Next legend up

 You had your pick of lore as it all got late down in south Florida last night, and that was a hell of a thing for the loyal sons of old Notre Dame. What lore would be their favorite lore? What moment in a stuffed evening of moments would get to join the statuary watching over all that cherished history and mythology?

Does Jeremiyah Love get a spot in Loreville for plowing through one, two, three Penn State Nittany Lions on a bum knee, refusing to go down until the football was over the goal line?

Does Steve Angeli for coming in when Riley Leonard got his head bounced off the turf and directing the Irish to their first three points of the long, tense night?

Does Leonard for coming back in and finding Jaden Greathouse in lonely splendor to bring the Irish from behind yet again? Or Greathouse for juking the last Penn State defender to the ground on his way to Six City? Or Christian Gray for reading Penn State quarterback Drew Allar like a dime novel and making a diving interception to set up Mitch Jeter's game-winning field goal?

Or how about Jeter for coldly banging that puppy through with eight seconds to play?

They all did their bit as Notre Dame beat the Nittany Lions 27-24 in the Orange Bowl, earning the right to play for a national championship for the first time in a dozen years. It was Next Legend Up all night for the Irish, and the tenders of all that Notre Dame lore have been warned: Expansion is coming, and that right soon.

The Irish got down 10-0 in this one, scored 17 straight points to take a 17-10 lead, surrendered 14 straight to go down again with 7:55 to play. Leonard tied it again at 4:38  on the 54-yard strike to Greathouse. Then Gray picked Allar with 30 seconds remaining, and Jeter -- who's missed just one kick in eight attempts in the playoffs after missing four of his last five in the regular season -- came on to stick the game-winning 41-yarder.

By that time, of course, a lot of other stuff had happened. Love had run out of a tackle in the backfield, then fought through three other Nittany Lions at the goal line to open the fourth quarter. Leonard had wobbled off the field after a big hit, and Angeli had come on to complete his first four passes and 6-of-7 total on a 13-play, 52-yard drive that ended on a Jeter field goal, sending the Irish to halftime down 10-3 instead of 10-0.

I suppose this means Angeli goes down in the pantheon as The Backup Who Saved Us. And Love's run becomes simply "The Run." And Greathouse's move on the final tying score becomes "The Juke", and Gray's pick becomes "The Pick", and Jeter's kick becomes, naturally, "The Kick."

Because here's the thing, boys and girls, and it's why all those loyal sons in their Joe Montana throwbacks are smirking right now: At Notre Dame, no one has to pick what lore is his or her favorite, or which moment deserves the Father Corby/Knute Rockne/Lou Holtz/Frank Leahy bronzing.. As the loyal sons will tell you (with just the right amount of  that smugness the rest of us finds so infuriating), they all deserve it. 

Even more infuriating: This time they're right.