Notre Dame, 3 Canadians advance to CFP national championship; Ohio State, 2 Canadians set for Friday's Cotton Bowl
Rohan Jones entertains several offers in transfer portal
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Welcome to the College Football Playoff semifinals (again)!
Heading south ✈️
Notre Dame defensive linemen and Canadians Sean Sevillano Jr. (Winnipeg), Devan Houstan (Mississauga, Ont.), and Armel Mukam (La Prairie, Que.) are on their way to the CFP national championship. Notre Dame won the Orange Bowl national semifinals on Thursday night, beating Penn State, 27-24. Notre Dame will face the winner of Friday night’s Cotton Bowl in the big dance on Jan. 20.
Ohio State plays Texas in the Cotton Bowl on Friday. Ohio State has two Canadians on the roster: punter Anthony Venneri (Hamilton, Ont.) and tight end Maxence LeBlanc (St-Bruno, Que.).
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H-back Rohan Jones (Montreal) and Montana State lost the FCS national championship on Tuesday, falling to North Dakota State, 35-32, on a walk-off punt — I bet you didn’t think you’d see that in a rouge-less league. Jones entered the transfer portal this week, as first reported by On3’s Pete Nakos on Wednesday. The Canadian confirmed this on social media on Thursday and shared the multiple schools who have already sent him offers (as of Thursday night): North Carolina, Kentucky, UCLA, Louisville, Houstan, Wake Forest and Arkansas. If he signs with Louisville, he’d be joining Canadian DLs and Ottawa natives Rene Konga and Wesley Bailey, who transferred from Rutgers in December.
North Texas linebacker Jaylen Smith (Hamilton, Ont.) became the second Canadian to break the 100-tackle mark this season during last Friday’s First Responder Bowl. The Mean Green lost the bowl game to Texas State, 30-28, but Smith’s nine tackles gave him something to celebrate. He finished the 2024-25 season with 106, one more than fellow Canadian linebacker and Rutgers junior Dariel Djabome (Longueuil, Que.), who made it to 105 in the Rate Bowl. It’s unlikely that two Canadians have ever made at least 100 tackles in the same season in college football history. Chicago Bears LB and former Oklahoma State stand-out Amen Ogbongbemiga (Calgary) was the last Canuck to hit triple digits in the NCAA in 2019-20.
Jett Elad (Mississauga, Ont.) has transferred from UNLV to Rutgers, the Scarlet Knights announced last Thursday. Despite losing three Canadians in the portal, Rutgers will add Elad as part of a group of five Canadians on the team for 2025, including Djabome and Montreal products running back Antwan Raymond, and defensive linemen Farell Gnago and Djibril Abdou Rahman. The Canadian safety was a Cornish Trophy — awarded to the top Canadian in NCAA football — finalist this season.
For another CFB breakdown from earlier this week, read my latest Canuck U:
Back north: U Sports offseason headlines 🍁
Manitoba offensive lineman Giordano Vaccaro has transferred to Purdue, the Boilermakers announced on Sunday. Vaccaro won the J.P. Metras Trophy — awarded to the most outstanding down lineman in U Sports football — this past season.
Multiple U Sports football players will compete in the annual College Gridiron Showcase in Fort Worth, Texas from Friday through Sunday. The full list was not available when this newsletter was scheduled for publishing. Next week’s Pressure Package will include the full list of U Sports student-athletes and Canadian NCAA football players who were on the roster. Here’s the U Sports watchlist:
Cody Neumann, Alberta offensive lineman
Daniel Hocevar, Guelph OL
Taylor Elgersma, Laurier quarterback
Ethan Jordan, Laurier wide receiver
Matt Stokman, Manitoba OL
DeEmetrius Masuka, McMaster defensive back
Eric Cumberbatch, Ottawa DB
Darien Newell, Queen’s DL
Silas Hubert, Queen’s DL
Ashton-Miller-Melacon, Queen’s DB
Alexandre Levac, Montreal OL
Natan Girouard-Langlois, Montreal OL
Connor Klassen, Regina OL
Keanu Yazbeck, Western RB
Kolade Amusan, Windsor EDGE
ICYMI: Read last week’s Pressure Package newsletter
Student shout-outs 📢
I got my start in multimedia storytelling and sports journalism at a student newspaper. It’s important for me to spread the love to those student journos finding new leads on campus fields across the country, just like I did a short time ago.
OUA
The Western Gazette (Western)
*My old stomping grounds!
The Cord (Laurier)
Imprint (Waterloo)
The Silhouette (McMaster)
The Varsity (Toronto)
Excalibur (York)
The Queen’s Journal (Queen’s)
The Fulcrum (Ottawa)
The Charlatan (Carleton)
Canada West
The Ubyssey (UBC)
The Gateway (Alberta)
The Gauntlet (Calgary)
The Sheaf (Saskatchewan)
The Manitoban (Manitoba)
RSEQ
Impact Campus (Laval)
*Covered Rouge et Or football in Vanier Cup
Quartier Libre (Montreal)
Concordia
The McGill Tribune (McGill)
Le Collectif (Sherbrooke)
AUS
The Xaverian Weekly (StFX)
The Campus (Bishop’s)
The Athenaeum (Acadia)
The SMU Journal (Saint Mary’s)
More Canadian college football coverage
U Sports football is covered by the media at a level not seen since theScore’s former television program “University Rush” covered Canadian Interuniversity Sport (CIS, the former name for U Sports) football up until the early 2010s.