Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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www.BLUEANDGOLD.com SEPT. 24, 2022 5 H oneymoons have distinct endings. It's the foul odor of the guy next to you on a flight from Cabo to Chicago or the first time your alarm goes off on Monday morn- ing after a week of sleeping in until nearly noon with breezy, slightly salty air coming through a set of free-flowing curtains. College football coaches don't al- ways get those rude reality checks. Ohio State's Ryan Day, for ex- ample, might still feel like he's deep-sea fishing off the coast of the Bahamas with a 36-4 start to his head coaching career. Lincoln Riley went 55-10 in five seasons at Oklahoma and was re- warded with a move to USC, where he's making more money, securing better recruits and literally breath- ing ocean air daily. Marcus Freeman's alarm clock went off at 5:55 p.m. ET on Sept. 10, meanwhile. That's when his Notre Dame Fighting Irish lost to unranked Marshall. That's when he became the first head coach in Notre Dame history to start a tenure 0-3. That's when his honeymoon ended. Freeman could do no wrong from the end of the winter, through the spring and into the summer. Notre Dame rose to No. 1 in the class of 2023 recruiting rank- ings, a place as foreign to the Irish pro- gram as some honeymoon destinations are to infrequent travelers who feel the urge to splurge on a once in a lifetime trip. Every time news came out of South Bend, it was for the right reasons. Like when Freeman said he was bringing back pregame Mass in the Basilica of the Sacred Heart or when he was a part of a block-busting social media video with junior tight end Michael Mayer and senior defensive end Isaiah Foskey. The trio flew to Las Vegas to film a jersey reveal for Notre Dame's upcoming Sham- rock Series game against BYU Oct. 8 at Al- legiant Stadium. It was set to the theme of "The Hangover," an American pop culture movie phenomenon that resonates with so many people regardless of age gaps. That's what Freeman does best. He's been able to turn the tide in Notre Dame recruiting for the better because he relates to the student-athletes them- selves and also their parents. He has the young Notre Dame student body on board with his vision, and he's captivated the elderly alumni as well. Everyone in between cannot get enough either. Most importantly, he wears the sup- port of his current players on his sleeve. He'd be nothing without them. He probably wouldn't have the job without them. The connection he has created with those who don golden helmets on Saturdays is special. It's also what made his 0-3 start so difficult to swallow. "It feels like a dream to me or a bad nightmare, but it has to go in the right direction," graduate student linebacker Bo Bauer said. "I'm at a loss for words with these questions just because if you could see every day how these people treat each other and how close this family really is compared to how it was when I first got here and how different things are, it would make no sense to you either." But what if that's actually what makes the most sense of all? There was always an element of "too good to be true" during Free- man's first offseason at the helm. Nobody can monopolize the na- tional narrative in his favor that much without things going awry, right? Right. Freeman's slick white Vans aren't as cool now as they were when he was 0-1 with only a loss in the Fi- esta Bowl without his two best players on either side of the ball. People got over that in a hurry. But there is less of a propensity to fawn over his suave faded hair and blacked out shades now than there was even a month ago. None of that is to say Freeman is doomed at Notre Dame. He could still win, and he could still win big. But if he does, it won't be because the entire locker room erupted, jumped around and cheered when he was introduced as the team's head coach for the first time. It'll be because those same players who were a part of that scene have been instructed by Freeman and his assis- tants how to go out and win ballgames weekend in and weekend out. Bauer shouldn't be perplexed that Notre Dame didn't get off to a strong start in 2022 on the grounds of the bonds with his brothers being too tight to fail. Ultimately, that has much less to do with winning and losing than Freeman having what it takes to run an in-season operation smoothly and ef- fectively. He might come to find that's much more difficult than creating a cul- ture and winning an offseason. It's as hard as getting on that plane headed to Chicago. ✦ GOLDEN GAMUT TYLER HORKA Tyler Horka has been a writer for Blue & Gold Illustrated since July 2021. He can be reached at thorka@blueandgold.com Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman won the offseason, but he's quickly learning that winning football games in the fall is a different deal. PHOTO BY CHAD WEAVER Comradery Does Not Equate To Wins