The History of Ohio State football vs Fighting Irish

The Ohio State football team and Notre Dame have played a total of 7 times, this weekend making it 8, and Ohio State has won the last 5 games against them. In fact the last time Notre Dame even beat the Buckeyes was in 1936.

The first game they’ve ever played in 1935 was being labeled as “The Game of the Century”. In this game, Notre Dame beat an undefeated Buckeyes team. With Notre Dame down at the half, they made a pretty good comeback to win the game against their first matchup with The Ohio State Football Team. The final score was 18-13.

They also won the very next year in 1936, but the final score was only 7-2, with Notre Dame on top.

The third time the Buckeyes saw them was 1995. No scores happened in the first quarter, but the second quarter Fighting Irish took a 17-7 lead. Then the Buckeyes came back, with Notre Dame giving up 3 turnovers and couldn’t score. They couldn’t stop Eddie George and Terry Glenn, with The Buckeyes coming out on top 45-26, making this their first win against Notre Dame. Glenn had 128 yards receiving and 2 TDs, and George rushed for 207 yards and 2 TDs, George would then go on to win the Heisman Trophy for 1995.

The fourth time around in 1996, Ohio State came out scoring fast making the score 22-7 just at halftime. Ohio State’s defense the whole game bullied Notre Dame’s sorry offense, making quarterback Ron Powlus throw 13 for 30 and two interceptions. After a 90-yard punt return was called back everyone knew this game was over. The final score was 29-16.

2005 was the next time The Buckeyes fought against them, but this time it was the Fiesta Bowl. Many thought Notre Dame had a good chance of wining due to them having a good season. Ted Ginn scored on a long touchdown pass and 68 yard rush on a reverse, and shortly before halftime, quarterback Troy Smith found Santonio Holmes for an 85-yard touchdown. With tons of big yard plays, Ohio State was able to pull out a 21-7 lead at halftime. The Irish would score to make it 27-20 late in the fourth quarter before a 60-yard touchdown run by Antonio Pittman sealed the Buckeye win. 34-20 was the final score.

Another Fiesta Bowl in 2015 made these team meet for the sixth-time ever. This game was packed with over 71,000 people attending State Farm Stadium, whose capacity is at 65,000. In the first half, Notre Dame’s linebacker, Jaylon Smith, came down with a terrible knee injury, he suffered torn ACL and MCL, and some nerve damage to his knee.

The good news for him though is that he was still able to get draft by the Cowboys in the second round of the draft. In the first 6 minutes of the game Ezekiel Elliott finds the end zone on a two yard carry. Within the next two minutes the Ohio State football team not only got the ball back, but also got a touchdown with Michael Thomas off a 15-yard pass.

After going down the field for 70 yards Notre Dame scored off a rushing touchdown. A couple minutes after that, Ezekiel would get his second touchdown of the night. Not long after Elliott would get another one, but followed by another Notre Dame touchdown. Ezekiel got one more touchdown in the second half, and the rest of Ohio State’s points came from field goals made by Sean Nuernberger. J.T. Barrett was able to throw 22-37 with 284 yards, and 1 touchdown with 1 interception. Elliott ended with 27 carries for 149 yards, and 4 touchdowns. Michael Thomas had 7 receptions for 72 yards, with 1 touchdown. Overall, the Ohio State football team played extremely well against the Fighting Irish to make a 44-28 win.

We now come to the last time they played 2022. With another sold out stadium, many were excited to see how well Ohio State’s new defense would look against a team such as Notre Dame. Notre Dame was able to hold Ohio State to a pretty low-scoring game but the game was still really good. After a good play by Notre Dame, the Fighting Irish scored the first points by a 33-yard field goal, 3 minutes into the game. Ohio State answered with little left in the first quarter by a touchdown pass from C.J. Stroud to Emeka Egbuka.

At the start of the second Notre Dame scores a touchdown to go up. With Notre Dame up by 3 at the end of first half, the offense needed to step up a little bit. That they did. They scored towards the end of the third with another passing touchdown to Xavier Johnson. Then they scored again with about 5 minutes left in the game with a 2-yard run to Miyan Williams. This sealed their victory with a win of 21-10.

Throughout these games, we can see historically Ohio State dominates Notre Dame. On Saturday we soon expect a win from the Buckeyes, which would make them 6-2 against the Fighting Irish. Not only is this game important to the history of Ohio State, but how the rest of Ohio State’s season should go. Also how they will do against higher ranked teams.