SOUTH BEND, Ind. -- It starts with DeShone Kizer. Notre Dame’s redshirt freshman quarterback is a Toledo, Ohio, native whose first bowl game as a starter will come against the hometown school he never seemed to care for.
“Ever since I’ve been playing this game I’ve been hearing about the Ohio State Buckeyes, and I never really rooted for them growing up,” Kizer said. “The name, to be honest, is a little sour in my head, just from dealing with the Ohio State-Michigan rivalry and all that good stuff growing up.”
Go to his coach, Brian Kelly, who cannot seem to escape the Urban Meyer mystique wherever he goes -- be it from coaching at Meyer’s alma mater (Cincinnati), from having three assistants leave Notre Dame for Ohio State (Ed Warinner, Tim Hinton, Tony Alford), or from getting asked Sunday about the straw men who hope that Meyer, a former Fighting Irish assistant, will one day coach Notre Dame.