Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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4 SEPT. 2, 2023 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED T o his credit, Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman did a masterful job in 2022 of keeping his program intact after an unthinkable home loss to Marshall dropped his No. 8 Irish to 0-2 on the season, and the rookie head coach to 0-3 to start his career. That home loss to the Thundering Herd as a three-touchdown favorite still rates as the lowest point at Notre Dame Stadium since the Irish lost four games there — including three of their final four — in 2016. Notre Dame rebounded and won three straight games last season before returning home and suffering another dismal upset loss to lowly Stanford to fall to 3-3 overall and 1-2 at home. Freeman stabilized things again and won six of his final seven games — in- cluding his final three at home — to close his first season a respectable 9-4. Forgive and forget? Yes, at least for now. But make no mistake, a repeat per- formance of 2022 at home won't bring the same level of patience or amnesty from the Fighting Irish fan base in 2023 as what Freeman was granted as a rookie head coach. The Irish went 4-2 at home last sea- son, and that's not going to work this year or any year moving forward for a program that talks a lot about College Football Playoff appearances and na- tional championships. Protecting home turf is a must for any elite program and one that Notre Dame guarded tightly under Brian Kelly, who won 30 of 31 games at Notre Dame Sta- dium over his final four-plus seasons as the Irish head coach. At one point during that stretch, Kelly won a modern-day record 26 straight games at home. That's the high home bar that Free- man needs to reach if he plans on reach- ing bigger goals. And it's a high bar that all the elite coaches at Notre Dame reached during their careers. • Lou Holtz won 19 straight home games from 1987 into the 1990 season and went undefeated or lost only one game at home seven times during his 11 years on the job, including a 7-0 mark at home during the 1988 national champi- onship season. • Ara Parseghian won 16 of his first 17 home games on the job from 1964 into the 1967 season, and only once dur- ing his 11 years at Notre Dame did Par- seghian lose more than one home game in any season. Parseghian went 5-0 at home during his title season in 1966. • And during his 11 seasons at Notre Dame, four-time national champion- ship head coach Frank Leahy went un- defeated at home seven times, and he won the first 20 games he ever coached at Notre Dame Stadium. Obviously, it's not fair to compare a second-year Notre Dame coach to these legendary Irish luminaries. But if Free- man wants to make good on his national championship plans, home losses won't be acceptable, especially of the upset variety such as Marshall and Stanford from last season. And running through the 2023 home schedule won't be easy. Tennessee State on Saturday will be an overmatched FCS opponent. But Notre Dame this week still had to re- cover from its 14 round-trip hours of flight time for the opener with Navy in Dublin, Ireland. Home game No. 2 comes against Cen- tral Michigan (Sept. 16). This is another opponent that should be outmanned — CMU finished only 4-8 last season — but that's what was being said about Marshall this time last year. Home games No. 3 and No. 4 are when Freeman will be most measured — the Irish face Associated Press preseason No. 3 Ohio State (Sept. 23) and No. 6 USC (Oct. 14) in the span of three weeks. After a bye week following the USC game, Pitt comes to Notre Dame Sta- dium Oct. 28. With its 20 wins over the last two seasons, the Panthers rank sec- ond only to Clemson (21) in the ACC for total victories in 2021-22. And finally, the Irish finish their six- game 2023 home schedule with Wake Forest on Nov. 18. With 11 wins in 2021 and eight in 2022, the Demon Deacons are third in the ACC in win total over the last two seasons (19). Notre Dame entered 2023 as winners of 28 straight games against ACC oppo- nents, but these are still two tough home outings. Surviving these six games at Notre Dame Stadium won't be an easy test for Freeman. However, it's one he needs to pass much better than last season … and for many seasons to come. ✦ If head coach Marcus Freeman wants to make good on his national championship plans, home losses won't be acceptable — especially of the upset variety such as Marshall and Stanford from last season. PHOTO BY CHAD WEAVER Notre Dame Must Protect Its House In 2023 UPON FURTHER REVIEW TODD D. BURLAGE Todd D. Burlage has been a writer for Blue & Gold Illustrated since July 2005. He can be reached at tburlage@blueandgold.com