It seems like a lifetime since Marcus Freeman’s Fighting Irish squad was unprepared for the Northern Illinois game.
Since the loss, Notre Dame has been playing a playoff game every week where the couldn’t simply win. The Fighting Irish need to win with “style points.”
Notre Dame has only played one one-score game since the Northern Illinois game, which came against Louisville. There’s no shame in that. At the time, the Cardinals were ranked 15th in the country.
After that game, Stanford, Georgia Tech, Navy, Florida State, Virginia, and Army have all been freight-trained.
The final step will come at the LA Coliseum against USC. On paper, it should be another blowout, but something tells me the Trojans will not go down lightly. They never seem to when it’s a game that means something to Notre Dame.
So, Notre Dame fans, be prepared to sweat for four hours starting at 3:30 Eastern Time. I’m surprised it isn’t an 8 pm tip.
It will be interesting to see if Marcus Freeman feels the Fighting Irish need to win or if they need “style points” to solidify a home game.
If the game is called too tight, it could ensure that USC stays in it until the fourth quarter. If the game is called too loose, the Fighting Irish could be losing going into the fourth quarter. The approach takes more thought than the average fan realizes.
It can be argued that Freeman’s vision and recruiting set up the Fighting Irish to compete for the National Championship in this format over the next few seasons. It’s no secret that the biggest question for Notre Dame will be what to do with the quarterback position in the coming seasons. At some point, Freeman can’t keep having a transfer carpetbag the position for a season.
For now, Notre Dame making the playoff after making it more challenging than it had to be would be a good start for Freeman, but they still need to clear the last hurdle.
