Soon after Notre Dame football coach Marcus Freeman was promoted from defensive coordinator in December 2021, pregame Mass at the Basilica was reinstated.

But evolution is also a choice. The dinosaurs didn't have to walk into the tar pits. And college football programs -- even old-timers such as Ohio State and Notre Dame -- don't have to walk into the quicksand of mediocrity, led there by the blinders of obligation to keep on keeping on the same way that Knute Rockne and Woody Hayes did.

The two most recent Buckeyes victories came in 2022 and 2023. Ohio State won 21-10 in ’22 and then scored with one second left in South Bend to grab a 17-14 victory last season. The Irish had only 10 players on the field on the winning 1-yard touchdown run, leaving a bitter taste in the team’s mouth.