Notre Dame will spend their final bye week preparing for what they hope is a four-game sprint to a College Football Playoff birth.
The Fighting Irish have a three-game homestand before finishing the season in Los Angeles at USC.
For Notre Dame, the playoff run started after the unexpected loss to Northern Illinois.
Since that loss, the Fighting Irish have needed to win and garner style points. The voters have scrutinized Notre Dame each week. With teams like Indiana sporting an undefeated record, things are still complicated. If the Hoosiers lose to Ohio State and then win out, would a one-loss Indiana team get in before a one-loss Notre Dame team?
Marcus Freeman and the team are laser-focused on resetting and getting ready for the upcoming game against Florida State.
Mike Denbrock has found a formula to maximize Riley Leonard. It took some weeks, but Leonard looks as dangerous as ever right when Notre Dame needs him to be.
Freeman and the staff need to think long and hard about dipping into the portal to get a quarterback for a season. It’s fair to say it didn’t work with Sam Hartman, and there have been times when it didn’t look like it would work with Leonard. Remember that, with the 12-team playoff, Notre Dame’s path is trickier than that of others. There is little to no room for error for the Fighting Irish. Resetting one of the most, if not the most, important positions every season is a dangerous way to live.
Despite injuries, Al Golden has the defense firing on all circuits. It’s a credit to Golden’s coaching ability and Freeman’s recruiting.
There has been a lot of talk about how the more successful Notre Dame coaches have performed in year three, even though outside of Brian Kelly, it could be argued that the path was more manageable.
For Freeman, year three needs to be a playoff year, and this team has acted like it since the Northern Illinois loss.
