New head coach Marcus Freeman had a debut that encountered a season’s worth of up and downs.
The Irish were looking to shake the big bowl game disappointments and when they were up 28-7, it looked like they were on their way to doing just that.
But the defense from the first two weeks decided to show up bringing a bevy a missed tackles with them. When it was all said and done, the Irish were leaving the Fiesta Bowl with a 37-35 loss.
One of the questions that came out of that game was the future of Tyler Buchner. Whenever the running game struggled, former head coach Brian Kelly would give Buchner a possession or two to help out.
With the Irish running game struggling without Kyren Williams, one would think that offensive coordinator Tommy Rees would come with Buchner especially in the third quarter. Instead, the Irish continued to bog down with Jack Coan. When it was all said and done, Coan attempted 68 passes and finished with over 500 yards passing.
Obviously, there’s no way Notre Dame can go into next season throwing the ball that much no matter who the quarterback is going to be.
It also means that Rees must make the adjustments to the offenses like he did during the regular season. I don’t know whether it was an ego thing but Rees didn’t appear to remotely contemplate changing things up when they started going bad.
Freeman and Rees are young guys establishing themselves. They have a long way to go and should be allowed to find themselves even if that means you have a heartbreaking loss like the one in the Fiesta Bowl.
But we all know the pressure of coaching in South Bend. The mistakes and second-guessing will be in full force if the Irish can build upon the success Kelly built.
So as the Irish look to next season, the coaching staff will have a ton of work to do because it doesn’t get any easier on opening day when the travel to Columbus to play Ohio State.
