Ryan Day and Ohio State stand just 30 minutes of game time away from their first national title since 2014 and the first championship of the head coach’s tenure.

With an electric first half from Will Howard, the Buckeyes scored 21 points while going 3-for-3 in touchdowns on offensive drives. That efficiency has allowed Ohio State to hold the ball for 16:37 of game time, and that’s a major number considering how the game started.

Notre Dame had the ball on the game’s first possession and was on offense for nearly 10 minutes while scoring the game’s first touchdown. It has been all Buckeyes since, but Day says the team still needs a great drive to win the middle 8 coming out of halftime.

“First drive, they went down, and we got to settle down a little on defense, but I thought we had a great response. Made some 3rd down plays, they’ve changed a few things up on how they’re defending us a bit. We’ve got to go into halftime, make sure we come out and win this middle 8 right here,” said Ryan Day in his halftime interview entering the locker room. “We did a great job finishing the drives. We get the ball to start the 2nd half, we’ve got to come out and have a great drive.”

At the break, Will Howard has just 1 incompletion and 2 touchdowns, and the ground game is averaging 4.8 yards per carry. If Notre Dame doesn’t find an answer after the break, things could get ugly quickly in the 3rd quarter.