Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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BLUEGOLDONLINE.COM APRIL/MAY 2026 53 C ollege football coaches love to complain. T h ey co m p l a i n a b o u t the calendar, which they created. They complain about NIL and the transfer portal. Most of all, espe- cially since it expanded to 12 teams in 2024, they complain about the College Football Playoff. Specifi- cally, they complain about its se- lection committee, which often struggles with explaining the logic behind its choices. Few had more cause to com- plain this offseason than Notre Dame head coach Marcus Free- man. The committee told the Irish that they were in until sud- denly, with no additional data points, they weren't. Freeman was as stunned as anyone when it happened, telling his team that he had no explanation for the snub. But while Notre Dame certainly did its fair share of protesting, led by athletics director Pete Bevac- qua, Freeman stayed mostly si- lent in the weeks that followed. But when he spoke to reporters in Janu- ary, he didn't complain. Instead, he in- troduced Notre Dame's mantra for the 2026 season: "Leave no doubt." And this spring, between his media tour on various YouTube shows and March 18 press conference, Freeman made sure the college football world was perfectly clear on his thoughts on the matter. In his eyes, the Irish should blame no one for the way their 2025 season ended than themselves. They left their fate in the hands of the committee. They left their national title hopes to chance. They left doubt. "It is so easy to blame somebody," Free- man said Wednesday. "That's human nature. Let's blame the CFP committee. Let's blame X, Y and Z for what hap- pened. But when we own it and we say, 'You know what? We left doubt. We left doubt. We sleep in the bed that we made, that we left doubt that we should be in the playoffs,' then I think you can use it." He's absolutely right. And that is so refreshing, for so many reasons. To steal a line from BGI's Mike Singer, when you lose your second game, you lose the right to complain. You either hope there aren't too many one, two or zero-loss teams to fill up the bracket, or you hope that a group of people rely- ing on a hodgepodge of arbitrary metrics and/or making things up as they go along like you more than the other contenders. As sleazy, illogical and seemingly made-for-TV as the committee's pro- cess and logic were, that's reality. Notre Dame lost its first two games to Miami and Texas A&M, and no matter how good the Irish looked from that point on — and they looked really, really good — that 0-2 start represented lost ground from which they couldn't recover. Freeman knows that. And instead of focusing on the "life is unfair" portion of last December's outcome, he figured out a way to channel it into making sure 2026 is different. "You can use it in motivation," Free- man said. "You can use it in terms of everyday struggles. So, that's kind of the mindset of the thought process of when I kind of said that, but I want them to use it today. You left no doubt that you made the most of this opportunity you had today. Remember, we had football school today. You leave no doubt that you were the best version of yourself today." Freeman is an elite motivator. If you choose the "motivator" ar- chetype for your coach in a Col- lege Football 26 dynasty, you'll see a picture of the fifth-year Notre Dame head coach screaming from the sideline. But what separates Freeman from the typical "rah rah" guy — though he has plenty of that in his back pocket if he needs it — is his ability to look inward. When something bad happens to Notre Dame football, Freeman will never blame someone else. As the head coach, he's ultimately re- sponsible. He'll look for lessons to learn, process to change and means to improve. In doing so, he instills the same mindset in his players. So many of them improve over the course of a game, a season and a career, because they see their head coach liv- ing by that. And as Freeman explained Wednesday, they can use that "leave no doubt" mindset to achieve their per- sonal goals, too. "Why am I not playing? You left doubt," Freeman said. "Why am I not the starter? You left doubt. Leave no doubt. We're not going to make the decision. You make the decision. Leave no doubt in decisions that need to be made. And so, I think we can use that as individuals. We can use that as a team. We can use that in life. Leave. No. Doubt. It's up to us. It's up to me, not up to somebody else." To drive that last "leave no doubt" line home, the side of Freeman's hand hit the lectern as he said each word. If it helped Notre Dame take full advantage of a practice, he might strap on a pair of shoulder pads himself. ✦ Marcus Freeman Continues To Prove He's Different 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 With his "leave no doubt" mantra, Freeman has showed once again why he's the right leader for Notre Dame. PHOTO BY MICHAEL MILLER