Marcus Freeman still hasn’t mastered the most underrated aspect of coaching football at an elite college: beating the teams you’re supposed to beat.
The Notre Dame coach can now add a surprise home loss on Saturday 28-point underdog Northern Illinois to a resume that already includes a home loss to Marshall and a Stanford team that was in the midst of a 3-9 season in 2022.
“We’ve seen this before,” Freeman told reporters.
In a way, yes. This is much worse.
This is Freeman’s third year leading the Fighting Irish. At 38, he’s still a young coach, but inexperience is no longer an excuse. Neither for Freeman nor for his team.
“It’s our job as coaches to make sure these guys are ready. I’ve always said that performance is a reflection of preparation,” he said.
Notre Dame entered Week 2 ranked fifth after a good road win over Texas A&M and looked like a team with perhaps the most feasible path to the College Football Playoffs in the country – starting with a home game against a team from the Mid-American Conference.
The Fighting Irish scored a touchdown on their first touch of the ball and scored only one more time during the day, a hurdle touchdown run by Jeremiyah Love in the third quarter that gave them a 14-13 lead.
For a while it looked like it would be enough, but new quarterback Riley Leonard, who came over from Notre Dame, and the offense couldn’t get anything done. When Leonard threw a horrific short interception that put the Huskies in position at halftime with about six minutes left, you could almost feel the fear creeping up under Touchdown Jesus.
Even with the help of some pretty obvious refereeing errors in the final minute – a misplaced ball cost NIU a first down and then the referees forgot to start the clock after a measurement – the Irish couldn’t get it done in the end.
Northern Illinois had a 102-yard lead over Notre Dame, was better on third down, and held the ball nearly 10 minutes longer.
“We’re 1-1. We have to accept that. But we have a long season ahead of us,” safety Xavier Watts told reporters.
But how?
Freeman was hired with much enthusiasm when Brian Kelly left for LSU. Yes, he was a first-time head coach, but he seemed to be the opposite of Kelly in every way.
He connected with players and fans in a way that Kelly never did. He was present, passionate and charismatic.
Kelly won more games over the course of 12 years than any other coach in Notre Dame’s illustrious history, but he was never particularly popular in South Bend.
It took Kelly several years to find the recipe for success at Notre Dame, and he suffered many such losses early on against teams like Tulsa, Navy and South Florida.
In 2017, things clicked for Kelly and the Irish went on to seven straight 10-win seasons and two four-team playoff appearances. Kelly’s criticism was that his teams couldn’t win the most important games or compete with the very best teams.
But in the games he was supposed to win, he delivered a clean performance and the Irish fans couldn’t help but praise him.
It’s not the most attractive trait in a college football coach, but avoiding becoming the biggest headline of the weekend by losing to a huge underdog keeps the peace.
According to Chris Fallica of Fox Sports, there have been 28 losses by a home favorite by at least 16 points in college football since 2022. Three of those losses have come from Freeman’s teams.
The hope was that Freeman would take the Irish to a level that Kelly never reached. Year three is historically a big year for Notre Dame coaches, filled with national titles and championship game appearances.
By all accounts, this was Freeman’s highest potential team — although we may have underestimated the problems that a completely rebuilt offensive line would bring. Still, that must not be exposed in the home opener against the MAC team.
“Yeah, it’s terrible, but Game 2. We’ve got at least 10 games left,” Notre Dame defensive tackle Howard Cross said.
He’s right. The 12-team College Football Playoff is a game-changer this year, but Notre Dame was already in danger of facing intense scrutiny from the selection committee because of a schedule that didn’t seem particularly packed.
Maybe that will change. Louisville is ranked 22nd. No. 13 USC is off to a good start after beating Kelly’s LSU team.
Feels like an exaggeration.
“We have to own this. Every coach. Every person here. We all have to own this,” Freeman said.
Oh, you definitely will.
Michigan’s miss
One could say Texas beats No. 10 Michigan was decided in the first half, but in reality it was probably decided last December when the Wolverines decided not to transfer.
To be fair, Michigan was well on its way to winning a national title with Jim Harbaugh as head coach, and anyone with an internet connection knew he was most likely returning to the NFL.
Not exactly an ideal start to the process of rebuilding a roster that was about to send more than a dozen players to the NFL.
Still, in this era of free agency in college football, it’s hard to believe that new Michigan coach Sherrone Moore entered a season with this quarterback situation.
Davis Warren is a great story: a cancer survivor who is doing better than your typical walk-on, but right now he doesn’t look like a player who should start for a team considered a playoff contender.
Alex Orji seemed to be the designated successor to first-round draft pick JJ McCarthy, despite having thrown just six passes in his first two seasons at Michigan. At the very least, the 6-foot-3, 235-pound Texan would bring a running threat to the Wolverines offense. But he was beaten out by Warren, who threw two interceptions against Texas and gained just 73 passing yards in three quarters.
A transfer quarterback is not a sure thing, as Kentucky and Florida State are finding out. But how would Ohio State Kyle McCord (eight touchdown passes in two games for Syracuse ) did you wear a maize and blue helmet with wings this year?
How about something more in the direction of a developmental player? Alabama transfer Eli Holstein has six touchdown passes and two 300-yard passing games in leading Pitt starts with 2-0. Texas Wire Transfer Maalik Murphy leads Duke 2-0, with five touchdown passes.
Of course, this isn’t just a quarterback problem in Michigan’s offense. It’s the most glaring problem.
“I never really thought about the initial difficulties, but more about what we can do to get better,” Moore said. “We knew we were a new team. We never try to rest on our laurels that we won last year at the national championship.”
Across the country
Freeman could use some advice from Penn State coach James Franklin. The eighth-ranked Nittany Lions allowed 24 points and 289 yards and trailed in the first half against Bowling Green (another MAC team) before fixing everything that was wrong at halftime and win a game by just one point. Certainly, Penn State fans weren’t thrilled, but almost losing is still a win, so Happy Valley is still a better place to be than South Bend this weekend. … Big 12 contenders No. 16 Oklahoma State and No. 17 Kansas State both needed second-half comebacks to win difficult nonconference games. The Cowboys allowed 648 yards to Taylen Green (another pretty good-looking transfer quarterback) and Arkansas, but took advantage of a ton of mistakes by the Razorbacks to Victory in double overtime.… The Wildcats needed a late scoop-and-score and benefited from an offensive pass interference penalty against Tulane, to come out of New Orleans undefeated.
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Follow Ralph D. Russo on https://twitter.com/ralphDrussoAP
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