Calls and texts poured in for Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman after a big win over No. 20 Texas A&M on Aug. 31, but he considers a College Football Playoff berth anything but cemented.
“That’s the reminder that I needed more than anything is that it was a big win for our program versus a good opponent, but we have so much work to really improve on, and that’s kind of the focus now as we go into Monday.”
Seventh-ranked Notre Dame won 23–13 at a packed and loud Kyle Field in College Station, Texas, but it didn’t come pretty. In addition, the Fighting Irish (1–0) have 11 more games to play, two against ranked opponents, before the 12-team College Football Playoff field gets set in December.
“It goes back to watching the film with a critical eye,” Freeman said. “You can’t let the emotions of a victory or a defeat affect the way you evaluate what you need to do to improve. We have to believe that our preparation is the key to us having success on Saturdays, and that’s what we'll continue to rely on.”
Notre Dame had a defensive dogfight with the Aggies before Fighting Irish running back Jadarian Price ripped off a 47-yard touchdown run in the third quarter to break a 6–6 tie. Texas A&M answered in the fourth quarter when Aggies running back Le'Veon Moss capped a 10-play, 65-yard drive with a one-yard touchdown run to tie the game 13–13 with 11:49 left in the game.
“A lot to clean up and a lot to improve from, and we’ve gotta continue to learn from the many teaching opportunities that a game really gives you,” Freeman said.
Notre Dame got a game-winning drive in the final two minutes from the Week 1 victory. Fighting Irish quarterback Riley Leonard led the team 85 yards downfield in eight plays, and running back Jeremiyah Love put the game away on a 21-yard touchdown run with 1:54 left. Ironically, analytics suggest Love should have avoided scoring that soon, Freeman explained.
“I’m pretty sure in J-Love’s situation. But you have to make decisions as a head coach in that moment. Do you want to tell J-Love in the huddle, ‘Hey, go down’? We were just trying to get a first down and stay in field goal range. I didn’t want to put that in his brain: ‘Hey, go score.’ I have a belief in our defense that we'll be able to stop them,” Freeman said.
With a much-needed win over an SEC team, the Fighting Irish have an apparently softer schedule but little room for error. Notre Dame has one of the harder paths to the College Football Playoff without a conference affiliation, and the Fighting Irish can’t earn higher than a fifth seed due to no conference championship game available.
The Fighting Irish can ill-afford a letdown against Northern Illinois on Saturday, Sept. 7, in South Bend, Indiana. Freeman highlighted how the Huskies have been a nuisance for Power Four teams in recent years.
“Moving forward, we have a really good Northern Illinois team coming here on Saturday. They’ve won seven of their last nine games dating back to last year, and they return 18 starters, nine on offense, nine on defense, and have been very competitive in Coach [Thomas] Hammock’s tenure there versus Power Four teams. And you talk about they beat Boston College last year,” Freeman said.
“I think it was a 7–3 game versus Nebraska in the second quarter [before a 35–11 loss],” he continued. “The year before, there was a one-score game versus Kentucky. The year before, they beat Georgia Tech in ‘21, so they’ll be ready to roll. They’re gonna come in here ready to go, and they’ve had success. So we’ve gotta be ready to roll ourselves and really have a good week of prep.”
That could well be Freeman’s slogan beyond the Huskies with the likes of Purdue, Miami of Ohio, Louisville, Stanford, Georgia Tech, a 0–2 Florida State squad, Virginia, and Army before No. 23 USC in late November.
“So we have to prepare, and we have to have a critical eye,” Freeman said.
