Notre Dame had a very frustrating 2023 season, and it was exacerbated last night watching the national championship game. The Irish finished with a 10-3 record, but the fact is they should have been better. That was the bad part about the season, falling short of what thiThe good part is that the season also showed that Notre Dame is getting much closer to being a championship contending team for a host of reasons. There are four reasons that I
believe this team is as close to being able to truly compete for a championship than it has been since Lou Holtz was running the show.s team could, and should have b
Here are four reasons that Notre Dame is closer to being a title team than it has been in decades.
1. Marcus Freeman – There is no doubt that Freeman is still learning what it takes to be an elite head coach. We saw many of the bumps along that road this season, and it was partly why the Irish fell short of expectations. But I also learned a lot about Freeman this season that tells me he in many, many ways he has the chops to be a champion.
The biggest lesson came in the final two weeks of the regular season as his team was dominating Wake Forest (45-7) and Stanford (56-23). There was no joy in Freeman’s eyes, and if all you did was watch him during the game you’d think Notre Dame was losing those games by the same margins. Despite finishing the season in dominant fashion, Freeman had the look of a coach who was ticked off about how the season went.
There was no excuse making for the shortcomings, there was no spin about how good the season actually was, there was no blaming Notre Dame for putting too many stumbling blocks in his way, and discussion about how it’s just too hard to win at Notre Dame. Freeman didn’t lift up the things you’re supposed to do as the head coach and try to convince us all that it was good enough. He acted like a coach that knew better is demanded, and better was possible.
