National championship game a ‘surreal’ experience for Wyo’s Max Hurleman

Max Hurleman knows that when he looks around Mercedes-Benz Stadium before kickoff Monday night he’ll get chills.

The former Wyomissing three-sport star will feel the adrenaline rush of 70,000-plus fans packed into the football home of the Atlanta Falcons . . . he’ll see ESPN’s Chris Fowler, Kirk Herbstreit and the other talking heads he’s grown up watching on television . . . he’ll feel the tension of playing Ohio State for the national championship.

He’ll remember that scene, and his journey, for the rest of life. He’ll also remember that he has a job to do, returning punts and covering kicks, for Notre Dame and he’ll focus on that.

“As soon as that foot hits the ball,” the grad student said, “it’s just another football game. . . 11 v. 11, just a couple men trying to run through each other’s faces.”

For Hurleman it’s much more than that. It’s vindication of the belief he had all along that he could play with the best players in the nation.

Coming out of high school Power Five programs such as Ohio State, Notre Dame, and Penn State didn’t give him a sniff. There were bigger, faster, flashier players to chase.

Hurleman was an All-State pick with the Spartans but at 5-11, and coming out of a small high school, he didn’t attract much attention. He ended up at Colgate, a Patriot League school known more for its academics than its football.

He spent four seasons with the Raiders, starting 23 games at running back and earning Patriot League Special Teams Player of the Year as a senior in 2023.

With a year of eligibility remaining and his Economics degree in hand he decided to take one last stab at his dream. He placed his name in the NCAA transfer portal, then went about trying to sell himself to major college programs.

Notre Dame had an interest in a multi-faceted special teams player such as Hurleman and invited him to walk on.

Hurleman is as confident as they come, and for good reason: He led his senior football team at Wyomissing to a district championship, was an All-Berks guard in basketball, and was good enough in lacrosse to draw Division I offers. Before high school, he played baseball and soccer and swam.

It all came easily for him.

He didn’t expect this last leg of his journey to unfold quite so perfectly, but it has: He earned the job as the Fighting Irish’s primary punt returner early in the season, was named Special Teams Player of the Game twice during the season – in wins over Louisville and Purdue – and was selected as the program’s Walk-On of the Year last month after playing more special teams downs than anyone on the team.

And now this: He’ll be on the biggest stage in college sports.

“If you would’ve asked me a few short months ago if my last college game would’ve been in the national championship game, I would’ve said you’re crazy,” Hurleman said. “That’s pretty special, all things considered.

“It’s really cool how things have worked out and I’m super-blessed and grateful that these opportunities have come my way and I’ve be able to take advantage of it. It’s surreal.”

In the span of three weeks, Hurleman will have played in the Sugar Bowl, Orange Bowl and national championship game: No one had ever experienced such a string of thrills before.

His team’s journey has been a bit unexpected, too. Notre Dame was a preseason Top 10 pick but the Fighting Irish were dismissed before the playoffs because they hadn’t played an impressive schedule – and because of that stinging September loss to Northern Illinois of the Mid-American Conference.

All of the attention heading into the College Football Playoffs was on Big 10 powers Oregon, Ohio State and Penn State, as well as George and Texas.

The Fighting Irish have thrived on that, turning back Georgia in the second round and Penn State in the semifinals.

That latter victory was especially rewarding to Hurleman.

“I’d be lying if I said I didn’t wish there was a little love shown (from Penn State) coming out of high school,” he said. “It was nice to be able to compete with that kind of team and be on that kind of that stage and prove to . . . really, just prove to myself that I belong. Just competing and making plays (against them), it was special.”

Hurleman is hoping Monday won’t be the end of his football journey. He plans to continue working out with the team in order to prepare for an NFL pro day later in the spring. Meanwhile, he’ll be completing his master’s degree in business analytics.

No one is expecting him to get a shot in the NFL but there are a lot of guys playing in that league right now who were similarly overlooked coming out of college.

“I’ll sell the fact that I’m a core four special teams guy,” said Hurleman, who plays on all of Notre Dame’s return and coverage units. “(Hopefully I’ll) perform well at the pro day, and whatever happens, happens. I won’t be able to sit with myself if I don’t try and give it all I’ve got. I’m gonna pursue it to the end.”

Hurleman has embraced the underdog role. He said the Fighting Irish – a favorite in every game this season but one until now – have done the same.

“It’s just motivation, that’s how we’ll look at it,” he said of seeing Ohio State so heavily favored. “People want to see us as an underdog? Cool, we’ll play that card. We know what our team’s capable of and we know very well that we can win this football game.

“Ohio State’s a really good football team, and they deserve all the respect in the world. We’re just excited; we think it’s going to be a really good match-up, and that’s what it should be: There’s two teams left playing football, out of how many Division I teams that want to be playing.”