ATLANTA – Ohio State and Notre Dame will cross a threshold Monday night that no college program has ever reached. And they don’t need to be reminded of what it means to prepare for the 16th game of the season. Because their bodies do it for them.
“Anyone who says they’re playing 100 percent is lying. Offense, defense, Ohio State, whoever, they’re lying,” Notre Dame defensive tackle Howard Cross said. . “Especially for this long. This is uncharted territory for everyone. But you just have to keep pushing. At this point, it’s just a matter of which will last longer.”
As college athletes currently make money through name, image, and likeness deals and will soon receive revenue-sharing checks through the House of Representatives v. NCAA settlement, the length of the college football season may affect players’ health. I don’t hear much anymore about whether it will have such an impact.
But the 12-team College Football Playoff, and the fact that most of the teams that make it this far are likely to play 16 or 17 games, means they can now build championship rosters and keep them relatively healthy through extended struggles. There is no doubt that this is the most important element in how to maintain More than any previous college program has faced.
In fact, the possibility of playing this much football was a big part of how Ohio State approached the season, so much so that head coach Ryan Day wanted to reduce attrition and keep his players as capable as possible. He intentionally slowed down the Buckeyes’ offense, hoping to keep things as fresh as possible. Postseason run.
“If you save 10 plays in a game, you’re saving 150 plays (in a season),” Ohio State defensive coordinator Jim Knowles said. “Everything is set up by him from the jump for a long season.”
The numbers aren’t that dramatic. Heading into Monday’s championship game, Ohio State was running 61.8 offensive plays per game. This is a slight decline from 63.9 a year ago and 67.4 in 2022.
But the important point remains. In a different era, Day would have as much offensive talent at his disposal as the Buckeyes have, and he wants to take full advantage of having played in numerous track and field tournaments and having high-skilled running backs and receivers. He may have been tempted. . But, as always, the big picture is about preparing for this moment and ensuring Day doesn’t bring a physically and mentally exhausted team to the College Football Playoff.
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“I think our energy continues to grow,” Day said. “I think you’re talking about mental fatigue, but you don’t see it in our players. I think they just have more energy, more focus. Our team is better now. , I think we can continue playing for a few more weeks if we need to. But it just shows the experience, the maturity, the depth that we have. I think so.”
During the first few years of the four-team CFP, prominent coaches at the time, especially Urban Meyer, Dabo Swinney and Nick Saban, talked a lot about the physical toll it took on their teams to compete in the semifinals. They will play against high-level opponents and return to the championship game in about 10 days.
That led to a natural question. If we expand the playoffs and have each team play at least one game, maybe two more, how much roster size will we end up with?
Now, we already know the price teams will pay for a long postseason run. Notre Dame lost defensive lineman Riley Mills to a knee injury in the first round against Indiana, tight end Cooper Flanagan to an Achilles injury and offensive tackle Anthony Knapp in the quarterfinals against Georgia. lost to an ankle injury against Penn State.
None of the three are scheduled to play against Ohio State, and other Fighting Irish players, such as running back Jeremiah Love, are playing through injuries but are not in condition to some degree. The health of Notre Dame’s roster will be one of the biggest storylines heading into the championship game, and a big reason why the Irish will be more than a touchdown underdog against Ohio State.
“We’re missing so many guys, it’s making it more difficult to manage,” Irish defensive coordinator Al Golden said. “What we’ve learned on this journey is how deep you have to be in college football right now to get here. We’ve had a lot of players step up, but… Otherwise we wouldn’t be where we are.”
“Depth” has been a buzzword in college football this season, largely in the context of the transfer portal and the depth that many traditional powers like Alabama and Georgia had at their peak. This is against the backdrop of a lack of depth in the player base. That difference is smaller than in previous years, when teams in the College Football Playoff and Bowl Championship Series would take three to four weeks to heal swelling and bruises after the regular season, and perhaps in the postseason. There is no doubt that the luck factor has increased.
Now it’s a war of attrition. And that’s something that every coach, and every training staff, has to monitor on a daily basis.
“This offseason and this summer we knew it was a possibility and prepared for this,” Notre Dame linebacker Jack Kiser said. “Our strength staff and our performance staff have been able to really incorporate the sports science piece, and our coaching staff has been able to really incorporate the sports science piece into what we need as players and how to get everyone feeling good by game day. I understand what’s good. That’s the most important thing.” And I think we did a great job of making sure everyone was at their best when it mattered. ”
Notre Dame has carefully calibrated all the monitoring technology its players wear during games and practices to measure their effort and load and determine whether they need to step up or take a step back. We develop individualized practice plans based on your needs.
Offensive coordinator Mike Denbrock said there are days when he gets reports that some players aren’t able to practice as much because Notre Dame is so careful about keeping bodies fresh.
“Just thinking about (playing 16 games) makes me tired,” he said. “Fortunately, there are a lot of people who can make smarter decisions than me. But it changes the way you practice and the way you approach your physicality towards the end of the season, probably not as much as you did at the beginning. You can’t use your physical strength, but you have to balance it with the work you need to do. It’s a little difficult, but our kids are really smart and they know what they want. I understand.”
But one thing is certain: the first year of the 12-team CFP will provide a data set and a blueprint for all of college football to study. Prior to 2006, the college season consisted of only 11 games, plus conference championships for some (but not all) leagues and one postseason game. That leaves 12 regular season games, plus a conference championship and three or four playoff games.
In an era where it is extremely difficult to accumulate talent due to the lack of transfer restrictions, this makes a huge difference in a relatively short period of time. And those who manage to get through it will end up playing for a championship.
“The length of the season has changed,” Ojo State offensive coordinator Chip Kelly said. “When I was at Oregon, we had a regular season and a bowl game and 37 days off. That’s a whole different thing. The whole schedule situation affected what we did on both sides of the ball. That’s been at the forefront of our strength and conditioning program, our offensive play, our defensive play. That’s a program-wide decision, but how do we deal with the length of this season? It has never been done before.”