The stage is set for the College Football Playoff Championship 2025 as the Buckeyes and Fighting Irish gear up for the ultimate showdown. While Ohio State is already a favorite for the championship, Notre Dame is on a roll and could give the OSU a run for their memory. And as a loyal Buckeyes fan, Kirk Herbstreit understands the threat the Fighting Irish possess. Known for their defense, Ohio has disappointed this season as well, and to top that they have outscored their playoff opponents by 111-52. But are these enough to stop Marcus Freeman’s Fighting Irish, who is coming off a 13-game winning streak? So, what is the cheat code that has been working for Notre Dame?

Apart from the Irish’s offense, the Buckeyes need to turn their head to the Irish’s offensive coordinator Mike Denbrock, who has been an unsung hero for Notre Dame this season. The Notre Dame Football and Marcus Freeman have an ace in the hole to fight Knowles’ monster team. Having worked with Marcus in the past as well makes the duo a more lethal combination.

On Monday, Denbrock will possibly take up one of the most grisly challenges of his career, which is to set up his players mentally and physically to sell against arguably the best defense in the nation. I mean, OSU looks a bit ahead in their ways in the betting odds, but Kirk Hersbreit warned the fans not to sleep on the Irish, most specifically, on Denbrock, as he knows how to eat the demons.

”Mike Denbrock’s one of the best. You know he’s the offensive coordinator and play-caller for Notre Dame. He had Desmond Ridder at Cincinnati the year that Cincinnati went all the way to the playoff and lost to Alabama,” said Herbstreit. For your quick recap, Cincinnati struggled heavily with its ground game in 2016, but Denbrock’s arrival slowly but steadily turned the page. The Bearcats rushed for just 118.2 yards per game and 3.6 yards per attempt. They went beyond 150 yards just three times and were held to 100 yards or fewer in five games. But in 2017, there were signs of significant improvement. The Bearcats rushed for 183.2 yards on average and 5.4 yards per carry in the final five games. The next four seasons under Mike were nothing but a fairytale.

 

Acknowledging the fact that Mike is a seasoned beast, Herbstreit continued, ”He’s had Jaden Daniels, Jen Daniels, yeah, the turnaround he made with him, so the reason I bring that up is he’s been there, he’s done that he understands when you go up against a Goliath like this.” The cherry on the cake? No doubt, Mike Denbrock’s fiery chemistry with the Irish beating heart, quarterback Riley Leonard. Mike previously said that as a point of a competitor, he viewed Jayden and Riley on the same page. Ever since, he relentlessly worked on chiseling out the best out of Riley as promised and the outshot is an open secret.

“He also has experience in working with a skill set like Riley Leonard, I’m not comparing Riley to the previous two that we talked about obviously, Jaden Daniels is a generational talent but it’s a similar skill set as far as this guy has the ability to run the QB Run game if they hang in.” Herbstreit chimed into the subject.

However, not only just with Riley, it seems that the second-year OC gels quite well with Marcus Freeman’s rare aggressive style of coaching.

Mike Denbrock believes in Marcus Freeman’s bold approach 

Marcus Freeman believes in the exception. He likes to do things off the chart, and it works. Fourth down, typically a danger zone for most football programs has become a friend for Freeman and his team. They have experimented a lot and must remain pretty go-getter. Freeman became an unofficial ambassador of the fake punts. I mean, look at their recent breakout win against Georgia.

When Mike was asked if he was accustomed to the style, he said that he was not, but he was quite enjoying the ride.

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The players love it. I love it. And I think it goes to the theme of us as a football program. I mean, we’re playing to win. And we’re not afraid of what that means. And not everybody is. Whether it’s going for it offensively on fourth down or whether we feel like we can take possession back by making a play on special teams. Those guys have done an incredible job with that all year,” the standout OC said after the spectacular Georgia win.

They have a tough yet exciting call against OSU the next week. It remains to be seen how a consistently good game and the epic symphony between coach, OC, and the key QB pans out on the final night.