The Notre Dame Fighting Irish and Penn State Nittany Lions took similar paths to reach the Orange Bowl.
Both teams thrive in the rushing game and produced a litany of dominant defensive performances to be two of the four teams remaining in the College Football Playoff.
Penn State could claim to have the slightest edge across the board in the positional battle because tight end Tyler Warren is expected to be a first-round pick in the 2025 NFL draft.
However, most of the future NFL stars on both rosters play on the defensive side of the ball.