At the end of Notre Dame’s loss to USC, there was an empty feeling to how the regular season ended.
It’s been a topsy-turvy ride since Notre Dame Brian Kelly took on a fake southern accent and headed LSU.
In stepped Marcus Freeman. A young coach who looks and sounds the part. He’s a masterful recruiter who made a splash on the recruiting trail 15 minutes after getting the head job.
Everything seemed like aces. Freeman was taking over a program that had gotten used to 10 win seasons and, he could surely replicate it… right.
The season started with a respectable loss to Ohio State and then the wheels came off. Losses to the likes of Marshall and Stanford had Irish detractors gleefully celebrating and Irish fans questioning the hire.
After that the Irish got on track. Blowing out UNVL and beating a Syracuse team that was playing well. Destroying Clemson hat home was something Kelly couldn’t do.
Then you saw the letdown again. A great first half against Navy turned into a ‘barely hung on’ game. Yes, they beat up a terrible Boston College team after that but how could you take that serious.
Up next was USC and a defining game. Fair or unfair, how far Freeman’s first year as the Irish head coach was going to be measured by a resurgent Trojan program.
The trip to LA exposed Freeman’s biggest mistake as a first year coach. His failure to go in the portal and get a quarterback ensured this team wasn’t going to reach the 10-win plateau. There was a reason Kelly reached for Jack Coan.
Was Coan the most electric quarterback? No. But he was a competent, veteran quarterback from a fellow Power 5 conference.
By choice, Freeman came into the season comfortable with Tyler Buchner and Drew Pyne.
Mind you, when the staff took over, they inexplicably didn’t play Buchner in the bowl game loss to Oklahoma State despite knowing he would be the starter coming into the season.
When Buchner went down, it took a few games to find Pyne’s strength on how the Irish would navigate its offense.
One could argue that Pyne played his best game of the season against the Trojans. He finished the game 23-26 for a career-high 318 yards and one game-crippling fumble.
He’s not the reason the Irish lost but he’s the reason that Notre Dame couldn’t win a shootout with USC. In the first half, when USC was clearly outplaying Notre Dame, the Irish could use a quarterback that could make a play. A play that would put the team back on the rails. By no fault of his, that’s just not who Pyne is.
Notre Dame watched helplessly as USC had that quarterback. The Irish defense time and time again missed tackles. It’s why blaming Al Golden seems a little off. Yes, you can get on Golden for the 3-3-5 look but there were times that the Irish were there and simply didn’t make the tackle.
But there was one thing clear… the difference was the quarterback. It’s why Notre Dame needs to go in the portal and find another one.
With a veteran quarterback, the Irish could easily be 10-2, 11-1. Those are numbers they weren’t going to achieve with any type of combination of Buchner and Pyne.
Next season is an important one for Freeman. He’s a young, first time coach at Notre Dame. He can’t sit still.
