Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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BLUEGOLDONLINE.COM FEBRUARY 2023 11 UNDER THE DOME "I feel like getting hurt wasn't the worst thing that could have ever happened to me. I've learned a lot from it. I've become a better person. I've become a smarter football player." — Notre Dame sopho- more quarterback Tyler Buchner "There's been a lot of trash talking at my house lately. I mean, even my friends are all South Carolina fans. So, there's just been a lot of trash talk, a lot of stuff going around, but I've been telling them all, 'Go Irish.'" — Notre Dame freshman linebacker Jaylen Sneed — a native of Hil- ton Head, S.C. — on the three-plus weeks leading up to the Gator Bowl Dec. 30 "If you really have great people around you, you kind of elevate yourself to hold that standard. With him being here for two years, I feel I've forced myself the best I possibly could 24/7 because Mike is doing it, so I have to do it. You can't have a letdown because you're only as strong as your weakest link." — Notre Dame sophomore tight end Mitchell Evans on All- American Michael Mayer "Marcus Freeman and @NDFootball DIDN'T BLINK when they started 0-2. When adversity struck, we learned that Marcus Freeman is one of the best Coaches in the Country. He was UNFAZED when the kitchen got hot. He just coached his butt off leading his team to 9-4 and a bowl game win." — ESPN ana- lyst Robert Griffith III via Twitter after Notre Dame's 45-38 win over South Carolina in the Gator Bowl "The fact [Marcus] Freeman had three top-15 prospects on the hook in his first full cycle is evi- dence of how close he got Notre Dame to a historic class. And the fact Notre Dame will still finish with its best class in a decade supports that belief. "… If Notre Dame can keep recruiting as well as Freeman has recruited, signing top-10 classes over and over again, the five-star solution might be the transfer portal. If you can't sign Peyton Bowen, would another year of Brandon Joseph work? If you can't sign Dante Moore, would a season of Sam Hartman or Grayson McCall suffice? I'm not saying any of this is best practice for running a college football program. The sport is in crisis management mode at the moment. There is no 'best practice.' But in terms of how Notre Dame can make the best of the sport's current state, I'd combine Freeman's recruiting style — keep chasing five-star prospects like this year — with a harder lean into the transfer portal." — The Athletic's Pete Sampson "It wasn't the smoothest transition season for Mar- cus Freeman, but the first-year Irish coach navigated losing his starting quarterback early in the season to finish 8-4 [prior to the Gator Bowl]. Notre Dame suf- fered stunning losses to Marshall and Stanford, but it won eight of nine games before dropping its season- finale to rival USC. If the Irish were in the ACC — wins over Syracuse, North Carolina and Clemson — Free- man might've competed for a conference title. "Despite a frustrating finish to the early signing period, Freeman proved his chops as one of the best head coach recruiters, landing the nation's No. 8 class in his first full cycle." — On3's Jesse Simonton on giving Marcus Freeman a B grade for his first season as head coach at Notre Dame "I'm really proud of this group for stepping up. What I learned is that we do have a lot of resilience and a lot of toughness. That's something we've been talking about. It's something that we're stressing, especially defensively. But to see it for 40 minutes, I'm so proud as a coach. You never know the moments until you're in it. I feel like we really grew up today." — Notre Dame women's basket- ball head coach Niele Ivey after her team rallied in the fourth quarter for a 63-52 win at No. 6 and previously unbeaten Virginia Tech Dec. 18 THEY SAID IT THEY SAID IT "The injuries come and go, but the memories, those last forever." — Graduate student left guard JARRETT PATTERSON on not opting out of the Gator Bowl PHOTO BY CHAD WEAVER TOP TWEETS