No matter who wins the natty, it will have been a long time coming
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Ryan McGee, ESPN Senior Writer
Redemption. Retribution. Revenge.
Whichever of these words you revere most, they all relate as the College Football Playoff rolls into the reckoning that is this week’s semifinals — a quartet of stories that are wildly varied, but at their core essentially the same.
The long-awaited expanded playoff that began with a dozen teams is down to four. Glaringly absent from the remaining field are the teams that have dominated the CFP since its inception. Clemson and Georgia have been eliminated. Oregon, ranked No. 1 for much of the season, also has been sent home. Former champs Alabama and LSU, along with last year’s finalists Michigan and Washington, didn’t even make the field.
All of that has opened the doors to these final four programs, giving them a chance to reverse their longtime reputations — in some cases, very, very longtime — with the big gold magic eraser that is only two wins from their grasp.
Notre Dame versus Penn State in the Orange Bowl. Ohio State versus Texas in the Cotton Bowl. Two of these teams will move on and get a shot at easing their perpetual pain. The other two will enter another winter amid the familiar vicious cycle of ice-cold doubt.
“I think that much of that storyline in these games will center around the coaches, and that’s fine. We are big boys; we can handle that,” said James Franklin, in his 11th season as Penn State’s head coach but in his first CFP. “But to me, the real story is the opportunity we all have to reward these great universities and the people who have supported us through thick and thin. To bring that championship feeling back to this town, that will make every single step to get there worth it.”
There have been so many steps. But for these four programs, it seems every stride with traction has been inevitably outnumbered and slowed by slips and trips on the turf of their most despised rivals.
“The same guys are in the room as was there a month ago,” Ohio State coach Ryan Day said late last week following his team’s revenge win over Oregon, a team it had lost to in October in Eugene. “Nothing that’s happened in the past or really the noise that’s [outside the] building has anything to do with our preparation and our focus and our process. That’s what we’ve been diving into.
“We don’t need any extra motivation to win this game. One thing that does motivate our team is an opportunity for the team to play for another week together.”
The Buckeyes, with their much-ballyhooed NIL-powered roster, lost two games during the regular season, most glaringly The Game against Michigan, a gross 13-10 defeat to the unranked Wolverines, their fourth rivalry loss in a row, hence Day’s reference to “a month ago.” It has been a decade since Ohio State celebrated its last national title, the program’s eighth, earned in the very first edition of the CFP. Even now, after rolling to playoff victories over Tennessee and Oregon, a large swath of OSU social media is still angry at Day for his lack of Big Ten titles and wins against That Team Up North.
Ohio State faces Texas, the program that coined the phrase “We’re back” only to repeatedly lose that coin beneath the seat of its burnt orange pickup truck. The Longhorns spent some time this season, their first in the SEC, ranked No. 1 in the country. But they also lost the two biggest pre-CFP games they played, both against fellow part-time top spot resident Georgia. Their last natty was earned in perhaps the greatest college football game ever played, closing out the 2005 season by beating USC in the Rose Bowl. But that was nearly a decade before the playoff existed, earned instead in the eighth edition of the BCS Championship Game.
“The history of what a place is and how it became what it is, is the very reason you want to work here, but there is a balance in using that past to push into the future instead of resting on laurels,” said Steve Sarkisian, who is in his fourth year at coach in Austin but lived that same past-as-prologue balance during stints at USC, Alabama and even in his time as a player at BYU.
“People ask me about the pressure from the fans, the people who have loved the University of Texas their whole lives, but to me, it comes from doing right by the names on the buildings and the statues and paintings you see of the coaches and players who were here before us. I tell our guys that we have a chance to be one of those people. Forever. But only if we take care of the here and now.”
The entire Notre Dame campus feels like what Sark described: one giant football museum. Literal woken echoes standing watch over every quad and every hallway. South Bend is undeniably one of the cornerstones of college football. The place of Knute Rockne, the Four Horsemen and a room full of Heisman Trophies.
But while that Golden Domed history has always been its greatest asset, it has also proved to be its heaviest anchor, constantly pointed to as the only reason the independent program is allowed to remain in the big room with the Power 4 conferences. Critics have screamed, why else would a program that has been bounced out of two previous CFP appearances and blown out in its lone BCS title game visit (a 42-14 loss to Alabama in 2012) keep getting postseason looks? The freshest of the school’s 11 national titles was won in January 1989, in the waning days of Ronald Reagan’s second term as president. This season’s 13-1 team has only one blemish, but it’s the equivalent of having a giant red pimple on the end of one’s nose, an inexplicable Week 2 home loss to Northern Illinois, which finished seventh in the 12-team MAC.
And no college football program has been dealt more denial of glory than the one in State College, Pennsylvania. Like Day, Franklin is routinely ripped by his fan base, unhappy with his record in big games. When the Nittany Lions defeated No. 8 Boise State in the CFP quarterfinals, Franklin’s mark against top-10 teams improved to 4-19. That record includes losses this season to Ohio State and Oregon, ranked No. 4 and No. 1, respectively, at the time.
But the unhappiness in Happy Valley runs much deeper than merely this season. The Nittany Lions have posted 13 undefeated seasons but have only two national titles to show for it, as Joe Paterno had five unbeaten teams that were infamously denied nattys by pollsters and politics. The 1994 squad carried two Heisman finalists and 15 future NFL draft picks, won the Big Ten and stomped Oregon in the Rose Bowl, but in the pre-BCS era was voted second behind Nebraska in both major polls. The school’s only two national titles also came during Reagan’s presidency, won in 1982 and 1986.
For perspective, here’s cell phones from years of each CFP semifinalist’s last national title: Ohio State, 2014. Texas, 2005. Notre Dame, 1988. Penn State, 1986. pic.twitter.com/EgL96u7h7z
— Ryan McGee (@ESPNMcGee) January 3, 2025
Four proud brands. Four classic college towns. Four all-time powerhouse programs, all ranked among the seven winningest teams in the 155-year history of the sport. All, finally, with the possibility for renewal, revival, resurrection … whatever motivational word you choose. As long as it results in the release of repressed revelry Jan. 20 in Atlanta.
“This job is like no other because of what it is, where it is, and I think the other three coaches will probably tell you the same about their jobs,” said Marcus Freeman, in only his third full season as Notre Dame’s head coach. He celebrated his first birthday the week after Penn State won its last national title and blew out three candles right after Notre Dame’s natty. He is also a former All-Big Ten linebacker at Ohio State who played against Penn State and Texas. “One of my favorite aspects of this job, and I think they will tell you the same, is the chance to educate people on the incredible history of this place. The chance to add to that history, restore some of it and the pride that comes with it, that’s not pressure. That’s a privilege.”
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Jorge Castillo
NEW YORK — Giancarlo Stanton, one of the first known adopters of the torpedo bat, declined Tuesday to say whether he believes using it last season caused the tendon ailments in both elbows that forced him to begin this season on the injured list.
Last month, Stanton alluded to “bat adjustments” he made last season as a possible reason for the epicondylitis, commonly known as tennis elbow, he’s dealing with.
“You’re not going to get the story you’re looking for,” Stanton said. “So, if that’s what you guys want, that ain’t going to happen.”
Stanton said he will continue using the torpedo bat when he returns from injury. The 35-year-old New York Yankees slugger, who has undergone multiple rounds of platelet-rich plasma injections to treat his elbows, shared during spring training that season-ending surgery on both elbows was a possibility. But he has progressed enough to recently begin hitting off a Trajekt — a pitching robot that simulates any pitcher’s windup, arm angle and arsenal. However, he still wouldn’t define his return as “close.”
He said he will first have to go on a minor league rehab assignment at an unknown date for an unknown period. It won’t start in the next week, he added.
“This is very unique,” Stanton said. “I definitely haven’t missed a full spring before. So, it just depends on my timing, really, how fast I get to feel comfortable in the box versus live pitching.”
While the craze of the torpedo bat (also known as the bowling pin bat) has swept the baseball world since it was revealed Saturday — while the Yankees were blasting nine home runs against the Milwaukee Brewers — that a few members of the Yankees were using one, the modified bat already had quietly spread throughout the majors in 2024. Both Stanton and former Yankees catcher Jose Trevino, now with the Cincinnati Reds, were among players who used the bats last season after being introduced to the concept by Aaron Leanhardt, an MIT-educated physicist and former minor league hitting coordinator for the organization.
Anthony Volpe, Jazz Chisholm Jr., Cody Bellinger, Paul Goldschmidt and Austin Wells were among the Yankees who used torpedo bats during their season-opening sweep of the Brewers.
Stanton explained he has changed bats before. He said he has usually adjusted the length. Sometimes, he opts for lighter bats at the end of the long season. In the past, when knuckleballers were more common in the majors, he’d opt for heavier lumber.
Last year, he said he simply chose his usual bat but with a different barrel after experimenting with a few models.
“I mean, it makes a lot of sense,” Stanton said. “But it’s, like, why hasn’t anyone thought of it in 100-plus years? So, it’s explained simply and then you try it and as long as it’s comfortable in your hands [it works]. We’re creatures of habit, so the bat’s got to feel kind of like a glove or an extension of your arm.”
Stanton went on to lead the majors with an average bat velocity of 81.2 mph — nearly 3 mph ahead of the competition. He had a rebound, but not spectacular, regular season in which he batted .233 with 27 home runs and a .773 OPS before clubbing seven home runs in 14 playoff games.
“It’s not like [it was] unreal all of a sudden for me,” Stanton said.
Yankees manager Aaron Boone described the torpedo bats “as the evolution of equipment” comparable to getting fitted for new golf clubs. He said the organization is not pushing players to use them and insisted the science is more complicated than just picking a bat with a different barrel.
“There’s a lot more to it than, ‘I’ll take the torpedo bat on the shelf over there — 34 [inches], 32 [ounces],'” Boone said. “Our guys are way more invested in it than that. And really personalized, really work with our players in creating this stuff. But it’s equipment evolving.”
As players around the majors order torpedo bats in droves after the Yankees’ barrage over the weekend — they clubbed a record-tying 13 homers in two games against the Brewers — Boone alluded to the notion that, though everyone is aware of the concept, not every organization can optimize its usage.
“You’re trying to just, where you can on the margins, move the needle a little bit,” Boone said. “And that’s really all you’re going to do. I don’t think this is some revelation to where we’re going to be; it’s not related to the weekend that we had, for example. Like, I don’t think it’s that. Maybe in some cases, for some players, it may help them incrementally. That’s how I view it.”
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Eli Lederman
USC secured the commitment of former Oregon defensive tackle pledge Tomuhini Topui on Tuesday, a source told ESPN, handing the Trojans their latest recruiting victory in the 2026 cycle over the Big Ten rival Ducks.
Topui, ESPN’s No. 3 defensive tackle and No. 72 overall recruit in the 2026 class, spent five and half months committed to Oregon before pulling his pledge from the program on March 27. Topui attended USC’s initial spring camp practice that afternoon, and seven days later the 6-foot-4, 295-pound defender gave the Trojans his pledge to become the sixth ESPN 300 defender in the program’s 2026 class.
Topui’s commitment gives USC its 10th ESPN 300 pledge this cycle — more than any other program nationally — and pulls a fourth top-100 recruit into the impressive defensive class the Trojans are building this spring. Alongside Topui, USC’s defensive class includes in-state cornerbacks R.J. Sermons (No. 26 in ESPN Junior 300) and Brandon Lockhart (No. 77); four-star outside linebacker Xavier Griffin (No. 27) out of Gainesville, Georgia; and two more defensive line pledges between Jaimeon Winfield (No. 143) and Simote Katoanga (No. 174).
The Trojans are working to reestablish their local recruiting presence in the 2026 class under newly hired general manager Chad Bowden. Topui not only gives the Trojans their 11th in-state commit in the cycle, but his pledge represents a potentially important step toward revamping the program’s pipeline to perennial local powerhouse Mater Dei High School, too.
Topui will enter his senior season this fall at Mater Dei, the program that has produced a long line of USC stars including Matt Leinart, Matt Barkley and Amon-Ra St. Brown. However, if Topui ultimately signs with the program later this year, he’ll mark the Trojans’ first Mater Dei signee since the 2022 cycle, when USC pulled three top-300 prospects — Domani Jackson, Raleek Brown and C.J. Williams — from the high school program based in Santa Ana, California.
Topui’s flip to the Trojans also adds another layer to a recruiting rivalry rekindling between USC and Oregon in the 2026 cycle.
Tuesday’s commitment comes less than two months after coach Lincoln Riley and the Trojans flipped four-star Oregon quarterback pledge Jonas Williams, ESPN’s No. 2 dual-threat quarterback in 2026. USC is expected to continue targeting several Ducks commits this spring, including four-star offensive tackle Kodi Greene, another top prospect out of Mater Dei.
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