How Notre Dame and Ohio State Balance Their Past While Looking to the Future

ESPN Daily

ESPN

Sports

4.6 • 3.9K Ratings

🗓️ 20 January 2025

⏱️ 30 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

For college football blue bloodsNotre Dame and Ohio State, the realities of modern big time college football are a whole new ball game. As NIL deals and the transfer portal give players more control over their careers than ever, and big money collectives blur the lines between amateur and professional athletics, the Buckeyes and Irish need to balance the new against decades of tradition. The challenges can be as simple as trying to change the seating at Notre Dame Stadium, or as complicated as justifying the NIL money needed to pursue the best talent in the field. So today - ESPN senior writer Ryan McGee, reports from the site of tonight’s College Football Playoff National Championship, to explain how for coaches Ryan Day and Marcus Freeman getting to this point means having already triumphed over the expectations of the past. And don’t forget the playlist, featuring our favorite stories of 2024. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Ryan McGee, Notre Dame quarterback Riley Leonard made a comment ahead of the college football national championship that sits at the heart of your article up on ESPN.com right now.
0:10.7	He said, you win football games by being smart and working hard.
0:14.4	That's no secret, but you also have to evolve.
0:17.5	What is he talking about?
0:19.7	He's talking about trying to take one of the great traditional
0:24.9	programs, and this applies to Ohio State as well, you know, all time, top five programs,
0:31.8	but how do you stay relevant? Evolution is a choice.
0:38.1	The dinosaurs didn't have to walk into the tarpins.
0:40.9	In college football programs, even old-timers like Ohio State and Notre Dame, they don't
0:45.2	have to walk into the quicksand of mediocrity.
0:47.5	You can go in there if you have your blinders on because you and your supporters and the
0:53.5	people around, you're like, well, that's how
0:54.6	New Rockney did it. And that's how Woody Hayes did it. You don't have to do it that way. And that's what
0:59.4	Ohio State and Notre Dame against the wishes of some of their biggest supporters. That's what they've
1:06.6	done. And that's why they're in Atlanta. You know, while these schools are balancing 271 years of tradition combined,
1:12.9	what's the biggest thing that Ryan McGee needs to balance at this point in the season?
1:17.0	I mean, you and I are both on the tail end of this thing.
1:19.2	Yeah, dude.
1:19.7	Well, it's, and I think, I think this is true for everyone.
1:23.0	And here at the college football national championship, that's the primary conversation for those of us
1:29.0	that have been on the road since the end of August. Your rhythm is still weird because years past,
1:35.2	the national championship game would have been played almost two weeks ago. Yep. And I'd be in QS right now,
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from ESPN, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of ESPN and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.