Notre Dame 27, Penn State 24 RECAP: Mitch Jeter’s game-winning 41-yard FG seals Notre Dame’s spot in the National Championship

Mitch Jeter hits the GAME-WINNING 41-yard FG to SEAL the win for Notre Dame in the Orange Bowl. The Fighting Irish are NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP BOUND!

WHAT A GAME! Drew Allar intercepted by Christian Gray at the PSU 42.

33 seconds remaining. Notre Dame will have the football needing just a FG to win and advance to the National Championship.

Ball at their own 32 -yard line. All three timeouts. Can Notre Dame win it in regulation?

TIME TO LOCK IN!

ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED? We’ve got quite the game in Miami.

QB Riley Leonard finds WR Jaden Greathouse for a 54-yard TD.

Notre Dame 24, Penn State 24 with 4:38 remaining in the game.

Who will punch their ticket to the National Championship?

Singleton.... more like TRIPLETON!

Nicholas Singleton’s THIRD touchdown of the night gives Penn State a 24-17 lead with just under eight minutes remaining in the game!

ALL PENN STATE RIGHT NOW! Dani Dennis-Sutton comes away with the INT.

PSU takes the ball back at the ND 39.

Does Notre Dame have another stop in them?

17 unanswered points for Notre Dame. Jeremiyah Love POWERS his way in for a two-yard touchdown.

17-10 Notre Dame, 14:07 remaining in the fourth quarter.

ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED?!

8 plays, 75 yards and a three-yard rushing TD by Riley Leonard TIES the game 10-10 to open the second half.

GRAB YOUR POPCORN, WE’VE GOT A GAME!

Penn State favored by 7.5 at halftime.

Game total has shrunk to 33.5.

Who are you rolling with to win the 2025 Orange Bowl?

10-3 at the half from Hard Rock Stadium.

The big question for Notre Dame, will QB Riley Leonard play in the second half?

He went to the medical tent with a possible concussion after taking a hit on their final drive before halftime.

Backup QB Steve Angeli was 6-for-7 with 44 passing yards and helped lead the Irish to their first points of the half in relief.

More updates to come when we have them...

Five-yard rushing TD for Nicholas Singleton extends the Penn State lead to 10-0.

Does Notre Dame have a response in them before the end of the first half?

Since they deferred, they’ll also receive the ball to start the second half.

Everyone in the north east is shaking their head right now...

20-yard FG attempt from PSU kicker Ryan Barker is GOOD!

3-0 Nittany Lions with 14:52 remaining in the 2nd quarter.

PSU RB Kaytron Allen loses two yards on 2nd and Goal from the one-yard line on the final play of the first quarter (and the 12th play of the drive).

3rd and goal from the three-yard line for the Nittany Lions to begin the second quarter.

Can they get on the board first? Defensive battle thus far in the Orange Bowl tonight.

Redshirt junior safety Zakee Wheatley picks off Notre Dame QB Riley Leonard for the first turnover of the game for either team.

Penn State will take over at their own 42-yard line. 4:43 remaining in the first quarter.

It’s his second straight game with an INT after picking off Boise State in the quarterfinals on New Year’s Eve.

8 plays, 48 yards, 3:51 off the clock, but just like Penn State’s first drive, a promising first possession for Notre Dame ends with no points.

Irish punter James Rendell downs the ball to the PSU 2.

Still 0-0 with 8:35 left in the first quarter

After a 23-yard pass from Penn State QB Drew Allar to Nicholas Singleton to the Notre Dame 46 yard line, it looked like the Nittany Lions would roll in their first drive of the game.

On 3rd and 14 at the 50, the Irish forced the incomplete pass and Penn State had to punt.

Scoreless thus far with 12:26 remaining in the first quarter.

“James Franklin and his Nittany Lions are just two wins away from being national champions. But they’ll have to go through Notre Dame and the winner of Texas-Ohio State to do it, no easy task. They kick off against the Irish at the Orange Bowl Thursday night in the first of the two national semifinal games.

This is the chance for Franklin to change the narratives that surround him and his program. This is an opportunity for either Notre Dame or Penn State to prove that it belongs among college football’s most elite.”

Read the full article from Nicole below:

Nicole Auerbach: Penn State has cruised through the CFP so far. Here comes the hard part.

“James Franklin and his Nittany Lions are just two wins away from being national champions. But they’ll have to go through Notre Dame and the winner of…

• Notre Dame has allowed 159.8 Passing Yards per game since the 2023 season, 2nd-best in FBS. Notre Dame has allowed just 113.4 receiving yards per game to WRs since the 2023 season, 2nd-best in FBS.
• Notre Dame’s RBs rushed for 4,415 yards on 714 carries (6.2 YPC) since the 2023 season, 2nd-best among FBS RBs. Penn State’s defense has allowed just 2.7 YPC since the 2023 season, best among Big Ten defenses.
• Drew Allar has rushed for 10 TDs in the Red Zone since the 2023 season, 2nd-most among Big Ten Quarterbacks

Penn State: Five-star QB Drew Allar sustained a knee injury and was questionable in the leadup to their pivotal Ohio State game, but the grizzled vet managed to gut it out, showing tremendous leadership and grit despite the 20-13 loss. Allar ranks 16th nationally with an 85.4 PFF overall grade and is handling the rush expertly, rating 7th in FBS with a 69th% under-pressure grade. As a team, PSU ranks 2nd in passing success rate and is gaining first down yardage on 61.7% of their completions (6th in FBS). Allar isn’t putting the ball in the air much in PSU’s run-heavy offense, throwing a mere 24.7 passes per game, which ranks 53rd out of 57 Power Four quarterbacks with 200+ attempts. He’s averaging 0.3 interceptions per game since 2023, which is tied for the best interception rate over the last two seasons with Missouri’s Brady Cook.

Notre Dame: QB Riley Leonard spent his first three seasons at Duke, breaking out in 2022 but regressing in 2023 due to a nagging ankle injury that hampered his productivity, completing just 57% of his throws with a 3-to-3 ratio. Now completely healthy, Leonard is completing 66.3% of his throws with an 18-to-6 ratio and an 83rd percentile offensive grade. His dual-threat ability allows Leonard to evade the rush with an 11.5% pressure-to-sack rate (6th in P4), while posting three consecutive seasons with a rushing grade of 80%+.

• 11th season as head coach
• 101-41 record as Penn State head coach, including 10 wins in 2023 and 13 wins in 2024
• One Big Ten championship in 2016
• Five New Year’s Six bowl game appearances, with three wins
• Six top 12 finishes in the final College Football Playoff rankings over the last eight seasons

• Third full season as head coach
• 32-9 record as Notre Dame head coach, including 10 wins in 2023 and 13 wins in 2024
• 4-1 record in postseason games including wins in:
• 2022 Gator Bowl (45-38 vs. South Carolina)
• 2023 Sun Bowl (40-8 vs. Oregon State)
• 2024 CFP First Round (27-17 vs. Indiana)
• 2024 Sugar Bowl/CFP Quarterfinal (23-10 vs. Georgia)
• Before becoming HC, Freeman served as DC/linebackers coach in 2021-22

Penn State won two National Championships in football, most recently in 1986 with a 14-10 victory against the Miami Hurricanes in the Fiesta Bowl, completing an undefeated 12-0 season.

Notre Dame is one of the most successful programs in College Football history with 13 National Championships and their most recent title coming in 1988, when the Fighting Irish beat West Virginia 34-21 in the Fiesta Bowl. Notre Dame took a 16-0 lead in the second quarter and never looked back, holding off a second-half rally from the Mountaineers to capture their first title since 1977.

A clash of college football titans. The end of an era. On the 30th anniversary, Jon Paul Morosi looks back at one of the most iconic games in the history of Notre Dame Stadium: the Snow Bowl between the Irish and Penn State. WATCH THE FULL VIDEO HERE!

The Fighting Irish are looking for some luck in their sixth Orange Bowl appearance, currently 2-3 in the previous five games.

The Nittany Lions will make their sixth appearance in the Orange Bowl and have a 4-1 record in their previous five games.

Happy Valley, are you ready for the Orange Bowl?

Penn State and Notre Dame face off for the 20th time in program history, with the series tied at 9-9-1. This is just the second time the two teams have faced off in a bowl game, with their only bowl meeting coming in the 1976 Gator Bowl – a 20-9 victory by Notre Dame.

Back in 2007, Penn State beat Notre Dame 31-10, a game in which the Fighting Irish were held to zero rushing yards on 26 attempts and just 144 total yards in State College.

Only one way to find out....

The Irish are READY for the 2025 Orange Bowl, with a berth in the CFP National Championship on the line!

NBC Sports Betting Analyst Eric Froton (@CFFroton): “I have major questions about Notre Dame’s ability to run the ball effectively with Jeremiyah Love departing each of their last three games due to injury. Conversely the loss of DT Rylie Mills compromises an already shaky ND run defense. I feel like Penn State has more explosive playmakers on both sides of the ball and will be able to control the line of scrimmage. I’m backing Penn State and taking the +2 points in what should be a competitive affair.”

Rushing the Field’s Nicole Auerbach and Joshua Perry preview both College Football Playoff semifinal matches and detail how Notre Dame, Penn State, Ohio State and Texas can find success to reach the championship. Check out their CFP analysis and keys to each of the games right here on NBCSports.com.

Listen to the Bet the Edge podcast as hosts Jay Croucher and Drew Dinsick provide listeners with sharp actionable insight, market analysis and statistical data to help bettors gain more information before placing their wagers.

Notre Dame opened at -1.5/-122 favorites and has ticked up to -2/-130 in some spots. It could potentially go up to -2.5, but unlikely to hit -3 in such a close matchup. The game total dropped at 46.5 which has held steady across the board, with the exception of Caesar’s showing an even 47 at the moment. Odds courtesy of BetMGM.

• Moneyline: Notre Dame (-125), Penn State (+105)
• Spread: Notre Dame -1.5
• Over/Under: 46.5 points

• Date: Thursday, January 9th
• 2025 · Time: 7:30 PM EST
• Site: Hard Rock Stadium
• City: Miami Gardens, FL
• TV/Streaming: ESPN