(Photo Credit: AJ Houk)
Sustaining success has been a challenge under Marcus Freeman. Defeating top 25 teams has not been. But Saturday’s dismantling of #24 ranked Navy offers evidence that not only is Freeman is as good as any Notre Dame head coach in history at beating ranked teams, and that this head coach may have learned a thing or two about sustaining success.
Notre Dame’s domination of Navy, aided but not solely dependent on turnovers, marked Freeman’s 10th career win over a ranked opponent. That’s not just good—it’s historically good. In fact, Freeman is the only ND head coach to reach the 10-ranked win threshold inside of his first three seasons since Frank Leahy. To put that into perspective, the AP poll started in 1936, and the legendary Frank Leahy’s first season in South Bend was 1940.
Freeman and Frank Leahy sit aside together for having a knack for beating good football teams.
Here are the numbers: when Notre Dame defeated #2 Iowa Pre-Flight, 14-13 in the next-to-last game of the 1943 season, Leahy reached the 10th ranked win milestone in his third season.
Other ND head coaches, including some well-known names, have not fared quite as well. Brian Kelly finally achieved his 10th ranked win in the third game of his sixth season. Charlie Weis had only five such wins in five seasons, while Ty Willingham had five in three seasons. Bob Davie managed just six in his five years at the helm.
Lou Holtz was solid against ranked teams and famously knocked off a few #1s and #2s, but he didn’t hit the 10-ranked win mark until the sixth game of his fourth season. On October 14, 1989, ND defeated #17 Air Force 41-27, allowing Lou to join the club, but a year later than Freeman and Leahy.
Prior to Holtz, and after Leahy, three other coaches notched 10 wins over ranked opponents, but none did so nearly as quickly as Freeman and Leahy. Here are the rest of the tallies: Gerry Faust interestingly had eight ranked wins in five seasons. Dan Devine accomplished the 10 ranked win feat in four seasons, impressively totaling 18 such wins in his six seasons as head coach.
Ara Parseghian did reach 10 ranked wins but not until his 11th season, with the milestone game being the green jersey/Trojan Horse win over USC in 1973. Before Ara, only one other coach reached 10 wins. Joe Kuharich (1959-1962), who had just three in his four seasons. Terry Brennan (1954-1958) did achieve 10 but it took him five seasons. Brennan ended his five-year run at ND with 11.
Freeman and Leahy are in exclusive company as the only ND coaches to reach 10 wins over ranked teams in their third season. That’s an impressive accomplishment for the 38-year-old head coach, and it speaks to the relative difficulty of the schedule Freeman has faced. But… Marshall 2022, Stanford 2022, Ohio State coaching malpractice 2023, Louisville 2023, failure to show up at Clemson 2023, and of course, Northern Illinois 2024.
There is more to successful coaching of a football team than beating good football teams. Beating the teams you are supposed to beat is of course imperative.
Freeman has some impressive wins in his short head coaching career, but he has not yet shown the ability to achieve consistent success. In fact, he had never won more than five straight games consecutively—until now.
Saturday’s win over Navy was Freeman’s 10th victory against a ranked opponent. It also marked ND’s sixth straight win, Freeman’s longest winning streak. That is a positive sign.
Has Freeman found the magic formula that will help his teams avoid the emotional letdowns and breakdowns that have plagued him? The ride to this point has been akin to a rollercoaster, as has been previously documented by Fighting Irish Preview (Freeman’s Latest Bust Says It’s Angeli Time?).
But maybe, just maybe, ND’s dominant win over Navy, combined with other strong performances since the Northern Illinois debacle, signals progress. In the Navy post-game press conference, Freeman was asked what he had learned from the NIU loss, and his answer indicates growth: “It’s the preparation… I believe the physical part was efficient, but there’s a mental preparation and mindset you have to have going every week.”
To sharpen that mental preparation, Freeman has been regularly showing clips of the NIU loss to remind the players of the pain they felt that day. “I don’t do it every day, but the most important thing is we can’t lose the pain,” he commented after the Navy game.
“When you have success, sometimes you forget about the pain of what NIU left in all our hearts and guts. And so there are moments I want to reflect on that, and I don’t want them to lose it.”
Well, “Remember Northern Illinois!” Gets me fired up, and it seems to be working for the 2024 Irish.
Since the loss to Northern Illinois, Notre Dame has averaged 42.3 points per game. Only 15th-ranked (at the time) Louisville has kept the final margin within a score; the other five opponents have fallen by an average of over 36 points.
Riley Leonard is now firmly in control of the offense and is becoming a better passer each week. We have always known he is a dynamic runner. Leonard is on track to break ND quarterback records for rushing yards and touchdowns. And now his passing game is becoming reliable. On Saturday, he ran the ball, passed it, and successfully threw downfield. His 37-yard pass into the end zone to Beaux Collins was just the kind of throw his resume had been lacking. With weapons all around him and an offensive line getting healthier and more cohesive, the ND offense is coming close to realizing its potential.
Al Golden’s defense continues to do Al Golden things. They rank in the national top 15 in nine statistical categories and don’t give up points. To this juncture, they are allowing just 12.1 points per game (5th). If that number holds, it would mark the best effort by a Notre Dame defense since 1980.
This defense is an instinctual group with a decided schematic advantage (apologies to those who just flashbacked to the Weis era!). When an Irish defender arrives at the football, they do so with an attitude. That attitude has reached a new level of destructive intent since the loss in week two.
“Remember Northern Illinois!” indeed.
By winning his 10th game against a ranked opponent as quickly as any other coach in Notre Dame history, Marcus Freeman has demonstrated an ability to get his teams to play well against really good football teams. Now there is evidence that the mental toughness it takes to win week in and week out is coming into focus.
Notre Dame jumped to #8 in the latest AP poll. At 7-1, all their goals are still alive, and dreams for a 2024 to remember are showing signs of life.