Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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BLUEGOLDONLINE.COM SEPT. 21, 2024 53 W hen Texas reconvened the morning of Sept. 9 after a 31-12 road win over Michigan, the defend- ing national champion, head coach Steve Sarkisian sat his players down and showed them a video. The Longhorns watched s e n i o r No r t h e r n I l l i n o i s kicker Kanon Woodill line up on the right hash for a 35-yard field goal attempt with 31 sec- onds to play in South Bend. They watched Irish fans in the stands slump back into their seats as the ball snuck inside the left upright. And they watched the Huskies storm onto Notre Dame's home field in jubilation. Sarkisian paused the video a n d a d d re sse d h i s tea m , which is preparing to host UTSA in Week 3. That, he ex- plained, can happen to them. "We've got a really good team, but we're entitled to nothing and we're go- ing to earn everything we get," Sarkisian said, according to Inside Texas. "We're going to have to earn the victory here Saturday." Sarkisian recognized the danger of facing a Group of Five opponent on the heels of a program-defining win. He knew every article, podcast and morn- ing show would be praising their efforts in Ann Arbor, Mich. "Rat poison," his former boss, Nick Saban, always called it. Consuming it leads to disaster. Back in South Bend, Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman admitted the Irish drank the rat poison. It cost them dearly in a 16-14 loss to NIU. "All of a sudden, we win [at Texas A&M] and everybody says, 'Hey, you're going to the playoffs. You've got an easy schedule,'" Freeman said. "We all hear it, and I think we started to believe that." It's a shocking admission, that Notre Dame essentially read its own press clippings. And it's a lesson the Irish should have learned in 2022, when that team lost at home to Marshall after a closer-than-expected Week 1 loss to Ohio State. Freeman said during the summer of 2023 on "The Pivot Podcast" with for- mer NFL players Ryan Clark, Fred Tay- lor and Channing Crowder that he ap- proached the Marshall game thinking, "We lost a tough one. We're good. We know we're going to beat Marshall. We know it. It's going to be my first win." This was, as Freeman pointed out, the first time his Irish won their pivotal game early in the season. "We have to learn how to handle success" was the line he used. But Notre Dame could have used its past self as an example, much like Texas did with the Irish. Instead, those who did not remember history were doomed to repeat it. "It's natural to see ESPN saying 'Hey, they're talking about the Notre Dame win over Texas A&M. Let's watch it,'" Freeman said. "But that doesn't help you mentally get prepared for this up- coming week." The Irish were not mentally prepared to face the Huskies, Freeman explained. It showed on the field. The third-year head coach rattled off the factors behind Notre Dame's loss, which in- cluded turnover margin (NIU 0, ND 2), explosive plays (six for 186 yards to five for 94), time of possession (34:38- 25:22), rushing yards (190- 123) and third-down conver- sions (6 of 16 to 3 of 10). Essentially, Freeman listed every meaningful way foot- ball games are decided, with the exception of passing ef- ficiency. And NIU crushed Notre Dame in that, too, 9.9- 4.9 in yards per attempt. This was not a fluke. The Huskies outplayed the Irish in almost every facet, and that can only happen when the latter is not mentally prepared for the former. "There is a physical ap- proach to preparing for a game, and I think physically, we prepared the right way," Freeman said. "But there's also a men- tal approach, a mindset that you have to have every single week. And I think that's where we failed." Notre Dame defensive coordinator Al Golden reminded Freeman that "prepa- ration has no opponent," and Golden's boss now seems to have the same mind- set. He discussed challenging his team to ready itself for each game the way it did for Texas A&M, albeit over a much shorter time span. "It's easy to listen to the good things," Freeman said. "Nobody wants to hear the bad things people say, but neither of them should matter. Your approach should be your approach. Your routine should be your routine. "And that's the challenge we have as a football program, is how do we handle success and make sure each week, we're approaching the opponent the right way?" All true, but the Irish should have known this before it hurt them. Time will tell if it's too little, too late. ✦ Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman said, "All of a sudden, we win [at Texas A&M] and everybody says, 'Hey, you're going to the playoffs. You've got an easy schedule. We all hear it, and I think we started to believe that." PHOTO BY MICHAEL MILLER Irish Caught Drinking The 'Rat Poison' Staff writer Jack Soble has covered Notre Dame athletics for Blue & Gold Illustrated since August 2023. Contact him at Jack.Soble@on3.com. OFF THE DOME JACK SOBLE