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Marcus Freeman was jovial but business-like, all at the same time.
Notre Dame’s head coach had just witnessed his team’s domination of Indiana in a first-round College Football Playoff game in frigid South Bend on Friday night. It was a moment to be happy and also a moment to realize that the 12-1 Fighting Irish have another game coming up against a really good team.
That team will be Georgia, which has won 2 of the past 3 national titles, and even though the Bulldogs will be playing with their backup quarterback on New Year’s Day night in New Orleans, it’s still Georgia. Freeman is well aware of that, and his tone with ESPN’s Molly McGrath after Friday’s win spoke to the fact that he knows Notre Dame has simply survived the first step to get to the next step.
“It’s all about finding a way to get another week,” said Freeman. “It wasn’t easy. (Indiana) didn’t quit until the end of the game. We’re going to enjoy this one, and we’ve earned ourselves another one.”
Freeman was right about the gutsy but overmatched Hoosiers, who were severely outgained but found a way to score 14 points in the final moments but still fell short in the 27-17 loss.
Now for Notre Dame, it’s onto the quarterfinals and a showdown with Georgia. As Freeman said, the Fighting Irish earned themselves a night to celebrate and also another football game to play.
Cory Nightingale, a former sportswriter and sports editor at the Miami Herald and Palm Beach Post, is a South Florida-based freelance writer who covers Alabama for SaturdayDownSouth.com.
