Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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BLUEGOLDONLINE.COM SEPT. 14, 2024 31 M arcus Freeman's open- ing statement in his postgame press confer- ence after a staggeringly stun- ning 16-14 Notre Dame loss to NIU in South Bend spanned roughly 80 seconds. He had to wait about 50 percent of that time just to answer his first question from a reporter. No, the writer didn't babble in his delivery and take 40 seconds to spit it out. It was actually this very scribe who asked about settling for a 62- yard Mitch Jeter field goal to attempt to try to take the game back from the upset-hungry Huskies in the literal last sec- onds of the game. And it only took seven seconds, thank you very much. A far shorter time than it took for Jeter's kick to bound into the outstretched arms of an NIU player who sealed the unbelievable upset. Freeman had to wait half a minute plus those seven seconds for the Fight- ing Irish marching band to play its way out of the north end zone tunnel at Notre Dame Stadium and into the gaze of Touchdown Jesus, where plenty of unhappy fans sporting blue and gold were plodding around drumming up their next move for an evening that was supposed to be so much more joyous and carefree than it was. What's Freeman's next move, mean- while? What does he do now that his Notre Dame Fighting Irish have lost as a heavy home favorite for the third time in as many years during his tenure? Let's play a game of which was the worst, shall we? Is it looking completely competent against an Ohio State team that was a field goal attempt away from accom- plishing something much more mean- ingful in 2022 — having the chance to play for a national championship — then coming home and losing to 20.5-point underdog Marshall? Or is it rattling off three straight victories in that same season then laying a complete egg in a 16-14 loss to 16.5-point under- dog Stanford? Score sound familiar? Yeah. Yes it does. This 16-14 loss might take the cake. Freeman said it best in that 80-sec- ond opening statement; Notre Dame has been here before. But "here" is not a good place. Losing multiple times as a multiple-score favorite is a bad place. A very, very bad place. This time, it's the worst place. This might actually be a new spot for Freeman and Co. Maybe Notre Dame hasn't been here before with him at the helm. This particular deflating disaster came after everyone thought Free- man had exorcised another unfriendly demon — not showing up on the road against a quality opponent. Notre Dame muscled out a 23-13 victory over then- No. 20 Texas A&M and did so by as- suredly and assertively being the better team that night, even in front of well over 100,000 people as unfriendly as the metaphorical demon itself. Notre Dame did get the big road win and set itself up for a magical season in the process. All the Irish had to do was return home and play in front of over 77,000 who wouldn't dare say a rude word to anyone playing for or coach- ing their favorite football team. Or would they? Boo birds were out en masse when the Irish went to the locker room down 13-7 at half- time. They were even louder when the Irish made the same sad slog up the tunnel after solemnly singing the alma ma- ter. Unpleasantries descended in the direction of all of them. Freeman vowed in the post- game presser to fix Notre Dame's problems, but that itself is the problem — los- ing games like this. And the fix isn't stringing a few wins together over equally inferior foes just to say, "Hey, look, we did it." No you didn't. We shouldn't be sitting here writ- ing the word "problem" twice in one sentence. That would have been avoided if Notre Dame would have just won the football game by any margin, let alone the 28 points Vegas oddsmakers and bettors across America thought the Irish would win by. So here they are again, having to prove to people they're not the team that let their guard down and got embarrassed on national TV by a team that got paid over a million dollars just for the right to step on the field with them. Yes, Coach Freeman, you have been here before. And coaches who make a habit of inhabiting "here" usually lose the right to even try avoiding that sce- nario altogether. "This is as low as it gets, and there's only one option for me and that's to get back to work and get it fixed," Freeman said. "That's who I am, and that's who this team is going to be. That's the way I'm going to lead; I'm not going into hiding. I'm going to get it fixed." ✦ Notre Dame has lost three games as a double-digit home favorite in as many seasons in the Marcus Freeman era, with NIU being the latest example. PHOTO BY MICHAEL MILLER Making A Habit Of The Wrong Thing 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