The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
Three Ohio colleges could win national titles
It’s yet to be October, but it’s apparent there’s elite college football being played in Ohio.
The most obvious has been in Columbus, where Ohio State has steamrolled the competition so far. But it doesn’t stop in the state capital.
To no one’s surprise, Mount Union is again a factor in Division III. After its dominant performance in a 37-14 win at John Carroll Sept. 28, the Purple Raiders proved it will take a Herculean effort to defeat them.
Mount has a senior quarterback in D’Angelo Fulford — lethal when given time — an impressive offensive line, tons of weapons at the skill positions and a tough defense.
Closer to these parts is Notre Dame College, where Coach Mike Jacobs has built the Falcons into a winner. Last season, NDC hit the big-time as a conference champion that went 13-1 and came within a touchdown of knocking off eventual national champion Valdosta State in a NCAA D-II national semifinal.
The Buckeyes, Purple Raiders and Falcons are a combined 12-0, ranked in the top five in the nation in their respective divisions and have the look of champions.
A look at each team’s chances at winning a national title in 2019:
Ohio State
Granted, it hasn’t been a murderer’s row for the Buckeyes through five games. But dominance is dominance, and that’s what we have here with Coach Ryan Day’s team. The offense is averaging 52 points and 535 yards, running back J.K. Dobbins is averaging 131 yards per game and QB Justin Fields has 16 touchdown passes against zero interceptions. The biggest difference from 2018 to 2019 for OSU has been on defense. The unit has 24 sacks (eight from defensive end Chase Young), seven interceptions and is allowing 8.6 points. The schedule gets difficult starting Oct. 5, when Michigan State comes to Columbus. There are also home games against Wisconsin (Oct. 26) and Penn State (Nov. 23), then the season finale at Michigan on Nov. 30. If the Buckeyes can keep playing defense at their efficiency rate (they rank top 10 nationally), start making plans for the College Football Playoff. Good luck betting against this team going forward — at least until it’s time to play Alabama or Clemson.
Notre Dame College
At 4-0, the Falcons have proven good enough to warrant strong consideration as a national contender in 2019. Their biggest win was on Sept. 21 when rival Fairmount State rolled into South Euclid with the top offense in D-II at 561 yards and 47 points per game. But NDC came out on top in a 61-49 victory. The star of stars on the Falcons has been sophomore running back Jaleel McLaughlin, who continues to amaze. His first game resulted in 170 rushing yards. But McLaughlin has taken it to another level in his last three — 200-plus yards in all. His 893 yards are second to Oklahoma State’s Chubb Hubbard’s 938 as the top rusher in all of college football. Four of NDC’s last seven games are at Mueller Field, and that includes a tough nonconference game against Findlay. But it’s safe to say Jacobs’ team will be favored in all those contests. If that happens, expect NDC to be highly ranked in the NCAA D-II Super Region rankings (which determines the playoff field) and get multiple playoff games at home.
Mount Union
Anyone watching the Sept. 28 Mount-JCU game who didn’t say to themselves, “The Purple Raiders have the look of a national champion” probably weren’t honest with themselves. The last few seasons, there have been two teams in D-III — Mary-Hardin Baylor and the Blue Streaks — that have hung with the Purple Raiders, and beaten them. By midway through the second quarter when it was 27-0 in favor of Mount, JCU’s chances were less than zero. No team remaining in the Ohio Athletic Conference will come close to the Purple Raiders the rest of the regular season, and it would be an upset of epic proportions if they aren’t in the Stagg Bowl playing for the national championship.