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Notre Dame looked left-for-dead at halftime of its semifinal game against Penn State.
Maybe you wrote them off. If so, it wasn’t the first time this year, was it? After all, the Fighting Irish’s early-September loss to Northern Illinois was one of the biggest upsets in the sport’s history, and they were a national laughingstock.
Turns out, it was the only blemish on a team that made the semifinals, so being down at the break was far from the end for coach Marcus Freeman, who had a halftime speech for the ages lined up.
“He said, ‘History is written by conquerors, and we’re holding the pen,'” Quarterback Riley Leonard told ESPN after a resounding, 27-24 comeback win. “We decide how we want to write our history. I’m a firm believer whether you think you can or can’t do something, you’re right. We believed that we can do it, and we did it.”
If that’s not the perfect story of the Irish’s season, what is? After digging a 10-0 hole, a 17-point, Leonard-led surge stormed them back.
Penn State answered with a pair of touchdowns of its own, but Leonard hit Jaden Greathouse, who corkscrewed the Penn State defender with a beautiful route, causing him to fall and then racing 54 yards for the game-tying score.
Then, a Christian Gray interception and a huge first-down pass to Greathouse (107 receiving yards) set up Mitch Jeter’s 41-yard game-winner. Heroics abounded, and Leonard was at the center of the maelstrom, despite two interceptions.
“He’s a competitor, and competitors find a way to win,” Freeman told ESPN. “That’s what Riley does. That’s what this team does, it’s a bunch of competitors who find a way.”
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