After 12 games and four months, the Ohio State Buckeyes’ long-standing national officiating nightmare is over. With the Notre Dame Fighting Irish being penalized for a holding call during the College Football Playoff National Championship Game, one of the sport’s most insane and incomprehensible stat streaks is finally over.
Notre Dame Holding Call Breaks Months-Long Penalty Streak Against Ohio State
Ryan Day can finally rest easy at night. After becoming increasingly frustrated with a perceived officiating balance against his Buckeyes defense, the Ohio State head coach finally saw a penalty called against his opponent. Notre Dame OL Charles Jagusah’s holding call in the College Football Playoff National Championship Game brings an end to a run of 12 holding penalty-less games featuring the Buckeyes.
There are a whole ton of staggering numbers involved with one of college football’s most ludicrous streaks.
The headline is the four months since a holding penalty was called against an Ohio State opponent. The last time a Buckeyes player was held and the opponent held accountable was against the Marshall Thundering Herd on Sept. 21, 2024. Or a whole different year, for hyperbole’s sake.
In that span, Ohio State had played nine regular-season games and three College Football Playoff games. According to a report from USA Today, the Buckeyes had played 728 consecutive snaps without a holding penalty being called in their favor, heading into the Notre Dame game.
207 of those snaps had come in the three postseason games, including facing a Tennessee Volunteers side that is one of the most penalized in the country with 8.1 penalties per game. While those are a combination of offensive and defensive infractions, it still highlights the bewilderment felt by both Day and his Ohio State players.
“It’s crazy,” Ohio State center Seth McLaughlin told USA Today.“Can you imagine not one holding call all that time? How does that even happen?”
As his frustrations grew, Day didn’t have the answer to McLaughlin’s questions, but he intends to find out.
Prior to the streak being ended against Notre Dame, the Ohio State head coach had been deep in conversation with Big Ten commissioner Tony Petitti about the issue, backing up his version of events with game tape and in-depth metrics.
While the holding call against Notre Dame might end the streak, it’s unlikely to calm Day’s agitations and certainly won’t prevent him from pursuing the matter into the offseason, especially as the Buckeyes and the rest of the Big Ten engage in a battle with the SEC for college football supremacy in an ever-changing landscape.
The irony of it all? It was an SEC officiating crew calling the College Football Playoff National Championship Game, where one of college football’s most unusual streaks came to an end on Monday night.
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