‘Tis the season for giving? Not when you’re Notre Dame coach Marcus Freeman.
“You understand I’m grasping,” Freeman mentioned following the Preventing Irish’s 27-17 Faculty Soccer Playoff win over Indiana on Friday. “Though I don’t need [the team’s] focus to be on it, my focus goes to be on discovering a technique to get 13.”
The 13 in query is Notre Dame’s variety of wins this season. And with 2024 marking the 100-year anniversary of this system’s first of 11 claimed nationwide championships, this yr’s workforce would attain territory no Preventing Irish squad has ever reached by attending to that thirteenth victory.
In beating Indiana, the 2024 workforce completed one other feat no Notre Dame workforce had achieved by profitable a Playoff sport.
OK, so possibly the importance of that individual “first” wants an asterisk. Friday’s contest was the inaugural 1st spherical matchup of the primary 12-team format.
The event’s growth means if Notre Dame loses in its subsequent matchup within the Sugar Bowl towards No. 2 seed Georgia, the 2024 Preventing Irish will technically be additional away from nationwide championship No. 12 than in any of this system’s earlier flirtations with the title throughout the twenty first century.
Nonetheless, there’s which means in Notre Dame lastly getting over the Playoff hump. Within the Irish’s three earlier postseason video games with nationwide championship stakes—the 2013 BCS Championship Sport and semifinals within the 2018 and 2020 seasons—they misplaced by a median of 24 factors per sport.
In the meantime, on Friday, Riley Leonard’s walk-in landing carry late within the fourth quarter pushed Notre Dame’s wire-to-wire lead over Indiana to… 24 factors.
A pair of late Hoosiers touchdowns made the Irish win much less cosmetically spectacular and negated that little bit of symbolism. Nevertheless, it didn’t change what has been a constant theme in Notre Dame’s highway to 12 wins, the nation’s second-longest profitable streak, and a berth within the quarterfinals.
And in turning the tables on IU to kick off the inaugural 12-team Playoff, Notre Dame seemed extra like a workforce able to profitable this system’s first nationwide championship since 1988—at occasions.
For roughly 58 minutes, a Preventing Irish protection that was wonderful all through the common season cranked the depth to a different degree. Notre Dame defenders mixed for 3 sacks, however IU quarterback Kurtis Rourke was flushed from the pocket with golden domes in sizzling pursuit much more routinely.
A Hoosiers offense that averaged greater than 43 factors per sport couldn’t sniff the tip zone till the ultimate end result was now not doubtful. The knock towards Notre Dame groups in previous postseason failures was that they lacked the toughness to compete with the hardened competitors of the South.
Whereas we’ll have a greater gauge on whether or not that’s nonetheless the case by the tip of New Yr’s Day, this Preventing Irish protection actually seemed the half when it got here to physicality.
Jeremiyah Love’s workload was restricted, the byproduct of an sickness that was evident when he spoke with a stuffy voice in his postgame press convention. All of the operating again wanted was one carry of 98 yards to show that he can set the tone for a whole sport in a single snap, although.
“I got here into this sport battling a couple of issues,” Love mentioned. “Having the ability to come into this and do what I can do for this workforce, it’s particular.”
At different occasions, towards a Hoosiers workforce whose inclusion within the Playoff discipline might have been doubtful, the Preventing Irish suffered miscues that might value them towards stiffer competitors. Love’s well being bettering within the subsequent two weeks main as much as the Sugar Bowl is essential for a Notre Dame offense that moved the ball into the purple zone 4 occasions however scored touchdowns on solely half of these journeys.
Constructing on the momentum of 11 straight wins, and this eleventh one specifically, is one other essential level going into the Sugar Bowl, Freeman mentioned.
“However extra importantly, it’s going to be elevating; getting higher,” Freeman mentioned. “It’s not a standard sport week. We’ve to search out methods to raise and enhance…Each week, how will we do it just a little bit higher?”
In getting just a bit bit higher incrementally, maybe Notre Dame has found how you can get considerably higher in its postseason pursuits.
