Ad Disclosure
The Echoes are Awake: Marcus Freeman fells the best program in America and, yes, Notre Dame is back
Published:
It’s been 37 years of restless slumber, but the Echoes are awake in South Bend.
Notre Dame dominated Georgia 23-10 on Thursday to win the Sugar Bowl and advance to a College Football Playoff semifinal against Penn State next week in the Orange Bowl.
The Fighting Irish’s win that proved so much was the crescendo of a moment that occurred just over 3 years ago, when Marcus Freeman was hired as the next Dick Corbett Head Football Coach at Notre Dame.
By now, the nation knows the story.
Freeman took over for Brian Kelly, who abruptly resigned and left for LSU in November 2021, largely because, as he put it, he wanted “to go play with the best and win championships.”
On Thursday night in New Orleans, it was Freeman playing with the best and getting closer to a championship.
That Freeman’s college football landscape shaking victory occurred in the Superdome, as Kelly and LSU one once again sat at home 81 miles away in Baton Rouge, having once again missed the College Football Playoff at LSU, only adds a sweet gravity to a hire that took gravitas from then-Notre Dame president Father John Jenkins and Notre Dame’s athletic director, Jack Swarbrick.
Handing a 35-year-old with zero head coaching experience and a scant 2 years as a Power Conference/Notre Dame defensive coordinator was gutsy.
Was Freeman a rising star in the industry? Sure. But this was Notre Dame — and if a coach as highly regarded as Kelly didn’t feel you could consistently compete for championships in South Bend — what evidence was there that Freeman would work?
Oh, the mystery of faith.
Sometimes you step into the jaws of doubt and come out clean on the other side.
Freeman heard the outside doubt but went to work, upgrading every aspect of Notre Dame’s football organization. Freeman pushed for a bigger recruiting budget, better NIL compensation, and staff salary pool upgrades. He recruited relentlessly, raising the talent at Notre Dame from outside the top 10 in the 247 Talent Composite the day Kelly resigned to a top-10 group with the most 4-star, blue-chip players (57) of any team in the College Football Playoff. Freeman also led with humility. He hired outstanding, veteran coaches and coordinators and deferred to their expertise, putting his imprint on the program as a hands-on CEO savvy enough to know when it was time to be hands-off.
After a bumpy opening campaign when the Fighting Irish were an inconsistent 9-4, Freeman won 10 times in 2023, including a lopsided bowl win that set the tone for the offseason last winter. After an impressive 10-point win at Kyle Field on opening night, Notre Dame appeared ready to soar.
Then Sept. 7 happened.
Northern Illinois upset Notre Dame in South Bend, and the Fighting Irish were written off as a serious contender by most everyone outside the Notre Dame football building.
Freeman embraced the doubt, and challenged his team to do the same. “Remember Northern Illinois” became Notre Dame’s rallying cry, and the Fighting Irish haven’t lost since. But even after 12 consecutive wins, including a comfortable opening-round Playoff victory over Indiana, respect was hard to come by, especially nationally. A 7 seed for an 11-win team with 10 victories by double digits? Enough Vegas doubt to make the Fighting Irish essentially a “pick em” against a Georgia team whose backup quarterback would be making his first career start?
Tell us why this isn’t the same old Notre Dame, or so went the refrain.
For all those of little faith, Notre Dame offers Thursday night, when Notre Dame beat mighty Georgia, the best program in college football, in every facet of the game.
The Fighting Irish were better on the line of scrimmage, generating 4 sacks and 12 pressures, besting Georgia by 3 sacks and 4 pressures on the evening.
The Fighting Irish were better on special teams, connecting on 3 long field goals and taking the opening kick of the second half, a clear effort by Smart with a shorter kick to pin the Fighting Irish deep instead of allow a touchback, to the house for 6 points.
The Fighting Irish were better in the run game, piling up 165 rushing yards at a 4.6 yard per attempt clip to Georgia’s 101 on 4 yards per attempt, adjusted for sacks.
They were also better coached, especially at the coordinator spots.
Offensive coordinator Mike Denbrock wasn’t perfect, but he did just enough to make Notre Dame quarterback Riley Leonard comfortable, moving the pocket to generate simple throws and letting the Notre Dame captain use his legs throughout the second half, as Notre Dame put together two long drives to help salt away the victory.
Is Leonard good enough to win Notre Dame its first national championship since 1988?
Denbrock, who coached Jayden Daniels to a Heisman under Kelly at LSU before abandoning Kelly for Freeman this offseason, raves about Leonard’s improved decision-making and guts. The latter were on full display on Thursday night, as Leonard threw for Notre Dame’s sole offensive touchdown and led the Fighting Irish with 80 yards rushing en route to capturing game Offensive MVP honors. Georgia’s defense played bravely, but Leonard was good enough to beat the Dawgs. Whether he’s good enough to beat his head coach’s alma mater, Ohio State, in a potential national championship game, is a question and debate for a different day. The good news? Lately in college football, if you are good enough to fell Georgia, you’re good enough to beat anyone.
On defense, is anyone still playing as good as Notre Dame?
It didn’t look like it in New Orleans.
Led by a ferocious pass rush and the nation’s best secondary, Al Golden’s defense flummoxed and flustered Georgia’s Mike Bobo all night, baffling the Bulldogs with an array of combo and trap coverages and blitz packages to keep the Dawgs from ever establishing anything close to a rhythm. Gunner Stockton spent most the evening running from a gang of glistening golden helmets, harassing the young quarterback and shining like Lot’s Redemption.
Two plays, one in the first half and the other in the second, were instructive as just how deep nand good a team Freeman has built in South Bend. .
In the first half, Georgia’s offensive line flinched on a crucial 3rd-and-short, trying to get a quick start to slow down the Fighting Irish pass rush. It was a loaded moment, a sign of Notre Dame’s arrival.
Georgia, which has induced so many false start penalties from opponents in the Smart era by shifting its defensive line pre-snap, flinched as Notre Dame shifted their aggressive, blue-chip laden front.
Even as Notre Dame battled without one of its best defensive linemen, Rylie Mills, the Fighting Irish front kept making plays, like the one Donovan Hinish made on what would be Georgia’s final play from scrimmage. Hinish, a junior who was one of Freeman’s first signees, was given a chance to play more due to Mills’ injury. He made the most of it, whipping Monroe Freeling to come up with a game-sealing sack.
“When we talk about building a physical football team, we know it starts up front,” Freeman told assembled Notre Dame media 3 summers ago. “We will build a unit on the offensive line and the defensive line that can compete with any program in America.”
To little fanfare, at least nationally, Freeman has done just that. Sure, Notre Dame lacks the 5-star players that the Georgia, Texas and Ohio States of the world can roll out. But they don’t lack the depth. Not anymore.
The largest critique of Kelly’s rosters for years was that 1-through-22, the Fighting Irish could battle you just fine. It was 23-through-44 where they were slower, smaller, and less skilled than their championship-caliber competition. Now, with blue-chips up and down the 2-deep, especially on the line of scrimmage, Notre Dame has weathered injuries that would have broken the spirit of the Fighting Irish in many autumns past.
On Thursday, the college football world had no choice but to take notice.
This isn’t the “Same old Notre Dame,” the one Alabama vanquished mercilessly in 2012, or Clemson toyed with in 2018, or Alabama outclassed again in 2020.
This is a deeper, faster, complete Notre Dame team that was better coached and better prepared than Georgia, the best brand college football has offered this decade.
“Same old Notre Dame”? That’s a thing of the past.
The Echoes are Awake.
And Marcus Freeman’s Fighting Irish are just getting warmed up.
Neil Blackmon covers Florida football and the SEC for SaturdayDownSouth.com. An attorney, he is also a member of the Football and Basketball Writers Associations of America. He also coaches basketball.
