Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1530431
4 JANUARY 2025 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED O ut of habit, when many of us long- time Blue & Gold Illustrated read- ers first open our new magazine, we'll skip over the features and other news items at first and jump right to the back page to read Lou Somogyi's "Best Of The Fifth Quarter" column. Our esteemed senior editor's un- matched wisdom graced that page for al- most 40 years before his passing in April 2021. Out of tribute and demand, we re- served Somogyi's back page for him after his passing, and we fill it each edition with one of his classic columns that fit the current state of Irish football affairs. And Somogyi's previous column from the Playoff Bound edition titled "After Year 3, What You See Is Often What You Get" perfectly hit the mark. "Generally, you will find that a coach's winning percentage at Notre Dame after Year 3 isn't dramatically altered throughout the duration of his career," Somogyi wrote in 2004. "And when you are at a tradition-rich pro- gram that ranks among the top 10 in history — Notre Dame, USC, Alabama, Oklahoma, Texas, et al. — evidence is needed by Year 3 to make the fan base and administration truly believe 'We've hit the jackpot with this coach.'" Well, using Somogyi's theory as the foundation of this story, Notre Dame appears to have absolutely hit the jack- pot with head coach Marcus Freeman. The Irish skipper is 30-8 in his three full seasons on the job for an impres- sive .789 winning percentage, which compares favorably alongside any other Notre Dame head coach through three seasons. And Freeman's team didn't just beat its opponents during this regular sea- son, it throttled 'em, in all facets of the game. Notre Dame finished the regular sea- son ranked No. 4 nationally in scoring offense (39.8 points per game) and No. 3 in scoring defense (13.6 points allowed per game). For perspective, in the last 75 years since 1949, Notre Dame has finished a season ranked in the top 10 nationally in both scoring offense and scoring de- fense only five times. Freeman is poised to do it two years in a row in 2024 after his Irish finished seventh in the country in most points scored (39.2) and seventh in fewest points allowed (15.9) in 2023. Freeman has beaten 11 ranked oppo- nents, the most by any Irish head coach in program history through three sea- sons. His squad beat six bowl-eligible teams this year, tying for the most such wins in the country. And also under Freeman, Notre Dame begins the play- offs with a scoring margin of plus-26.3 points per game, which leads the nation. A 10-game winning streak to finish this season, first- and second-year Irish players starting and making plays all over the field, all with a roster that's so deep and talented that Notre Dame seamlessly survived several key injuries without a hiccup. And lest we forget, Freeman just inked the 12th-best recruiting class in the country. Simply put, Notre Dame's football program under Freeman is as healthy as it has been since Lou Holtz coached here, and there is no reason to believe this Irish team isn't good enough to beat all comers in the College Football Playoff field, and that Freeman has a chance to join Holtz, Dan Devine, Ara Parseghian and Frank Leahy as third- year Irish skippers to win a national championship. The one major difference is that all of those former Irish greats came to Notre Dame with previous head coaching ex- perience, while this is Freeman's first stop at the top. Staying true to form, Freeman — who should be a strong can- didate for National Coach of the Year — passed all the praise from this terrific regular season onto his players and as- sistants as they collectively waited for their playoff opponent to be unveiled. "It's really been great as an entire football program to be able to just reset a little bit," Freeman said of some extra time off after the USC victory. "… This has been a really important week." I predicted in the preseason that this Notre Dame team was so talented and its schedule so favorable that it would make the CFP, win two games in it and set a single-season program record with 13 victories. I'm standing by it. And I'm also standing by Somogyi's third-year theory for an Irish head coach, and already proclaiming that Notre Dame hit the jackpot with the hiring of Freeman. ✦ Freeman has compiled a 30-8 record (.789 winning percentage) in his first three seasons at the helm of Notre Dame's program. PHOTO BY CHAD WEAVER Todd D. Burlage has been a writer for Blue & Gold Illustrated since July 2005. He can be reached at tburlage@blueandgold.com. UPON FURTHER REVIEW TODD D. BURLAGE Notre Dame 'Hit The Jackpot' With Marcus Freeman