Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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4 OCT. 7, 2023 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED N otre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman likes to use a comparison that being a football head coach is much like being a wrestler. When things go sideways and a coach or a wrestler loses, the blame falls squarely on their shoulders. There is nobody else to point the finger at. Freeman's analogy came up after Notre Dame's 17-14 loss to Ohio State Sept. 23, in which a comedy of errors helped the Buckeyes put together a 15-play, 65-yard drive that ended on a touchdown run with one second left on the clock. Within that decisive drive, the Irish defense allowed Ohio State to pick up a third-and-10, a third-and-7, a fourth- and-7 and a third-and-19. Meanwhile, Notre Dame struggled at one point during the drive just to get a defensive play called and had to use its final precious timeout to clear things up. It also dropped an interception on the drive that would've put the game on ice. And finally, the Irish defense inex- plicably played the final two plays of the drive with only 10 men on the field, including when Ohio State punched in its 1-yard game-winning touchdown run right at the spot where the missing Irish lineman should've been. "We did not know," Freeman admitted of the missing defensive lineman. "By the time we noticed it in the last play, it was too late to do anything about it." What made the sequence even more troubling wasn't necessarily that Notre Dame only had 10 men on the field, but that Ohio State substituted be- fore the winning play, which gave the Irish coaches ample time to recognize the player shortage and get their lineup properly set. They didn't. "We as a coaching staff should be held to the exact same standards that we tell our players," Freeman explained. "You can't get caught watching the game. … We all have to own that and make sure that never happens again." Freeman repeatedly fell on his sword all of last week answering the persis- tent questions about what went wrong against No. 6 Ohio State when No. 9 Notre Dame was poised to claim what perhaps could've been considered the program's biggest win since it beat No. 1 Florida State 30 years ago. "Ultimately it falls on me," Freeman explained after the game. "That's the reality. I'm not going to get up here and say this person should have done that. Ultimately, I have to do a better job as the head coach to make sure those sys- tems we have in place are executed." If there's one particular takeaway from the Ohio State loss, it's that Free- man still has a lot to learn on his job un- der a white-hot spotlight. And many of those lessons can only come with more game experience. It's evident that Freeman is much more capable and comfortable on the job this season compared to when he muddled through a 3-4 start to begin his head coaching career. That said, Freeman still has only 20 games under his belt as a head coach. Brian Kelly had coached in 230 games when he was hired at Notre Dame, and Lou Holtz had coached 199 games when he came to South Bend. Additionally, these two former Irish skippers had a chance to make their mistakes and suffer their 10-men-on- the-field snafus while cutting their coaching teeth when essentially nobody was watching. Kelly's first head coaching job was at Grand Valley State. Holtz started at William & Mary. Freeman gets to make his mistakes and flatten his learning curve in front of millions of people each week. Was Freeman's lack of experience solely to blame for the defensive and coaching missteps against Ohio State? Of course not. But the challenge for him now is to learn the necessary manage- ment lessons without actually losing more games during this difficult stretch of the schedule. Given the potential playoff implica- tions that this top-10 matchup with Ohio State provided and how the end of the game went down, this loss is going to be talked about for decades to come if Notre Dame narrowly misses a CFP berth this season, and that's a rough burden for any coach to carry. "It hurts. I forgot the pain of los- ing," Freeman said. "It's a physical pain that takes time to get through. You get through it. Time heals everything." True, but time doesn't necessarily fix everything. ✦ Freeman took over as the head coach at Notre Dame with zero experience in that role. Brian Kelly, with 230 games as a head coach, and Lou Holtz with 199, were very seasoned when they began their tenures as the Irish's leader. PHOTO BY CHAD WEAVER Marcus Freeman Is Still Learning On The Fly 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