The landmark 1990โs Burger King commercial featured Keith Jackson detailing another classic encounter between Notre Dame and Penn State with coaches Lou Holtz and Joe Paterno meeting at midfield.
Then the comedy ensued of the cups’ fashion choices whether the tie was too much, a crew neck was too casual, or the use of pastels.ย
During the 1980โs and โ90s, Penn State and Notre Dame engaged in a rivalry, with PSU dominating the early part of it, winning six of the first seven.ย
Once Holtz got the Irish back to Penn Stateโs level, Notre Dame claimed three of the last five contests. Penn State ruined Notre Dameโs perfect season in 1990, and Notre Dame slammed the door on the rivalry in the 1992 โSnow Bowl.โย
The teams split games in 2006 and 2007 but one could have treated those games as sideshows. Neither program was fully engaged and both had aspirations beyond what those games could have provided.ย
But since their College Football Playoff Semifinal at the Orange Bowl back in January, there has been extremely high fervor between both sides.ย
It all started with the press conference.ย
Notre Dame fans didnโt take kindly to James Franklin pointing out that Notre Dame should be in conference for the sake of uniformity.ย
“It should be consistent across college football,” Franklin said. “This is no knock at [Freeman] or Notre Dame, but I think everybody should be in a conference. I think everybody should play a conference championship game, or nobody should play a conference championship game. I think everybody should play the same number of conference games.”
Then there is the implied beef from the press conference that Franklin was a bit too casual towards Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman.
Franklin complemented Freemanโs hairline – which at a certain point in life is truly a complement to have one that impeccable like Freeman has, but the beef is where Franklin didnโt refer to Freeman by coach but by his first name.ย
Some Notre Dame fans insist, based on former Notre Dame safety Xavier Watts comments, that Freeman was angry about the whole press conference.ย
“He was angry. He was angry with the press conference thing, whatever was going on between that,” safety Xavier Watts told Pete Sampson of The Athletic. “He was mad about that. All the anger went toward us and that anger went onto the field.”
It didnโt help that Notre Dame sealed the win late on a Christian Gray interception from Drew Allar to send the Irish to the National Championship against Ohio State.
While many thought the Notre Dame rivalry was back on ice, it only heated up last week when Notre Dame snagged two coveted Penn State recruits in Joey OโBrien and Khary Adams.
Adams indicated it wasnโt close, even though he visited Penn State six times during his recruitment process.
โThis whole process, Notre Dame has been that one school everyone was up against,โ Adams said. โIt was Notre Dame vs. Penn State, then Notre Dame vs. Oregon, so Notre Dame was up there for me from the beginning.โ
OโBrien is seen by many as the top recruit in the Class of 2026 that is looking to play both ways in the same way as 2024 Heisman Trophy winner Travis Hunter.ย
It didnโt help that OโBrienโs teammate at LaSalle in tackle Grayson McKeogh committed to Notre Dame just days prior.ย
To even add more insult to injury, one canโt forget that Penn State running backs coach JaโJuan Seider took the same position at Notre Dame and even tried to poach Messiah Mickens from this class.
If the events from the previous six months or so are an indicator of anything, Notre Dame has nuked Penn Stateโs โUnrivaledโ moniker.
Prior to Adams commitment to Notre Dame, it had been six years since Notre Dame got a top 5 Maryland prospect. If you look at what Notre Dame has done in the last week in the Mid-Atlantic poaching three high prospects, they are looking to put more emphasis in Penn Stateโs territory.ย
With Notre Dame, for now at least, it will be a cold war. The two schools can only meet again in the College Football Playoff for the foreseeable future. Penn State has taken the hardest loss with the Orange Bowl defeat but now has to have a response for these Notre Dame wins off the field to regain a stranglehold Franklin has carefully created during his tenure.
