POPULAR SEARCHES <br> BROWSE BY <br>All four <a href="https://www.foxsports.com/college-football" target="_blank" rel="noopener">College Football</a> Playoff quarterfinal games are in the books and the semifinalists are set after <a href="https://www.foxsports.com/college-football/penn-state-nittany-lions-team">Penn State</a> took down <a href="https://www.foxsports.com/college-football/boise-state-broncos-team">Boise State</a> in the <a href="https://www.foxsports.com/college-football/cfp-quarterfinal-fiesta-bowl-penn-state-nittany-lions-vs-boise-state-broncos-dec-31-2024-game-boxscore-41106" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Fiesta Bowl</a>, <a href="https://www.foxsports.com/college-football/texas-longhorns-team">Texas</a> defeated <a href="https://www.foxsports.com/college-football/arizona-state-sun-devils-team">Arizona State</a> in a double-overtime thriller in the <a href="https://www.foxsports.com/college-football/cfp-quarterfinal-peach-bowl-texas-longhorns-vs-arizona-state-sun-devils-jan-01-2025-game-boxscore-41100" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Peach Bowl</a>, <a href="https://www.foxsports.com/college-football/ohio-state-buckeyes-team">Ohio State</a> dominated <a href="https://www.foxsports.com/college-football/oregon-ducks-team">Oregon</a> in the <a href="https://www.foxsports.com/college-football/cfp-quarterfinal-rose-bowl-ohio-state-buckeyes-vs-oregon-ducks-jan-01-2025-game-boxscore-41101" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Rose Bowl</a>, and <a href="https://www.foxsports.com/college-football/notre-dame-fighting-irish-team" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Notre Dame</a> topped <a href="https://www.foxsports.com/college-football/georgia-bulldogs-team" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Georgia</a> in the postponed <a href="https://www.foxsports.com/college-football/cfp-quarterfinal-sugar-bowl-notre-dame-fighting-irish-vs-georgia-bulldogs-jan-02-2025-game-boxscore-41102" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Sugar Bowl</a>.<br>The final quarterfinal match was <a href="https://www.foxsports.com/stories/college-football/sugar-bowl-postponed-thursday-wake-deadly-truck-attack-new-orleans" target="_blank" rel="noopener">delayed a day due to the horrific incident in New Orleans on Monday morning.</a> I send out my deepest condolences and prayers to those affected by this tragedy.<br>I spent New Year's Day at the Rose Bowl, which is one of the few times I get to enjoy a game as a fan. It also reminded me why the Rose Bowl is unlike any other bowl game and why it deserves a prominent stage. We should make the Rose Bowl the championship game on Jan. 1 each year. It'd help solve some of the calendar issues with our sport. <br>The Rose Bowl setting is magical and playing the title game there would provide an anchor destination for college football like we see in the championship rounds in other leagues. Everyone would be on the "Run for the Roses." It's one of the few premium sporting events in the country, but the game is sandwiched in the middle of the quarterfinals.<br>With that, here are my takeaways from all four of the CFP quarterfinal matchups.<br>In any game, there's a team that looks faster and more dominant early. That was Georgia, but it didn't take advantage of it. I thought the Bulldogs were more physical and more dominant from the start. <a href="https://www.foxsports.com/college-football/gunner-stockton-player" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Gunner Stockton</a>, who started in place of an injured <a href="https://www.foxsports.com/college-football/carson-beck-player" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Carson Beck</a>, was throwing the ball really well early, and yet you look up, and Georgia didn't have a big lead. I thought that could come back to haunt the Bulldogs, and it did in the middle section of the game.<br>Most coaches talk a lot about winning the middle eight — the last four minutes of the first half and the first four of the second half. There are times when you can steal a possession late in the first half and then get the ball to begin the second half, and you can build leads. That's always the hope. That's where this game totally flipped. It was inside a minute of the first half when, suddenly, a 3-3 game turned into a 6-3 game. Boom. Strip-sack. Notre Dame touchdown. That's the last thing Georgia could've afforded. The Irish got all the momentum, and what do they do? They come out and run the second-half kickoff all the way back. This is one of the reasons why I picked Notre Dame to win this game. I didn't think Georgia had enough offensively, and it turns out I was right. <br>What a remarkable job for Freeman. There's a reason why Notre Dame just gave him that long-term extension. Seeing the players react to him hugging Riley Leonard took me back to how the players reacted when the school announced he was going to be the head coach after Brian Kelly left. It hit me like a ton of bricks — especially the game being right there in Louisiana. Brian Kelly, not too long ago, basically waved the white flag at Notre Dame and left — essentially telling the college football world that he can't win a national championship at Notre Dame and must go to <a href="https://www.foxsports.com/college-football/lsu-tigers-team" target="_blank" rel="noopener">LSU</a> to try to do it. Now, Freeman has elevated Notre Dame past where Kelly had them. He has done an incredible job. They are deeper, faster and more physical now than what they were a few years ago. It must feel amazing for Notre Dame fans to know that your head coach left because he thought that your place couldn't do it — and here you are doing it.<br>Georgia was minus eight in tackles for loss against Notre Dame in the Sugar Bowl, and that is a telling stat about where the sport has changed. Over the previous 10 years, teams like George and <a href="https://www.foxsports.com/college-football/alabama-crimson-tide-team" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Alabama</a> have stockpiled talent, particularly at the defensive line, and they were dominant at the line of scrimmage. However, now you can't stockpile talent because of the transfer portal. Kids are not going to sit there and be backups at Georgia and Alabama if they can go play elsewhere. Talent is more dispersed around the country, and we are seeing that play out right in front of our eyes. I believe we're entering a period where we're going to have between six and eight teams every year that can legitimately win the national championship. <br>Now, that doesn't mean the SEC isn't a great conference or that it won't have the highest number of guys drafted; they're undoubtedly the deepest conference this year. However, this idea of absolute superiority is over.<br>Smith was outstanding. He showed it throughout the course of the season, but that was a coming-out party. When you do it in the Rose Bowl, it's different. He had seven receptions for 187 yards and two touchdowns. A couple of those grabs came in triple coverage. It didn't matter what Oregon did, Smith was getting loose. <br>I'm 42 years old, and I can only think of one other instance where a freshman amazed me like that. When I played at <a href="https://www.foxsports.com/college-football/colorado-buffaloes-team" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Colorado</a>, we went up against <a href="https://www.foxsports.com/college-football/oklahoma-sooners-team" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Oklahoma</a> in the 2004 season. Before that game, I saw Adrian Peterson (a freshman at the time) warming up. Right then, I thought to myself, "Oh my God, that's the best player in the nation." <br>Those two are the only 18-year-olds that I've ever seen come into college football and become the most dominant players on the field. That's the highest praise I can give Smith. When Ohio State leans into Smith, that allows it to be great and reach its full potential. <br>My goodness, what a performance by the Buckeyes in the first half. They were incredible and overwhelming. I know for much of the year we've been saying that Ohio State could be the best team in the nation due to its roster, but now we're starting to see it find the right combinations to play at its best. Ohio State has the best and deepest roster in the nation, and it's now playing to its potential. <br>Ohio State's offense was aggressive again in the Rose Bowl after its win over <a href="https://www.foxsports.com/college-football/tennessee-volunteers-team" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Tennessee</a> in the first round. I think the greatest misconception about Ohio State this season was the idea that Ryan Day and Chip Kelly run the same offense because they've worked together in the past, but their offenses aren't the same. Kelly's offense is run-centric, while Day's offense was dynamic and explosive in the passing game. <br>I thought we'd get the best of both versions when Day became Ohio State's offensive coordinator this past offseason. For most of the regular season, though, it was kind of clunky. It's a weird way to put it, because Ohio State was still excellent, but it was trying to figure out its best version of itself. The Tennessee game and the Rose Bowl were the best versions of both offenses. One of the only things this team can't do is just run the football to get itself started. That's what Kelly wants to do, but it struggled when it tried that against <a href="https://www.foxsports.com/college-football/nebraska-cornhuskers-team" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Nebraska</a> and <a href="https://www.foxsports.com/college-football/michigan-wolverines-team" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Michigan</a>. In the past, Day would've just started throwing the ball around.<br>They just had to flip that formula. Ohio State needed to get the passing game going to pop some runs later. That's what it did in its two CFP wins. This spells real trouble for Texas, because if Ohio State plays this way, it'll win the national championship.<br>Defensively, Jim Knowles also found the best combination of the two defenses he has run at Ohio State. The Buckeyes were able to get pressure while limiting explosive plays on the outside. Ohio State's front six (four defensive linemen, two linebackers) were in control of that game, allowing the secondary to play exotic coverages. That's why Oregon quarterback <a href="https://www.foxsports.com/college-football/dillon-gabriel-player">Dillon Gabriel</a> had nowhere to throw the ball on several instances and was sacked eight times. <br>Ohio State's offense is playing at its best. Ohio State's defense is playing at its best. There's one team that's peaking right now, and it's Ohio State. <br>I give Oregon a lot of credit for not folding in that game. Gabriel was able to make some big plays when he wasn't getting pressured, finishing the day with 299 passing yards. It wasn't easy, but I don't think many could've done what he did against that Ohio State defense. Oregon just couldn't get the big stops needed. <br>Still, Oregon is an excellent football team. The fact that it was <i>only </i>a 41-21 loss considering how well Ohio State played is an indictment of how strong of a team Oregon was this year. I've got an immense amount of respect for Dan Lanning, who made sure to note that the loss didn't take away from what Oregon did this season and took accountability for the loss. He understands what great leaders are supposed to say after losses. <br>This Oregon team deserved better than what it got in the CFP. It had the best regular season in the nation, and our sport is supposed to have the most important regular season. We've been trying to maintain the importance of the regular season in all the reformatting of the postseason, yet we lost it. <br>Oregon shouldn't have had to play Ohio State in its first CFP game. Lanning didn't say that after the game, but I'm fine saying it for him. That flawed structure gave us really poor seeding. The structure wasn't the committee's fault, but the way the teams were seeded was. Texas and Penn State should've never been seeded ahead of Ohio State. That didn't hurt Ohio State, though, who was going to play a home first-round game no matter what. It hurt Oregon. <br>The structure has to be fixed in some way. Think about what we saw in the first round with those fantastic home environments. <a href="https://www.foxsports.com/stories/college-football/incredible-fantastic-tremendous-college-football-playoff-belongs-campus" target="_blank" rel="noopener">College football is meant to be played on campus</a>. I thought this round wasn't as exciting due to the lack of those environments. Oregon deserved to get a home game. We saw how hard it is to win in those environments in the first round.<br>On top of that, I heard many fans at the Rose Bowl say how taxing these neutral-site games were. Ohio State fans will have to pay thousands of dollars to go from Los Angeles to Dallas and to Atlanta in just a few-week span if it makes it to the title game. Teams that played in a neutral-site conference championship game will have to play four neutral-site games over the last two months of the season. <br>Arizona State outplayed Texas in the Peach Bowl, and the numbers are pretty staggering. Arizona State played phenomenally, although it made some big mistakes. It outgained Texas by a huge margin, 510-375. It ran 37 more plays than Texas. It had the ball 15 minutes longer than Texas did (37:54 to 22:06). <br>Of course, you could argue that Texas' quick touchdown drive and the punt return touchdown in the first quarter helped skew these numbers, but there's a reason why Arizona State was able to linger while trailing by two scores before tying the game. Sun Devils RB <a href="https://www.foxsports.com/college-football/cameron-skattebo-player">Cam Skattebo</a> was a huge reason for that. He's a legend. I've never seen anything like what he did in the Peach Bowl. The effort he gave to put his team in position to win was incredible. He and coach Kenny Dillingham have got to be sick. They had their opportunities and the fact that they were even in the game considering some of the negative plays that went against them is a testament to Arizona State.<br>ASU also limited Texas in the run game. <a href="https://www.foxsports.com/college-football/quinn-ewers-player">Quinn Ewers</a>, who was my biggest concern for Texas entering the game, delivered. He made great plays in the second half and overtime that gave Texas a chance to win the game, but Texas fell really short everywhere else. Texas' offensive line and defense didn't show up in this game. <br>There are a lot of questions surrounding Texas, and I wonder why it gets stopped so much on offense considering its personnel and play-calling. Texas is about to see a much better version of the teams it's struggled with this season. Ohio State is better than <a href="https://www.foxsports.com/college-football/georgia-bulldogs-team" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Georgia</a> on both sides of the ball. Ohio State is better than Arizona State. <br>If I was a Longhorns fan, I'd be a little bit worried, but they got the stops they needed, and Ewers made the plays he had to make to win the game. <br>There was also the targeting controversy. Texas safety <a href="https://www.foxsports.com/college-football/michael-taaffe-player">Michael Taaffe</a> delivered a hit up high on ASU receiver <a href="https://www.foxsports.com/college-football/melquan-stovall-player">Melquan Stovall</a> on the Sun Devils' last play with the ball in regulation. There was no penalty on the field, but once there's a review for targeting, they review all aspects of the play. It's a unique review process. So, once you go to the review, it should've been determined that this play was targeting. Taaffe hit a defenseless receiver above the neck, which is one of the two elements for targeting. I hate targeting, but as a rule o, that was 1,000% targeting. <br>Of course, there's no guarantee that Arizona State would've won the game. It would've gotten the ball at Texas' 37-yard line and likely would've gotten a really good chance to kick a field goal to potentially win the game. That was just an awful non-call, though. <br>Both teams likely felt that they left a lot on the table. Boise State was probably kicking itself after the sequence where it lost a touchdown due to a penalty before throwing an interception in the fourth quarter, preventing it from making the score a three-point game.<br>But Penn State allowed Boise State to hang around. Penn State's game plan was … off. If I was a Penn State fan, I'd call it frustrating. Boise State has more sacks than anyone in the country. Even after it was obvious that <a href="https://www.foxsports.com/college-football/kaytron-allen-player">Kaytron Allen</a> was running all over Boise State to open that game, Penn State decided to get pass-happy. That was wild, and Boise State's pass rush showed up as Penn State tried to keep throwing the ball.<br>So, Penn State probably watches that film and wonders, "Why didn't we run that team out of the building?" There's an old adage among playcallers that you shouldn't get bored while making a profit. You could also call it not being bored with success. There are times as a playcaller when you might feel you want to legitimize all the work you put into game planning, but why stop doing something if it's working?<br>Boise State couldn't tackle Allen on the first two drives of the game. Then, it decided it wanted to make a point of passing the ball on the next few possessions. That's why I think Penn State has struggled to beat the elite teams. It can play that way against the <a href="https://www.foxsports.com/college-football/smu-mustangs-team" target="_blank" rel="noopener">SMU</a>s and Boise States, but it still lost to Ohio State and Oregon. It has gotten closer to picking up that elusive win, but Penn State can't allow a team to hang around because of what it's doing. <br><i>Joel Klatt is FOX Sports' lead college football game analyst and the host of the podcast "</i><a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-joel-klatt-show-a-college-football-podcast/id1037085984" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><i><u>The Joel Klatt Show.</u></i></a><i>" Follow him at </i><a href="https://twitter.com/joelklatt" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><i><u>@joelklatt</u></i></a><i> and </i><a href="https://www.youtube.com/@JoelKlattShow" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><i><u>subscribe to the "Joel Klatt Show" on YouTube</u></i></a><i>.</i><br><i><strong>[Want great stories delivered right to your inbox? </strong></i><a href="https://www.foxsports.com/newsletter" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><i><strong>Create or log in to your FOX Sports account, follow leagues, teams and players to receive a personalized newsletter daily</strong></i></a><i><strong>.]</strong></i><br><br><a href="https://news.google.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?oc=5">source</a>
