
Doyel: Football at Notre Dame is back. Not flawless, but improving under Marcus Freeman…
This is not the time to judge Notre Dame for falling short, for falling apart for a huge chunk of the 2024 College Football Playoff title game against Ohio State. Maybe next year, if the Fighting Irish suffer a repeat performance. But this season, this week – this day – is not the time to mourn what didn’t happen Monday night at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta.
Can’t we just celebrate that it almost happened at all? Can’t we just celebrate that Notre Dame football is back, and not back like it was under the previous coach, whatshisname – the guy with the red, raging face and funny Southern accent – but back, as in, back?
You don’t have to win a national title to be back, though you’re right – winning their 14th national title would’ve been nice for the Irish. Problem is, Notre Dame ran into the Ohio State buzzsaw, whose 34-23 defeat of the Irish was so thorough, so frightening, it left just one question:
What happened against Michigan?
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The Wolverines beat Ohio State on Nov. 30, the only blip – it’s a really big blip – for the Buckeyes in a 2024 college football season when they were scary-good, and getting better as they went along. In the CFP playoffs Ohio State beat No. 6 Tennessee by 25 points in the first round, then beat No. 1 Oregon by 20 at the Rose Bowl, then beat No. 4 Texas by 14 at the Cotton Bowl.
Then came Monday night, and this 11-point defeat of No. 3 Notre Dame.
Give Ohio State one more week, and maybe they’re beating the Kansas City Chiefs.
All the more reason to give Notre Dame some grace for what happened in Atlanta. And to give coach Marcus Freeman another year to get this thing right.
Notre Dame: Good *and* likeable
Notre Dame knows what it feels like, sort of, to be the 2024 Indiana football team. You know that story. The Hoosiers tear through their schedule, beating the first 10 teams in front of them – including Michigan, by the way – before falling apart against Ohio State on Nov. 23, and then against these Fighting Irish in the CFP opener on Dec. 20. The Hoosiers went 11-0 against everyone else, but went 0-2 against the two teams in the CFP finale, getting outscored 65-32 by Notre Dame and Ohio State, bringing the hyenas to the carcass.
Let’s not go all hyena on Notre Dame today, OK?
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Well, too late. Social media was doing the hyena thing to Notre Dame early in the third quarter Monday night, when the Buckeyes scored the last of their 31 consecutive points for a 31-7 lead. That’s not fair, but then, has anyone ever called social media “fair”?
Besides, Ohio State isn’t – how shall I say this – fair. Would it surprise you, three years from now, if one of the best running backs in the NFL is TreVeyon Henderson? Would it surprise you if the very best receiver in the NFL is Jeremiah Smith? Or if the best safety in the NFL is Caleb Downs? Those three played Monday night for Ohio State, and here’s how good the Buckeyes are:
They had a running back score three touchdowns in the first 33 minutes, and that doesn’t include his 70-yard (non-scoring) burst – and that was their other running back: Quinshon Judkins. They had future NFL receivers making great catches all over the field, and those were their other receivers: Emeka Egbuka and Carnell Tate.
This 2024 Ohio State football team, this was not a measuring stick. This was a monstrosity.
But this 2024 Notre Dame football team, this was the one that brought back the echoes. Knute, Touchdown Jesus, Rudy – this was the season when it was OK to get misty-eyed over all that stuff again, because this was the season when you realized Notre Dame wasn’t just back, but likeable.
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The Irish have been likeable since 2021 when Marcus Freeman replaced the last dude, the little red-faced narcissist now doing his thing at LSU. Perfect place for Brian Kelly, really. That’s the school that tolerated men’s basketball coach Will Wade for three more years despite what the FBI heard when it tapped his phones in 2019, and still tolerates noxious women’s basketball coach Kim Mulkey. She’s good, Mulkey. So was Wade. So is Kelly. But bad people tend to coach at LSU.
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These days, Notre Dame employs only the best. Muffet McGraw then, Niele Ivey now? Mike Brey then, Micah Shrewsberry now? That’s best after best after best after best.
And now the football program is run by class to match in Freeman, an alumnus of Ohio State, of all places, who mixes grace and a gentle demeanor with the appropriate fire on game day. He’s a guy that can make a Notre Dame fan proud.
Same goes for Freeman’s football team. This wasn’t that last dude’s Notre Dame, a team that fattened itself up on a hybrid ACC schedule before falling apart in the postseason against Alabama or Clemson. This Notre Dame team beat No. 2 Georgia in the CFP quarterfinal. It beat No. 5 Penn State in the CFP semifinal. And after falling behind Ohio State 31-7 on Monday night, the Irish started rallying. And Marcus Freeman’s over there on the sideline, holding up an index finger, saying the words:
“That’s one.”
Marcus Freeman’s team fights back
It started so well, too.
Notre Dame gets the ball to start the game – Ohio State won the toss and deferred to the second half, the first of Ryan Day’s winning decisions – and drives 75 yards. Running back Jeremiyah Love isn’t working his magic on this drive (three carries, 1 yard), and quarterback Riley Leonard is missing receivers wide or high or wide and high, but Notre Dame drives down the field by shoving the ball down Ohio State’s throat.
Leonard did the shoving, running the ball nine times for 34 yards on that opening drive, the final carry a 1-yard TD plunge. There wasn’t much subterfuge here, just Leonard getting the ball in the shotgun and barreling straight ahead. Such a thing as a shotgun QB sneak? That’s what this was, minus the sneakiness. Leonard was exhausted after the drive, collapsing onto the bench near the oxygen tanks.
Is that why Notre Dame fell apart over the next 30-ish minutes of game clock? Could be, on the offensive side of the ball anyway. On defense? Ohio State was just too good. I counted three future NFL receivers (Smith, Egbuka, Tate) and two future NFL running backs (Henderson, Judkins) at Ohio State, and if my math is wrong, it’s because I didn’t see their No. 4 receiver or No. 3 running back.
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The Irish were playing with a great story at left tackle, redshirt freshman Charles Jagusah, who’d been out since tearing his pectoral muscle in the preseason. Jagusah and his family were in Freeman’s office back then, before the first game, when Freeman told Jagusah to cheer up, and attack that rehab: You’ll play again when the Irish reach the CFP, he told Jagusah.
Sure enough.
Jagusah’s replacement, freshman Anthonie Knapp, missed Monday night with an ankle injury. Jagusah was ready, and was pushing the Buckeyes around on the first drive. On Leonard’s TD run, Jagusah pushed away a defensive lineman and then moved into the hole, where he dispatched of star Ohio State linebacker Cody Simon, creating the crease for Howard to score.
This was the dream start for Notre Dame, this 7-0 lead against an Ohio State team that hadn’t trailed in any of its first three CFP games, but everyone woke up screaming soon enough. The Buckeyes were too fast, too deep, too talented, and soon they’re ahead 31-7 and social media is sharpening its teeth and hang on. Update.
Notre Dame just scored?
And Freeman is holding up an index finger, telling his team that’s one touchdown – those were his exact words: “That’s one” – after Riley Leonard’s 34-yard touchdown pass to Jaden Greathouse. Ohio State had been running away with this game, and we’d seen this before from Notre Dame in January’s past. Google the Fighting Irish and “Alabama” or “Clemson” or even “Ohio State.” That game against the Buckeyes was the 2016 Fiesta Bowl. That was another Notre Dame blowout loss.
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This wasn’t that. This was Notre Dame trailing Ohio State by three touchdowns, and instead of rolling over, this was Notre Dame getting the first one. Then getting the second one, drawing within 31-23. Then needing one more stop, and backing Ohio State into a corner, back at the Buckeyes’ 34 with 2:29 left before it breaks down. The comeback isn’t going to happen. Ohio State launches a 56-yard pass to the best player on the field, Smith, then kicks a field goal with 26 seconds left for the final margin.
Notre Dame falls short. That’s one way to look at it.