MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. - Take two storied college football programs whose campuses know nothing this time of year but snow and cold and dark and cold and wind and cold and send them into the shadows of South Beach in early January, and what do you have?
In 2025, you have a College Football Playoff semifinal between former Independent colleagues (remember those days before realignment?) who haven't played since 2007. It's Notre Dame. It's Penn State. It's a CFP semifinal in South Florida. Why? Why not?
Here are four players who might help swing Thursday's game and send their teams on to Atlanta to play on January 20 for the College Football Playoff national championship:
The guy everyone calls JD is just due.
Due to have a bust-out game, like the one in late November at Southern California when he racked up career highs for carries (12) and yards (111) and showed that he could be counted on as an every-down back.
Price hasn't had to be that, not with a guy named Jeremiyah Love in the same RB stable, but here's the rub - we likely won't know Love's true status until game time Thursday. Love hobbled off against Georgia with a right knee issue that flared during Price's career day in LA. Love insisted later in New Orleans that he was fine, but he was spotted at practice on Sunday with a bulky brace on his right leg. That's never a good sign.
It doesn't have to be all bad if the 5-foot-10, 206-pounder from Denison, Texas can do what so many Irish teammates have done - step in for an injured teammate and show everyone around with his play that he's got this. All of this.
Give him the ball those dozen or so times, get him out in space, and let Price play. It's there, somewhere, waiting to be unleashed like that day in the Coliseum. Love may not be 100 percent for Penn State, but if Price can prove capable of a few more carries, he may not have to be.
This could have the makings of being JD's game.
The statement from defensive coordinator Al Golden somewhere late this season was surprising. Stunning even.
Golden, who's as straight a shooter as they come in this business, insisted that day in front of the media that nothing anybody on this Notre Dame defense has done this year, and they have collectively and individually done a lot, could be possible without the work of Tuihalamaka, a 6-2, 225-pound junior (naturally) from Granada Hills, California.
In some ways, Golden said, Tuihalamaka helped make everything over these four months possible. High praise. Also, warranted.
A vyper defensive end, Tuihalamaka has helped offset the loss of two players - Jordan Botelho and Boubacar Traore - who started the season ahead of him on the depth chart. Tuihalamaka could've decided, forget this, and jumped into the transfer portal. No one around the program would've been surprised. That's the way of the college football world. Don't like your place on the depth chart? Bounce. It's happened. A lot.
Tuihalamaka didn't bounce. He put his head down and went to work. He finished with career highs for games (14), starts (three), total tackles (31), solo stops (16), assists (15), tackles for loss (5.5), sacks (three), passes defended (two) and interceptions (one). His fumble recovery following an R.J. Oben strip-sack of Gunner Stockton flipped the College Football Playoff quarterfinal game against Georgia.
All that from Tuihalamaka and he's still listed as the backup behind Joshua Burnham. Doesn't matter. He's going to play. And make plays.
On the Penn State football website, on every graphic that pops up on TV, in every story written about Abdul Carter, you learn that his hometown is Philadelphia.
He also has a second home, one that can only be within the State College city limits. The 6-3, 225-pound Carter calls Philadelphia home and plays college football in State College, but he's also the most recent game-wrecking resident of a select 'burb called ST1X C1TY.
If you know, you know.
Not everyone gets the chance to call that place their own. Quarterbacks? Wideouts? Offensive linemen? No, no, no. Kickers? Please. A select few get a chance to wear the No. 11 jersey at Penn State. LaVar Arrington wore it. Micah Parsons wore it. NaVorro Bowman wore it. Carter now wears it.
If you wear No. 11 in navy blue and white, you better deliver. Carter has delivered.
His statistics, both season and career, are crazy. How crazy?! How about 63 tackles and a team-high 21.5 tackles for loss for, get ready, 111 yards. How about 167 career tackles, 37.5 career tackles for loss and 22 sacks? The dude is everywhere, and often everything to that Penn State defense.
Can he be on Thursday? Carter was limited to a handful of downs - and no stats for anything - in the quarterfinal win over Boise State. He's said to be bothered by a left arm issue. He might not play. Chances are, he will. The resident of ST1X C1TY will represent.
It's been said that Notre Dame is Tight End U, with a who's who of former college standouts first and professionals second, having come through the program and left their pass-catching and run-blocking mark.
No one will argue that. They also will not protest that the nation's top tight end plays for Penn State. When it comes to tight ends, there's Tyler Warren, a 6-6, 261-pound senior from Mechanicsville, Virginia, and there's everybody else.
Warren has been beyond freaky this season. Want proof? How about the most receptions (88), most yards (1,062), most touchdowns (six), and most yards per game (81.7) this season for any Power Four tight end in the country? How about having already set school career records for catches (137), yards (1,668) and TDs (17)?
How about turning on the tape of Penn State's overtime win at USC earlier this year and then watching No. 44 make 17 catches (he was targeted 20 times!) for 224 yards and one score? Oh, he also completed a pass for nine yards.
Warren plays tight end. He dabbles as a short-yardage quarterback. He gives defensive coordinators migraines. He's a pass-catching, yard-gaining, four-quarter problem. The dude just plays football. How do you slot/stop him? Cover him with a linebacker and hope there's safety help waiting? Bracket him and pray that he still doesn't find an escape hatch? Pay too much attention to him, and you'll let a Nittany Lion running back go bananas.
Better figure something out. Fast.
Follow South Bend Tribune and NDInsider columnist Tom Noie on X (formerly Twitter): @tnoieNDI. Contact Noie at tnoie@sbtinfo.com