The new 12-team College Football Playoff field allows for more forgiveness of regular season losses for everyone around the country, but especially Notre Dame, which could only guarantee itself a spot in the old CFP with an undefeated regular season. But is the season opener in College Station a must-win game for Notre Dame and Marcus Freeman? A strong case can be made that it is.
Texas A&M is currently favored to beat Notre Dame in the season opener, so this is anything but a gimme for Notre Dame. It’ll be one of the most challenging games of the year for the Irish, even if Texas A&M just paid their old coach $75 million to no longer coach them and have a whole new staff following another disappointing season. For Marcus Freeman and Notre Dame, though, it’s the kind of game they have to win if the Irish are going to seriously challenge for a national championship during Freeman’s tenure.
Freeman is entering his third year as the head coach at Notre Dame, and his lack of prior head coaching experience has been felt over the first two seasons. The losses to Marshall and Stanford in 2022 were unmitigated disasters that never should have happened. Last year, the Irish lost to Ohio State with 10 men on the field, got run off the field by a mediocre Louisville team, and got outcoached in a loss to a bad Clemson squad.
Road games haven’t been kind to Freeman during his first two seasons. The loss to Ohio State in his first game in 2022 might be the Irish’s best road performance of the last two years. The Irish beat ranked opponents on the road against #16 Syracuse in 2022 and #17 Duke in 2023, but neither were powerhouses. In marquee road games, the Irish have largely fallen flat.
That has to change in a hurry for Freeman. That’s part of what makes this Texas A&M game so crucial for him and his team. Notre Dame could lose this game and still challenge for a playoff spot, but in year three of the Freeman era, how much confidence could the fanbase have that the Irish could run the table after a loss to start the season if Notre Dame can’t beat a team that was 7-6 last year with a new head coach?
Don’t get me wrong, Mike Elko is a great coach, but he’ll be coaching his first game as the head coach of the Aggies when they host the Irish in less than two weeks. If Elko could take over an under-achieving Aggie team that was so bad that A&M drummed up $75 million to fire Jimbo Fisher and beat Notre Dame in his first game, what would that say about Freeman and Notre Dame? A win for Elko and A&M over Notre Dame would be as impressive as any win Freeman has had over the last two seasons.
Long-term prognosis aside, a win against Texas A&M would set up the Irish for short-term success. After the Aggies, the only tough opponent Notre Dame faces until November is Louisville at the end of September, which Notre Dame hosts. Win on the road against the Aggies, and the road to the playoffs could be relatively smooth for the Irish. Lose, and the margin for error gets much smaller with eleven more games to go.
Third-year success has been a hallmark of every successful Notre Dame head coach of the last 70 years. Ara Parseghian, Dan Devine, and Lou Holtz all won national championships in their third years. Brian Kelly didn’t win a natty in his third year at Notre Dame, but he did have a 12-0 regular season that earned Notre Dame a berth in the national championship game. Bob Davie, Tyrone Willingham, and Charlie Weis all fell on their faces in their third years.
In a vacuum, Notre Dame doesn’t need to win this game, but from a big-picture perspective, it feels like it’s at least inching toward must-win territory. Freeman’s most impressive road win to date was over Elko’s Duke squad last year, which had a miraculous ending. Freeman and Notre Dame need a big road win sooner rather than later, and if not A&M this year, the only other opportunity for one would potentially be at USC to end the season. What the Trojans look like by then after last year’s disastrous campaign, though, is anyone’s guess.
A win, however, will not be easy. Notre Dame’s last road win against a ranked team to start a season was back in 2005 when Charlie Weis beat Dave Wannstedt and Pitt in his first game. Eight years ago, the Irish began the 2016 season in Texas on the road in Austin and lost to what turned out to be a bad Texas team. If not now, though, when will Notre Dame start beating lower-ranked teams on the road in marquee games? Hopefully, we don’t have to ask that question on the morning of September 1.
We used to have a poster named Damian who often lamented that ND was nor balanced…some years with a potential offense, other years with dominant defense, but never both O and D the same year. Well, I think Coach Freeman has put together just what Damian wants. This is the fabled third year. GO IRISH BEAT A&M.
BGCURME 77 82
That Ohio State loss was as brutal of a loss as I remember since I was a kid, and I’m a dinosaur now. The worst coaching meltdown in the last two minutes I’ve ever seen. Freeman has to grow from that; his number of mulligans is dwindling rapidly. Nobody rooting harder for him than me. Go Irish!
I agree. Total commitment to execution is the order of the day. No slow starts allowed. No let downs at the end are allowed. No garbage time allowed. Let them know ND is in the house and ready for business.
Hope they look better than the deer in the headlights for road games last year.
Hope they have a better look to them than the deer in the headlights look from road games last year.
NotreDame is the more talented team and should beat Texas A&M. My gut says they will but you never know how any game is going to truly go.
Not only is this a must win game, it’s a must shove it down their throats leave a crater in their field and in their hearts game. This has to be where Notre Dame shoves it to not only the opponent and their fans, but really to the SEC and most importantly to ESPN who has turned college football into a human trafficking business.
This game can leave no doubt.
Notre Dame has to not only play well but dominate to demonstrate that they can play well away from home. They need a chip on the shoulder and total focus. This isn’t a business trip this is war against ESPN and the SEC.
This can be where Notre Dame finally takes back what is ours from the evil doers. The Jimmy Johnson’s, the cheating Carrol’s and Harbaugh’s. This can be like 1980 Olympic Hockey, and “it’s Morning in America!”
This is a game that the Irish need to come out and put the wood to the opponent. Nothing against A&M but they are in the way and must be flattened at the Irish flatten everything to make a road to the National Championship.
I like the cut of your jib!