CAROLINA administration and compliance staff started to gather all the necessary documentation, believing Walker had a case on three fronts. They believed his time at NC Central should not count against him because the pandemic canceled his football season; his mental health was his reason for transferring to North Carolina; and both NC Central and Kent State supported his immediate eligibility and were willing to file waivers on his behalf.
But the NCAA had recently changed another bylaw and would no longer take into account waivers from previous institutions that wanted to file in support of immediate eligibility.
“Everyone was fully supportive of Tez doing what’s right for Tez,” said Greg Glaus, Kent State executive deputy athletic director with oversight over football. “We wanted to be helpful for whatever that next step for Tez was going to be.”
Glaus said the school “had everything lined up and in the system. I don’t believe there was ever a denial or anything like that. I think it was just more, ‘We see what you’re doing. But that’s just not an option anymore.'”
North Carolina wanted to file two waivers. It believed Walker had a strong argument with the COVID-19 year and pointed out that if a school announced it was not playing sports that year, all student-athletes could immediately apply for an exception that would allow a transfer without penalty.
UNC also pointed to the toll that being away from home and his grandmother took on Walker’s mental health. Sources indicated the NCAA would not allow North Carolina to file these independently — they had to be rolled into one waiver, and the COVID exception would be looked at only as a mitigating circumstance. The NCAA repeatedly told North Carolina it could not retroactively apply that relief exception — that Walker should have done it in 2021 when he left NC Central.
For months, the NCAA and North Carolina went back and forth on the facts of Walker’s case. Sources indicated the NCAA was skeptical about the reason for Walker’s entrance into the portal because it was so close to when his head coach left Kent State. Sources told ESPN on Dec. 5, the same day the transfer portal opened, that Sean Lewis would leave the head-coaching job at Kent State to become Colorado’s offensive coordinator; Walker went into the portal Dec. 9 and committed to North Carolina on Dec. 21. To Walker, that skepticism made him feel as though the NCAA was dismissive of his mental health and the pages of documentation North Carolina provided. In addition to seeking help at Kent State, he immediately sought care when he enrolled at North Carolina, and the school provided that documentation as well.
“I feel like you read my story and just come out and say it had nothing to do with mental health was the most unfair,” Walker said. “I really struggled. I started to feel like it had nothing to do with me. I just felt like the NCAA probably had something against Carolina.”
The process felt like one big merry-go-round. North Carolina filed its initial waiver in the spring. It was denied. North Carolina appealed. It went to a committee made up of NCAA Division I representatives, and they upheld the initial decision. North Carolina got more documentation and asked for reconsideration. It was denied again. North Carolina appealed to the committee. It was denied again. North Carolina then asked for a second reconsideration of its initial waiver, which was denied and went to the full committee again.
At that point, it was Sept. 1, the day before the season opener against South Carolina in Charlotte, with no decision on Walker’s final attempt at eligibility. North Carolina coach Mack Brown laid into the NCAA in a statement, saying, “They say they’re about helping kids, but all they’ve done is add to the very mental health issues Tez has been dealing with that made him want to get closer to home to begin with. You can’t say you’re about helping kids and then show a total disregard for the kids you’re supposed to be helping.”
Walker had to sit out the game in his hometown and missed the opportunity to play in front of 30 of his friends and family members who had tickets (his family insisted on coming anyway). Though Black uses a walker and cane, and tires easily from walking, she pushed herself into the stadium and to her seat.
She said Walker came up into the stands before the game to see them. “When people found out who we were, they were so supportive, so we got through it with so many people being appreciative and supportive.”
A week later, on Sept. 7, Walker got what he believed was his final no from the NCAA. Again, Brown blasted the decision, saying the NCAA had failed Walker and his family. “It makes no sense and it never will,” Brown said.
Walker said his mental health worsened as a result. “That’s when it became hard to get out of bed, nights where I had thoughts that weren’t good thoughts. I was really struggling, but nobody knew that because I came in every day with a smile.”
Asked to elaborate on those thoughts, Walker said he was not suicidal but had thoughts about quitting and dropping out of school. “I didn’t want to do anything anymore. I felt if I didn’t have this game, I had nothing,” Walker said.
Walking around campus made it harder. Students often came up to him and said, “I’m sorry.” Walker said that he put on a fake smile but that he did not like being known as the guy on campus people felt sorry for. Though he said it wasn’t a “big thought,” he said declaring for the NFL draft was in the back of his mind. “I didn’t know what decision I was going to make. So it was 50-50.”
Ultimately, Walker pushed himself forward, went to practice and voluntarily asked to play on the scout team so he could help the first-team defense get better. He went to class because he did not want to fail. Receivers coach and passing game coordinator Lonnie Galloway made sure to check on him every day. So did his teammates. Walker credited the support of Brown, the staff, teammates and the administration for helping him. “It goes to show under the right coach, under the right staff, what they’ll do for you,” Walker said.
Walker also tried one more avenue at trying to play this season. Raleigh-based attorney Elliot Abrams and four other attorneys took on Walker’s case.
“Every other student gets to go to the place they think is going to maximize their future opportunities, and because he’s a football player, he has to sit in timeout for a year for making a choice that’s best for him. It’s absurd to me, and the human cost of that is completely ignored by the NCAA,” Abrams said.
“You’re eligible.”
The two words @UNCFootball receiver Tez Walker couldn’t wait to hear after a long journey ? pic.twitter.com/RdM5bi216B
— ACC Network (@accnetwork) October 14, 2023
The legal team, in conjunction with UNC, went through the case file again. “We looked at a case as one of these situations where the unjustness of the decision, the incorrectness of the decision and the illegality of the decision were all relatively apparent. We really believed that the NCAA would have to see that he met the criteria,” Abrams said.
Walker said his legal team began preparing the necessary court filings to sue the NCAA, in all likelihood by Friday, Oct. 6. State attorney general Josh Stein also threatened legal action against the NCAA in a letter he sent to the NCAA on Sept. 26, saying its decision likely violated federal and state antitrust laws.
“I just wanted fair treatment,” Walker said. “If they were not going to let me play, then we were going to just sue them. So it was just trying to figure out ways where we can go throughout that process and I could still play without punishment.”
On Thursday, Oct. 5, Brown called Walker up to his office. Walker walked in and saw Galloway standing there, too. “You’re eligible,” Brown told him. “You’re eligible, big dog!” Galloway said as he clapped. Brown came over and gave Walker a hug.
“I was in a state of shock,” Walker said. “I was glad it was over. Now I can focus on football.”
In its statement, the NCAA cited “new information” and blamed North Carolina for not providing it earlier, but UNC chancellor Kevin Guskiewicz said that info was “immediately gathered and submitted.” Meanwhile, Walker said, “It was the same information we’ve been trying to give them and tell them that they’ve been reading for the last 10 months, so there was no new information.” (The NCAA declined further comment for this story, citing federal privacy laws and pointing to its previous statements on the case.)
Abrams declined to elaborate on what was presented, but he and Walker expressed their gratitude to the NCAA for taking another look.
WALKER MADE CALLS to Harris, Black and Ivey Cody, Walker’s mother. Black screamed so loud Walker had to pull the phone away from his ear. Harris simply told Walker he had to go because he was about to cry. “I found a corner in the gymnasium. I cried a little bit. I got myself together. Then throughout the day, I cried about three times just thinking about it,” Harris said.
Galloway and Walker immediately started working to get him into the game plan. Because he had been playing on scout team, and the game against Syracuse was just 48 hours away, Walker would have a limited role in his first game.
“We tried to cram as much as we could in, we knew we weren’t going to get everything,” Walker said. “I knew I had to go to my past notes and relearn the offense and the playbook as much as possible and then be locked in on Saturday when my number was called.”
With his grandmother, mother, uncle, sisters, high school coach and other family members in the stands, Walker was chosen to run onto the field carrying the North Carolina state flag. Black described the moment as “overwhelming.”
Walker got into the game in the first quarter, and his first catch was a short completion. He ended with six catches for 43 yards, and Walker said he played more than he expected. But he was also jittery because everything happened so fast.
Preparing for Miami would be completely different. Walker immersed himself in the game plan. He called on Maye and the receivers to watch extra tape. This would be his breakout moment, months and months in the making.
After it was over — North Carolina defeated Miami 41-31 to remain unbeaten — Walker ran to midfield to soak it all in. He did a television interview, while Galloway screamed, “Free Tez!” in the background. Then the two embraced, Galloway telling him how proud he was to be his coach.
An hour later, Walker’s mom, his uncle, his sister and Harris waited outside the football facility. Black was unable to make the trip this week, but she plans to make the next one. They all spoke about their excitement and joy, their relief and happiness that Walker was finally allowed to play.
They all had on their Walker gear. As they chatted, a man walked past and screamed, “The man scored more points than NC State did!” — a reference to the Wolfpack’s 24-3 loss to Duke earlier that night up Tobacco Road.
Walker finally emerged and walked over to his family, smiling the smile they all missed while he sat out. His mom, hoarse from cheering, called the entire night “magical.”
“It was beautiful, like a dream come true,” Cody said. “We had to fight for everything, and I showed him the example that if you want anything, don’t stop. Since the day he told me he wanted to play football, I said, ‘Go get it, son.'”
Sports
‘There was no other option’: The story of Ohio State’s title run from preseason hype to crushing defeat to playoff champion
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Andrea Adelson, ESPN Senior Writer
ATLANTA — Seven weeks and two days ago, Ohio State coach Ryan Day watched as Michigan planted its flag at midfield inside the Horseshoe, chaos ensuing: fans chanting “F— Ryan Day,” his players both fighting back and walking around dazed, the rival Wolverines celebrating.
Seven weeks and two days ago, what unfolded Monday night felt unimaginable: joy, celebration, triumph, Day right in the middle, the whole of Buckeye Nation now back in his corner.
After that devastating loss to Michigan, the first expanded 12-team College Football Playoff delivered a chance at salvation. And the Buckeyes took advantage from the start, outscoring their four postseason opponents by a combined score of 145-75, culminating with a 34-23 victory over Notre Dame for the program’s seventh national championship.
“No great accomplishments are ever achieved without going through adversity,” Day said. “That’s just the truth.” No team has benefited from the College Football Playoff quite like the Buckeyes.
In 2014, they were ranked No. 4 in the inaugural four-team field, beating No. 1 Alabama, then No. 2 Oregon behind third-string quarterback Cardale Jones to hoist the first championship trophy of the CFP era.
This year, they were the No. 8 seed in the first 12-team field. The loss to Michigan — Ohio State’s fourth straight in the series — kept them out of the Big Ten title game. And in any previous season, it would have kept them out of the playoff. But thanks to playoff expansion, the Buckeyes made it when the bracket was revealed Dec. 8.
The future still looked bleak.
Speculation swirled around Day and whether his disgruntled fan base could accept another failure in a season built for a national championship run.
A team meeting after the Michigan loss got heated. Feelings were hashed out, grievances aired.
“There’s multiple ways that you can respond to adversity in life, and that adversity brought us closer as an entire group,” receiver Emeka Egbuka said. “We were able to lift each other up in that moment, and we’ve gotten stronger because of it.”
Michigan would be their catalyst.
TWELVE MONTHS AND 12 days ago, cornerback Denzel Burke made sure to watch the 2024 national championship game all the way to the end so he could see rival Michigan hold up the trophy following a 34-13 win over Washington. He had the game on his phone while at dinner with teammate Lathan Ransom and was so hurt, he had to walk into the bathroom to cool off.
There is no fun in losing to your rival; even less fun is watching your rival win the national championship. Michigan beat Ohio State and won it all last season, thanks in part to a veteran group that put off the NFL to return to school to try and win a championship.
Day wanted the same for the Buckeyes in 2024. To get the better of Michigan, Ohio State would have to be like Michigan. Well, at least in one way. With $20 million to spend in NIL, Ohio State went about convincing its top players to return to school, too. Defensive end Jack Sawyer, who grew up in nearby Pickerington, Ohio, as a huge Buckeyes fan, led the charge.
Within short order, he and seven others — defensive end JT Tuimoloau, tailback TreVeyon Henderson, defensive tackle Tyleik Williams, defensive tackle Ty Hamilton, offensive lineman Donovan Jackson, Egbuka and Burke — put off the NFL to come back to school for one more year.
“It just kind of fueled our fire a little bit to come back and hoist the national championship trophy,” Burke said. “To be able to see them win it all like that, we wanted a piece of that.”
Player retention and development has been huge: The Buckeyes started 19 players who signed with the school and have combined for more than 520 starts. Many in the signing class of 2021, the foundation for this team, returned because they had contributed nothing to the trophy case inside the Woody Hayes Athletic Center and refused to let their careers end that way.
“This might be the biggest example of selflessness I have ever been a part of,” linebacker Cody Simon said. “So many guys had the opportunity to go first round, second round in the NFL draft. They all came back to play another year together.
“I commend all those guys who made a decision and all the guys who came in who were outside of our program because it takes a lot to get this all to work together.”
Day signed a top-tier recruiting class, including receiver Jeremiah Smith, and brought in key transfer portal acquisitions — quarterback Will Howard, safety Caleb Downs and running back Quinshon Judkins chief among them. Ohio State would enter 2024 as one of the most talented teams in the country. Expectations were clear from the start.
“At this time last year, which is crazy to think about, guys decided to come back and put their personal goals aside to achieve this goal,” Ransom said. “It’s pretty special. I hate when people say, ‘Win or bust,’ but we did everything to come back to win.”
Day knew he needed something to help his players best understand the journey on which they were about to embark. In their first preseason meeting last year, Day showed the team a picture of a lighthouse in the middle of a storm in the ocean. The lighthouse keeper, he told them, was counting on the lighthouse to be built with the right foundation to withstand the storm.
Then he told the story of three bricklayers building St. Paul’s Cathedral, and the importance of each brick being laid the right way. He told the players that every day after practice, he would hand out a scarlet and gray brick to one player. It would be his job to build a foundation for what was to come. The bricks could not be placed randomly or haphazardly. Building that foundation had to be done the right way.
Every day as players walked out to practice, they had a view of the bricks being stacked. Every day on the way back into the locker room, they had a view of the bricks being stacked. Over 100 bricks are now stacked perfectly, forming a foundational wall. “That wall is built for anything — the fire that we went through, the perseverance that we have, and here we are now,” Burke said.
“Storms are going to come,” Day said. “How is the foundation built? Was it built on a true foundation of rock or of sand? We knew those storms were coming. We didn’t know when, but that was ultimately going to allow us to withstand those storms.”
THE BIGGEST STORM came Nov. 30. The Buckeyes entered their rivalry game against Michigan as a 20.5-point favorite, ranked No. 2 in the CFP and with massive matchup advantages up and down the depth chart.
The Wolverines lost nearly every key offensive player from their 2023 national championship team and were 6-5 under first-year coach Sherrone Moore. Two of their best players were injured for the Ohio State game.
Finally, the Ryan Day Redemption Arc would be written.
Then the game kicked off. Michigan dominated up front, handcuffing Ohio State from doing much. Inexplicably, the Buckeyes could not get the ball to Smith to make enough of a difference, and Ohio State was shut out in the second half at home for the first time in 13 years.
When the final seconds ticked off the clock, Michigan had won 13-10 in one of the biggest upsets in the history of the rivalry. As the Wolverines planted their flag at midfield, Sawyer came charging up, tearing the Michigan flag down. He could be heard on video screaming, “They’re not f—ing planting the flag again on our field, bro!”
Day stood there silently, seemingly in disbelief. Though he ranks No. 1 among active head coaches in win percentage, Day has been judged by one thing: his record against Michigan. Day has gone 47-1 against all other Big Ten opponents in his career. But what did he do against the Wolverines? To date, he is 1-4. As a result, Ohio State has not won a Big Ten title since the truncated 2020 COVID-19 season, a year in which the rivals did not play.
Vitriol was directed at both Day and his players in the immediate aftermath of this season’s Michigan loss, and sports talk focused on whether Day needed to win the national championship to save his job. Athletic director Ross Bjork tried to quell the speculation when he gave a vote of confidence to Day in December, telling 97.1 The Fan in Columbus, “The season’s not over. The book is not closed.”
In that same interview, Bjork asked his Ohio State fans not to sell their tickets to Tennessee fans for their first-round playoff game in Columbus.
“We knew that we could play better than what we presented,” guard Donovan Jackson said. “So having people tell us we’re trash, terrible, garbage, half of us should transfer, half of us should leave the state of Ohio. No, we know how good we are.”
IN THE FOUR-TEAM CFP era, Ohio State made five playoff appearances and finished ranked No. 5 or 6 three other times. In fact, the Buckeyes ranked in the top seven in every final CFP poll, including No. 7 last year at 11-1. That lone loss to Michigan precluded them from making the four-team field.
The loss to Michigan this year served a far different purpose.
“The new format has allowed our team to grow and build throughout the season, and as much as losses hurt, they really allow us as coaches and players to take a hard look at the issues and get them addressed,” Day said.
The team meeting after the Michigan game got loud and emotional. Fingers were pointed, mistakes were rehashed, but players and Day took accountability. In times of great adversity, either you fold under the pressure or you rise to greatness. Ohio State chose not to break.
“There was no other option for us,” Simon said. “You go from feeling sorry for yourself to now we’ve got to rewrite the history for this season and this team.”
Kickoff against the Vols came on a chilly night at the Shoe, three weeks removed from the Michigan loss. Nobody knew how the Buckeyes would respond.
The nation got its answer two minutes and 14 seconds into the game. Then four minutes later. Then five minutes after that. By the time the first quarter ended, Ohio State had a 21-0 lead as it overwhelmed what had been one of the best defenses in the country, while completely stymying Tennessee quarterback Nico Iamaleava and his high-powered offense.
Day said after the 42-17 win, “You could tell from the jump that they had a look in their eyes that they were going to win this game.”
Next up: a rematch with No. 1 Oregon in the CFP quarterfinals at the Rose Bowl. The undefeated Big Ten champion Ducks handed the Buckeyes their first defeat back in October, after Howard lost track of the game clock while trying to drive for a game-winning score, running with four seconds left and sliding as time ran out in the 32-31 loss.
There would be no need for late-game heroics this time around. Once again, Ohio State bulldozed its way to a massive lead, going up 34-0 before winning 41-21. After two rounds, the Buckeyes had harnessed all their talent and potential and were playing like the “championship or bust team” many envisioned when the season began.
There was more to come. Before the semifinal against Texas at the Cotton Bowl, Day had a simple message for his team: “To leave a legacy, become your own legend.”
With the game on the line in the fourth quarter, leave it to the player who dreamed about winning an Ohio State national title as a little boy throwing a football in his backyard with his dad, to do just that.
Sawyer strip-sacked Quinn Ewers on fourth-and-goal from the 8 with 2:13 left, then returned the fumble 83 yards to put the game out of reach and give the Buckeyes a 28-14 win.
The image of Day standing silently next to a riled-up Sawyer after the Michigan game was replaced with the image of Day unclipping his headset and jumping into a giant bear hug from Sawyer on the sideline screaming, “YEAHHHHHHHHHHHH!” A hug so powerful, it appeared to break a camera the CFP had placed on Sawyer after the play.
“The resiliency of this team, from a month ago, it’s been incredible,” Sawyer said afterward. “I love Columbus. I love the state of Ohio. I love Ohio State football. I’m so fortunate to be playing in the national championship my last year here.”
Just like the semifinal, the national championship game needed a fourth-quarter play to seal the win. This time, it was Smith and his 57-yard reception with 2:29 left that ended any Notre Dame comeback hopes.
Ohio State trailed for the first time in this CFP after the Fighting Irish opened the game with a clock-busting drive that nearly lasted 10 minutes and ended with a Riley Leonard touchdown run.
Then the Buckeyes showed off their wealth of depth and talent during a critical portion of the game — the rest of the first half and start of the second — pulling ahead and proving right those who chose them in the preseason to bring home another national championship. Their offensive line opened up huge holes for Henderson and Judkins while allowing virtually no one to come near Howard. The Notre Dame defense was flummoxed — alternating between man and zone — unable to answer for Judkins nor for a mobile Howard, who was all too eager to take off when the running lanes opened. Ohio State converted all six of its third-down attempts in the first half, and Howard opened the game with 13 straight completions — a record for most completions to start a national championship game.
The Buckeyes raced out to a 28-7 lead after their first series of the third quarter and then held on against an inspired Notre Dame effort. Afterward, a raucous Ohio State crowd chanted Ryan Day’s name as he walked off the field.
They may not be able to call themselves Big Ten champions. They may not have a win over That Team Up North.
But the Buckeyes have something to celebrate that is theirs, and only theirs: the national championship.
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David Purdum, ESPN Staff Writer
The top two favorites to win next season’s College Football Playoff will square off in Week 1, when Ohio State hosts Texas on Aug. 30.
The Longhorns and the defending-champion Buckeyes enter the offseason as the favorites to win the 2025-26 College Football Playoff at sportsbooks. Texas, which is poised to begin the Arch Manning era, opened as the national title favorite at +450 at ESPN BET, followed by the Buckeyes (+500) and Georgia (+600). Ohio State is the favorite at other sportsbooks, but those three teams top the early odds across the betting market.
Oregon and Penn State, each at +750, round out the teams with odds shorter than 10-1 in ESPN BET’s opening numbers.
Ohio State held off Notre Dame in Monday’s College Football Playoff National Championship game, capping a dominant postseason run. The Fighting Irish opened at +1500 to win next season’s title at ESPN BET.
Manning is expected to be the Longhorns’ starting quarterback with Quinn Ewers declaring for the NFL draft. FanDuel has Manning as the second favorite to win next season’s Heisman Trophy, behind LSU quarterback Garrett Nussmeier.
The transfer portal has added to the challenges sportsbooks face when creating odds to win the following season’s national championship.
“We will take our power ratings for 2025 and make the proper adjustments to account for recruiting, returning production and transfer portal changes,” said Joey Feazel, a trader at Caesars Sportsbook. “It is a challenging process at times, but year after year, we are getting better at it.”
The preseason betting favorite to capture the national championship has not won it since Alabama in 2017.
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Mark Schlabach, ESPN Senior Writer
ATLANTA — Maybe Ohio State football fans will like coach Ryan Day now.
Fifty-one days after suffering the worst loss of his career, Day guided the No. 8 Buckeyes to their first national championship in 10 years with a 34-23 victory over No. 7 Notre Dame in the CFP National Championship presented by AT&T on Monday night.
The Buckeyes led the Irish 31-7 midway through the third quarter, but the Irish kept fighting and pulled to within one score and a two-point conversion with just more than four minutes remaining.
Notre Dame quarterback Riley Leonard threw a 34-yard touchdown pass to Jaden Greathouse with 3:03 left in the third and tossed a two-point play to tailback Jeremiyah Love to make it 31-15. Then, after a late defensive stop, Leonard found Greathouse again for a 30-yard touchdown and Beaux Collins converted the two-point attempt to pull the Irish within 31-23 with 4:15 left.
The Buckeyes finally put the Irish away for good when quarterback Will Howard threw a deep ball to freshman Jeremiah Smith, who beat cornerback Christian Gray for a 56-yard gain to the Irish 10. That led to Jayden Fielding‘s 33-yard field goal that put the Buckeyes up 11 with 26 seconds left.
The victory was redemption for Day, whose team fell to rival Michigan, the so-called “School Up North,” for the fourth straight time in a stunning 13-10 defeat at home on Nov. 30. That loss, in which the Buckeyes were 21-point favorites, knocked them out of the Big Ten championship game.
But the defeat didn’t eliminate Ohio State from the first 12-team CFP, and the Buckeyes took down No. 9 Tennessee in the first round, No. 1 Oregon in the quarterfinals and No. 5 Texas in the semifinals before beating the Fighting Irish in their 16th game of the season.
“I say all the time to our players, the first time you got on a bike you didn’t just ride the bike, you fell down, and how quickly did you learn from falling down to get back on the bike to learn to ride a bike?” Day said. “Well, it’s like that in life. You learn from going through difficult times like that.”
That was what made Monday night so special for Day and everyone around him.
“I think he’s done a great job, and I think he understands the weight of what this job is,” Ohio State offensive coordinator Chip Kelly said this week. “That comes with the territory. He’s shown who he is, and I think he’s done an unbelievable job in that situation.”
Ohio State’s players said Day accepted some of the blame for coming up short against Michigan again. But the shocking defeat might have been exactly what the Buckeyes needed in order to capture the seventh national title in program history.
“We had to address all the issues we had on the team,” Buckeyes defensive tackle Tyleik Williams said. “Everybody spoke up and just fixed those problems that we had. The leadership on this team is like I’ve never seen. That wouldn’t have happened a couple years ago.”
With a 70-10 record, Day now has the second-best winning percentage (87.5%) among coaches with at least 80 FBS games. Only Walter Camp, who coached at Stanford and Yale in the late 1800s, had a better winning percentage (90.7%).
And with Michigan having claimed the last four-team CFP following the 2023 season, the Big Ten captured consecutive national titles for the first time since 1940-42, when Minnesota won back-to-back titles and Ohio State added a third.
Monday’s game also was redemption for Howard, the Kansas State transfer who struggled in his first start against Michigan. Against Notre Dame, Howard completed 17 of 21 passes for 231 yards with two touchdown passes, while running 16 times for 57 yards.
Quinshon Judkins, an Ole Miss transfer, ran 11 times for 100 yards with three total touchdowns. Smith caught five passes for 88 yards with one score.
Leonard led the Irish with 255 yards on 22-for-31 passing with two touchdowns. Greathouse caught six passes for 128 yards with two scores.
This one was especially satisfying for the Big Ten because it came in the SEC’s backyard. The SEC was left out of the CFP title game for the second straight season, which hadn’t happened since 2004-05.
Notre Dame, which was trying to capture its first national championship since 1988, had its 13-game winning streak snapped. It was Ohio State’s seventh straight victory against the Irish.
After falling behind 7-0 on the game’s opening drive, Ohio State quickly answered with a touchdown of its own and never took its foot off the gas. On the Buckeyes’ first possession, TreVeyon Henderson ran for 19 yards to move the ball to the Notre Dame 40. Then Judkins ran for 15 after catching a screen pass from Howard.
On second-and-5 at the 8, Smith went into motion toward Howard. But then Smith stopped and ran back to the right. When Notre Dame’s secondary blew the coverage, Smith caught a pass in the flat and easily ran into the end zone to tie the score at 7-all with 14:10 left in the first half.
It was the first opening-drive touchdown the Notre Dame defense had allowed since a 49-7 win against Stanford at home on Oct. 12.
After two penalties backed the Irish up and forced them to punt on their next possession, Ohio State needed just two plays to move across the 50. Howard scrambled for 11 yards on third-and-5 at the Notre Dame 43. He ran for three more on third-and-2 at the 12. On the next play, Judkins stiff-armed linebacker Jaiden Ausberry to the ground and scored on a 9-yard run to make it 14-7 with 6:15 remaining.
Things unraveled for the Irish on their next possession. On third-and-5 at their 30, tight end Mitchell Evans went into motion. Center Pat Coogan‘s snap to Leonard hit Evans, who recovered the fumble at the Irish 26, forcing another punt.
The Buckeyes took over at their 20 with just under five minutes to play in the half. Howard delivered big on two third-and-7 plays. At the OSU 23, he threw a 19-yard pass to Brandon Inniss. At the OSU 45, he completed a 20-yarder to the sliding Carnell Tate.
On second-and-4 at the Notre Dame 6, Howard found Judkins, who was all alone in the end zone for another touchdown to make it 21-7 with 27 seconds to go in the half.
The Buckeyes had possession to start the second half, and they didn’t need long to score again. On the second play, Judkins burst through the line and ran past linebacker Jack Kiser. Cornerback Leonard Moore finally pulled down Judkins after a 70-yard gain to the Irish 5. Judkins scored his third touchdown of the game on a 1-yard run three plays later to give Ohio State a 28-7 lead.
The Irish failed to pull off a fake punt at their 33 on their next possession, leading to Fielding’s 46-yard field goal that made it 31-7.
Notre Dame’s first possession of the game couldn’t have been scripted any better. The Irish picked up six first downs over the first 9 minutes, 45 seconds, with Leonard running for four and throwing for two more.
When the Buckeyes stopped Leonard on third-and-1 at the Ohio State 45 with about 11 minutes to go in the quarter, coach Marcus Freeman left his offense on the field. Leonard ran three yards and a first down. On third-and-3 from the OSU 7, Ohio State pulled Leonard down for a 2-yard gain. The Irish went again on fourth-and-1, and Leonard lowered his shoulder and ran for 4 yards.
Leonard ran into the end untouched on the next play, giving the Fighting Irish a 7-0 lead with 5:15 to go in the first.
Unfortunately, that was about as good as it would get for Notre Dame’s offense in the first half. The Irish went three-and-out on their next two drives and gained just 18 yards the rest of the half.
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