Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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BLUEGOLDONLINE.COM OCT. 19, 2024 29 I t only took a question consisting of a baker's dozen words, plus one, for Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman to provide the most passionate answer of his postgame press confer- ence following the Fighting Irish's 49-7 victory over Stanford. A reporter prefaced his question with the assertion that Freeman said Notre Dame's mission for the 2024 season was to fulfill its potential. Indeed, that's what Freeman said when asked about the end goal this year just over 48 hours before kickoff of the Stanford game. The reporter circled back with this — "how do you balance that mission with the ultimate goal of winning it all?" Fourteen words. Enough for Freeman to get fiery, in a good way. "You don't control the journey," he said. "You've got to trust the journey. That's what I tell these guys. "There's one guarantee; the future is uncertain. Why spend time daydream- ing about it? Why sit here and think about what's going to happen in the fu- ture when it's uncertain? Why don't you spend time focusing on the things that you have to do that gives you a chance to get that desired result?" For Notre Dame in Week 7, it was beat- ing up on a rival and keeping a piece of hardware in South Bend. That was more than the Irish were able to do against the Cardinal in 2022. Much more. That's what makes it feel like they're actually rounding a corner with Free- man at the helm. That's what makes it feel like despite a defeat with an iden- tical score, 16-14, to the home loss to Stanford two seasons ago coming in Week 2 against Northern Illinois this year, there is more trust in this journey than the up-and-down adventure Notre Dame was on in Freeman's first season as head coach. And more trust in this escapade than there was in last year's disappointing one, too, for that matter. Notre Dame has the same exact re- cord as it did a season ago. The season could easily go off the rails starting as soon as the next game against a solid Georgia Tech team capable of putting up a fight in the Peach State. Freeman knows as well as anyone the dangers of playing competent Atlantic Coast Conference opponents in their home states; look what happened at Louisville and at Clemson in 2023. He's taking credibility he's won back since the second week of the season with him down to Georgia, though, in addi- tion to a whole lot of momentum and a team that truly believes it's more like the program that beat Stanford by 42 as a 23-point favorite than the one that lost to NIU by two as a 28-point favorite. The Irish made mistakes against the Huskies. It happens. They've been rec- tifying them ever since. They'll remain in the College Football Playoff picture for as long as they keep doing so. Free- man firmly feels like it will continue on this way. "We're getting closer. We're getting closer," he said. "I told the team before the game, 'I know we're getting closer because the little things are becoming big things. "It's not about winning. It's about making sure that we improve as much as we can. I got a feeling this group is getting closer to reaching our full po- tential. Today was a big step in that, and we've got to continue to make sure we're taking steps forward." That's what the previous iterations of Freeman's Irish did not do. After right- ing the ship and winning three games in a row in 2022 after dropping the first two of that season to Ohio State and Mar- shall, Notre Dame lost to Stanford. After bouncing back from the gut-punch of a loss to Ohio State last year with an act of magic in an escape of Duke in Durham, Notre Dame lost to Louisville. Now the Irish have won four consecu- tive games after the Northern Illinois di- saster. Average margin of victory? 33.3 points, and that includes a seven-point win over then-No. 15 Louisville. They haven't tripped over another hurdle like they have in the past. There are six more in front of them inviting them to stum- ble, but they don't have to fall victim to one of those. The option of jumping over every one of them is very much a thing. That's the full potential Freeman is aiming for. 11-1. That's never been at- tainable at this point in the calendar in any year Freeman has been head coach; Notre Dame already had two losses by mid-October last year. Cue up "Staying Alive" by the Bee Gees. Every time the Irish win, that's exactly what they're doing. And cue up "Don't Stop Believin'" by Journey while we're at it. The belief builds with each win, too. ✦ The Fighting Irish have win four straight games by an average margin of 33.3 points per game. PHOTO BY MICHAEL MILLER Irish's Belief Keeps Intensifying With Each Win 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