Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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BLUEGOLDONLINE.COM SEPT. 7, 2024 31 I f you had to pick which col- lege football head coaches would be most fit to survive a few rounds in a cage match, 38-year-old Marcus Freeman would make the short list. That is, if the fight wasn't scheduled immediately after a beleaguer- ing, brutal bout between Texas A&M and his Notre Dame Fight- ing Irish. Then he'd be fortunate to last 30 seconds. "I'm exhausted," Freeman said with the first two words of his postgame press conference at Kyle Field. "I'm absolutely ex- hausted." He had every right to be after No. 7 Notre Dame's 23-13 vic- tory. Exhaustion earned. Some- times it's not, like when there are inexplicably 10 men on the field for the most important play of a game. Or when an inferior ACC roster scores 16 straight fourth-quarter points to put a game that could have been won frus- tratingly out of reach. Or when another ACC team that dropped two games in a row going in scores 24 of the game's first 30 points after not hitting that number in either of its previous three outings. This was not the Ohio State loss. Or the Louisville loss. Or the Clemson loss. This was the Texas A&M win, a new level unlocked for Freeman. Dead- locked in a 13-all tie deep into the fourth quarter, Freeman's team was the one that found a way to win — and ended up doing so rather comfortably considering the circumstances. Previous iterations of Freeman's Irish might not have had the mettle for the moment. They might've caved like they did against Marshall and Stanford in 2022. Or they might've just not been up to the task of taking on a ranked op- ponent on the road, like they weren't against Ohio State and USC in that same season. This is 2024, though, and this is not the same Notre Dame. This Notre Dame heard over a 100,000 people belt the chorus of "Mo Bamba" by Sheck Wes, Aggie fans all over zealously pondering the possibility of a program-launch- ing victory over the top-10 Irish, and punched back with knockout power. There was not a more striking se- quence of signaling to Texas A&M and college football in general that Notre Dame is actually for real than when the Irish forced an Aggie three-and-out then promptly drove 85 yards in eight plays to take the lead with 1:54 remaining. Stringing together winning events, especially when they involve both sides of the ball functioning in complimen- tary fashion, was a difficult endeavor for Notre Dame in the not-so-distant past. Getting over that hump, chiefly if becomes commonplace, represents a major milestone in the Freeman era. "To have it go the way it did, you say it's going to be a four-quarter game, it's going to come down to the very last minute, it's never fun when it goes that way, but I'm proud of how we finished," Freeman said. "It shows that we got a dang good football team." A playoff-worthy football team, perhaps. It's not farfetched to believe. It still wouldn't have been completely outlandish to hypothesize about the CFP if the Irish didn't win considering the 12-team format, but it would have been a broken record if the Irish had to play games wonder- ing if their season would effec- tively be over with another loss. Notre Dame only survived one week in that scenario last year. The loss to the Buckeyes was a big but not fatal blow. The comeback win over Duke was a season saver for the time being. The loss to Louisville was the backbreaker. No backs broken Aug. 31 in College Station. Well, none from anyone wearing blue and gold, for that matter. Freeman can't speak for those donning maroon. It wasn't his job to send them home happy. Quite the op- posite, in fact, and job well done. Job well done by all involved, from Notre Dame's defensive players and coaches who picked up right where they left off after last year's top-five season to the Irish's offensive players and coaches who came together in the clutch and delivered 10 unanswered fourth-quarter points in a span of 86 seconds to seal the win. To do it on the road against a foe with a numeral next to its name made it all the more meaningful. Freeman had beaten ranked teams before, and even done so on the road twice, but not all victories of that nature come with the same amount of prestige. This one cer- tainly provided more of it than getting by Syracuse and Duke, and it provided a sense of self belief for future matchups of this magnitude as well. "We're Notre Dame," sophomore safety Adon Shuler said. "We feel like we can compete with anybody. We showed that today." ✦ Marcus Freeman picked up his third road win over a ranked opponent in as many seasons as the man at the helm of the Fighting Irish. PHOTO BY CHAD WEAVER Freeman Answers The Bell In His Best Road Win Yet Tyler Horka has been a writer for Blue & Gold Illustrated since July 2021. He can be reached at thorka@blueandgold.com GOLDEN GAMUT TYLER HORKA