Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1526670
BLUEGOLDONLINE.COM SEPT. 21, 2024 13 UNDER THE DOME "What makes Notre Dame's performance against NIU so eye-opening is the fact the Irish were seven days removed from a win at Texas A&M. After nine months of hype and build-up, the victory in Col- lege Station seemed to rubber-stamp Freeman's vision for the program. It was a proof-of-concept win. Or not. The loss to NIU not only likely dashed Notre Dame's playoff hopes, but like an abracadabra spell, made all the goodwill Freeman established just a week prior disappear. If the Irish don't make the 12-team CFP (with this season's schedule), then Freeman will enter the 2025 season on a scorching hot seat." — Jesse Simonton of On3 on whether the Notre Dame loss to NIU put head coach Marcus Freeman on the hot seat "Losses happen, right? SP+ gave Notre Dame a 97 percent chance of winning this game, but hey, that meant it would still lose 3 percent of the time. Multiple blocked kicks and a minus-2 turnover margin? Sounds like a prototypical 'stuff happens' game. But man, oh, man, it's hard to just leave it at that. After all, stuff has happened multiple times at Notre Dame Stadium since [Marcus] Freeman took over. … "If there's anything we've learned from this sea- son's early going, it's that teams can look com- pletely different from one week to the next. Maybe the Irish will go right back to looking like the top- five team it sure seemed they might be. But with a pretty weak schedule — there are only two more SP+ top-30 opponents on the Irish's schedule thanks to Florida State's early-season faceplant — they won't have many more opportunities to score marquee wins. If they finish 10-2, they'll be at the back of a line of two-loss teams, most of which will feature harder schedules and no loss as bad as this one. This was as devastating as a loss can be in Week 2 of a season with a 12-team playoff." — Bill Connelly of ESPN "On the preseason bingo card, absolutely no one had 'Notre Dame needing Northern Illinois' schedule strength for its College Football Playoff hopes.' But as it turns out, that may be the Fighting Irish's only path to a CFP berth. As bad as the loss was, if NIU wins the MAC, suddenly that's somewhat of a 'good' loss — at least more tolerable — if the Irish win out, which may actually be required. The remaining schedule contains exactly two currently ranked teams — Lou- isville and USC. "But the unwritten rules still apply. It's Notre Dame in the minds of the selection committee, so it will be given every consideration to get in the field. The committee won't say it, but they know it." — Dennis Dodd of CBS Sports "It's an overreaction to say Marcus Freeman is on the hot seat today, but it's not alarmist to wonder out loud where this is all heading. Notre Dame was a CFP- or-bust program this season. Now it probably needs to win out to make it. Next season the Irish may be rebuilding after the defensive roster turns over. "Freeman's inability to win the games he should win — now losing three times at home as at least a 16.5-point favorite — threatens to undermine his entire tenure. This season needed to be one where Freeman stopped being seen as a 'first-time head coach' at Notre Dame. Instead, it's been a harsh re- minder of that fact." — Pete Sampson of The Athletic "The more we watched film, the more we real- ized this is a beatable team. I'll take our O-line over anyone in the country." — NIU quarterback Ethan Hampton after beating Notre Dame (ESPN) "I think we were bigger than what they thought. We're not a normal MAC team, in my opinion. We're big on the offensive and defensive lines, and we're physical. I didn't look at it as a mismatch in that capacity." — NIU head coach Thomas Ham- mock after beating Notre Dame (Associated Press) Irish On Social Media PHOTO BY CHAD WEAVER "I'll spare you the 'We all love Marcus Freeman' because I think everybody that meets him does respect him a lot. But we're talking Notre Dame here. Something tells me Knute Rockne is rolling over in his grave somewhere after that game the other day, and it's that game on top of the other games. The Marshall game. The Stanford game. Countless other games." — Paul Finebaum of ESPN after Notre Dame's stunning loss to Northern Illinois THEY SAID IT THEY SAID IT