Why does what happened to Notre Dame football Saturday keep happening?

Posted by Admin September 8, 2024 Football

SOUTH BEND — If you want to read that all is well moving forward for the No. 5 Notre Dame football team, this column isn’t for you.

If you want to read how the Irish are going to cruise through the rest of the regular season and sail into a College Football Playoff spot, this column isn’t for you.

If you want reassurance that the Notre Dame football universe — everything from head coach Marcus Freeman to his expensive coaching staff to the support staff to a host of veterans who earn sizeable paychecks — is cool, this column isn’t for you.

Everything that was seemingly on the table for Notre Dame to prove it should stand among the college football elite this season? To be mentioned in the same breath as Ohio State and Georgia and anybody else that harbors serious national championship dreams? All off that table.

Grading the Irish: Notre Dame football deserves low marks after this one

On a sunny, wind-swept, fall-like Saturday, everything about Notre Dame football rolled off that table and shattered on the floor of its home.

“We’ve got to figure out what the problem is and come back stronger,” said safety/captain Xavier Watts.

That Notre Dame football lost a game it had no business losing, but truly had no business winning, wasn’t the toughest gut punch delivered as the sun slowly set in South Bend. No, the toughest part of the 16-14 loss to a Northern Illinois team that was a four-touchdown underdog was that we’ve previously seen and heard and lived through all this.

That’s what’s most troubling. Most frustrating. For Freeman. For the coaching staff. For the players, who invested a ton but will now have to work like crazy to reap any return on that investment. For this program.

What’s the definition of insanity? Notre Dame football.

Only at Notre Dame does the head football coach have his post-game presser delayed because the band is doing band stuff coming up the tunnel. Only at Notre Dame can a team built to do big things this season stare it down and say, nah, we good.

Long before Saturday’s loss to Northern Illinois went final when Mitch Jeter’s desperation 62-yard wing-and-a-prayer field goal attempt was blocked, it all felt like Deja freaking vu. We had seen it previously. Second game of the season. In September. In 2022, Marshall came to town decided underdogs and left with a shock-the-world win over Notre Dame.

That was Freeman’s first season as a head coach. That was a lesson learned. One that Freeman had to learn if he was ever going to sniff a shot at being the elite in this profession. He learned it. The Irish learned it. They went back to work and ran off eight victories in nine weeks and finished 9-4.

It also allowed them to realize that they could never, ever, under any circumstance, allow what happened that day at Notre Dame Stadium to happen again. No exceptions No excuses.

Seven hundred and twenty-eight days later, we’re right back to where we started. It happened again. This is worse. More disheartening. Puzzling. Makes you wonder if this head coach, this coaching staff, this roster, this program, is left to spin its proverbial college football wheels. It’s been 36 years since Notre Dame last ascended to the top of the college football mountaintop. Thirty-six years and seven head coaches later. Too many embarrassing losses to count. Too many seasons when you hoped and prayed and believed that it would all fall into place.

Instead, again, it fell apart for Notre Dame. Fell apart on Freeman’s watch. He’s one of the more likeable guys in what can be a miserable business, but can he be the guy or just another guy?

“I’ve always said performance is a reflection of preparation,” Freeman said. “We’ve got to figure out where we failed in preparation. It’s disappointing. We’ve got to own this thing. We’ve got to fix it.”

Ask yourself that in the sanctity of your quiet place when you stop fuming, be it an hour or a day or a week after this sting subsides. Can we really trust this program? Can we trust anything they say or do in the coming weeks and months? Ever?

We were supposed to trust them heading into 2024. Remember? All the pieces were seemingly in place. Freeman was a more confident head coach. Coordinators Mike Denbrock and Al Golden were well worth their hefty salaries. This team had five captains, but it had myriad leaders. It had everything it needed from a football standpoint, from a coaching standpoint, from a program administration standpoint, to do this College Football Playoff drive.

“We know we can be a good team,” defensive lineman Howard Cross said. “I have full confidence in that.”

Show of hands for how many others agree? Hello?

Notre Dame football didn’t even get out to Daylight Savings Time before it blew a tire. It must now white-knuckle it with the donut spare and a missing windshield wiper the rest of the way. We didn’t think we’d see Marshall happen again. It happened. Will a game/loss like Clemson, like Louisville, like Stanford, happen again?

Can’t say for sure, can we?

Instant analysis: Notre Dame football found itself on the ropes early in its home opener against Northern Illinois

Listening to Freeman on Saturday sounded a whole lot like Freeman in 2022. It’s (again) time to do a deep dive and challenge everything. It (again) time to ask even more from the leadership. It’s (again) time to evaluate everything from top to bottom, even though everything from top to bottom was supposed to be swell. It’s (again) time to take a few more long looks in the mirror.

This team has already done that. Time to do it again. Two weeks into this regular season, seven days into September, we’re left with one truth.

Same old Notre Dame.

Follow South Bend Tribune and NDInsider columnist Tom Noie on Twitter: @tnoieNDI. Contact: (574) 235-6153.