Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman touches the Orange Bowl trophy at the end of the Orange Bowl College Football Playoff semifinal game against Penn State, Thursday, Jan. 9, 2025, in Miami Gardens, Fla. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky)

MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. – James Franklin talked all week about this being a “four-quarter game,” and boy was he right.

Though the Nittany Lions got off to strong start, outrushed Notre Dame 141-15 in the first half and looked like they were the better team, the Fighting Irish never flinched and answered every challenge.

Notre Dame has a famous sign hanging in its locker room that reads, “Play like a champion,” and the Fighting Irish certainly did.

Their 27-24 victory in the College Football Playoff semifinal will be etched as the most disappointing of Franklin’s 11-year tenure as it denied the Nittany Lions a chance to play for their first national championship since 1987.

“We’re all hurting,” he said afterward. “Obviously, we made too many mistakes that were costly.”

Franklin always emphasizes what he calls “the middle eight,” the last four minutes of the second quarter and the first four of the third.

Notre Dame (14-1) owned that window Thursday night.

Their late first-half drive got the Irish on the board with a field goal as time expired, pulling the Irish within 10-3, and then they made a statement 75-yard touchdown drive to tie the score.

“To open the second half with them going down and scoring a TD and us going three-and-out was significant,” Franklin said.

From there it was game on as the teams were tied at 10, 17 and 24 before Drew Allar’s interception with 33 seconds remaining on a forced attempt over the middle helped seal the Lions’ fate.

Allar was trying to hit Omar Evans, who wasn’t open.

“I was going through my progression, and I was trying to throw it at his feet,” Allar said. “I didn’t execute.”

Allar had a particularly rough outing, missing open receivers and completing just 12-of-23 for 135 yards.

“We didn’t win the game so it wasn’t good enough,” Allar said in a self-assessment. “I’ll learn from it and do everything in my power to grow from it.”

No Penn State wide receiver made a catch, an extention of a season-long problem.

“We tried a couple early on and weren’t able to convert them,” Franklin said of the wideouts. “That’s one of the storylines of the game.”

While the Lions lost their momentum, they still recovered from a 17-10 deficit to tie it at 17 and then took a 24-17 lead, both on Nick Singleton’s touchdowns and one set up on Dani Dennis-Sutton’s spectacular interception.

But just as the offense missed an early chance for a red-zone touchdown, settling field an early 3-0 lead instead, the defense suffered a coverage breakdown that let Notre Dame score on a 54-yard touchdown that tied it at 24 with 4:38 remaining.

After the teams exchanged punts, instead of being content to play for overtime, Allar was intercepted, and Notre Dame turned that into the game-winning field goal.

Franklin said it’s his job to keep his chin up, “for his players, for his family” and for the entire program.

He said he’s proud of the team for what it achieved, even if it came up at least one game shy of its desired goal and finished at 13-3.

“We would have loved to have gotten a win tonight,” Franklin said. “But I could not be more proud of all our guys in the locker room. We played our tails off tonight and all season.”

He thanked the fans for their support and credited Notre Dame again.

Then he paused and said: “The sun will come up tomorrow.”

That’s true, but it won’t shine quite as brightly as it will in South Bend.

Neil Rudel can be reached at nrudel@altoonamirror.com.