Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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www.BLUEANDGOLD.com NOV. 19, 2022 5 N ov. 5, 2022, is a date that will long be remembered by Fighting Irish faithful. And rightfully so. It's not every Satur- day that Notre Dame knocks off a top-five foe in South Bend to elicit the storming of the hallowed grounds roamed by so many iconic coaches and players over the last century-plus. But that's the point. That's not supposed to happen very often. Notre Dame is Notre Dame. Fre- quently the hunted, seldom the hunter. There are instances in which a team can be both. That's the pre- ferred methodology, in fact. Look at Georgia of late. Even after forcefully taking the college football crown from Alabama last year, the then- No. 3 Bulldogs had to defend their home turf against No. 1 Tennessee — on the same day Notre Dame dis- patched No. 4 Clemson, no less. Georgia displayed the compo- sition of both the hunted and the hunter in easily handling the previ- ously undefeated Volunteers 27-13 to improve to 9-0, unequivocally coerc- ing voters in all three major sets of rank- ings to eschew any conversation of who should be the No. 1 team in the country. The Dawgs left no doubt. "The only storming of the field here is the Georgia players to go surround their quarterback and shake hands with the opposition," CBS play by play an- nouncer Brad Nessler said. That's the place Notre Dame needs to get back to. Georgia unquestionably had the big- ger triumph in comparing it to that of the Irish. But it was business as usual. Commend Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman for attempting to make his own dethroning of a top-five team as business-like as he could, too. Freeman was escorted off the field well before the rest of his players and coaches. He was up the tunnel before a large chunk of Notre Dame fans even made it onto the playing surface. Once his players and coaches joined him in the locker room, he addressed them as usual. With some heightened emotions, perhaps, but there was no fault in that. Freeman spoke to the media for 15 minutes as he normally does and then went on with his night — one that looked a lot different from that of most of the sellout crowd that was on hand for the monumental upset. "I told my wife, 'Get out. Take the kids home and put them to bed. I got film to watch,'" Freeman said. "That's my rou- tine. That's what I love to do. I can't go home and relax without watching the film. That's my way to decompress." That's a sign Notre Dame has the right man for the job. Freeman said the right things in that 15-minute session. He commended the resolve of his team. He lauded the commitment of the fans. Then he challenged Notre Dame to not let beating a top-five team as an unranked upstart be the pinnacle of the program. "It's one thing to say, 'Turn the page. Let's move on,'" Freeman said. "Another thing is your actions. Are you coaching with the same intensity that you have after a loss? They're going to look. They're going to compare. "'Hey, is he the same coach af- ter a win as he is after a loss?' You hope you're consistent in terms of your actions." Consistency in the operation will lead to consistency in results. For Notre Dame, that means more top-five triumphs — when the Irish are ranked themselves, not just when nobody is giving them a chance against one of the nation's premier programs. Notre Dame is a premier pro- gram. Always has been, always will be, even if it doesn't always play like one. There are two undertak- ings the Irish must set out for as the Freeman era pushes onward. One, avoid setbacks like dumb- founding home losses to Marshall and Stanford. Two, normalize wins in big games. Those advance- ments need to remain in lockstep. Sure, a harmonized marriage of them might do away with any fu- ture field storming. But that's just fine. Georgia fans were perfectly pleased with staying put in their seats to watch their Dawgs dap up Tennessee players and send them on the rocky road back to ol' Rocky Top. Georgia head coach Kirby Smart will not let his players lose sight of the vision even after such an emotional victory. Freeman is still learning how to han- dle both adversity and prosperity as a head coach, but it appears he's push- ing the right buttons and conveying the correct messages in the immediate af- termath of taking it to the Tigers. "I was like, 'Dang, did we win or lose?' I couldn't really tell because people were still practicing with an edge," sopho- more running back Audric Estime said three days removed from the win. "I feel like that's something we need to keep for the rest of the season." Indisputably. ✦ 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 is aiming for consistency in his approach with his players — to coach with the same intensity after a big win as after a loss. PHOTO BY CHAD WEAVER Irish Seek To Normalize Wins In Big Games