(Photo: Phil Houk)
The heartbreak was palpable. Notre Dame had just fallen to Ohio State in the National Championship, ending their historic 14-2 season just shy of the ultimate prize.
Jack Kiser, who had just played his unfathomable 70th game in a Fighting Irish uniform entered the post game press conference to sit with his teammate Riley Leonard and head coach Marcus Freeman. Kiser held his head high, but had an obvious look of pain and dejection on his face. Neither Freeman or Leonard showed much inclination to smile either.
Three stalwarts of the Notre Dame’s 2025 season, were there in front of about 30 reporters to answer questions about the 11 point loss to Ohio State.
All three were is a state of emotional overload.
The press conference occurred 20 minutes after the mandatory post game, “cooling off” period. 20 minutes wasn’t near enough to “cool” the emotions of this group. Not after the journey this trio and the rest of the Notre Dame football team had shared through 16 football games together, a season that set standards as the longest ever in college football history, for the most wins in school history and included two major bowl victories in eight days. In fact the 20 minutes of “cooling” was probably just enough time for the enormity of what they had been through to start to sink in.
Marcus Freeman led it off, “We obviously didn’t play the way we needed to get the outcome we want, but as I said to the guys in the locker room, there’s not many words to say when everybody is hurting.”
Questions about adjustments , missed field goals, a frantic comeback attempt and missed opportunities on defense predictably followed, but the big picture of what this group had been through took center stage.
Riley Leonard: Sharpened by Notre Dame
Leonard when asked what he had learned about Notre Dame in his single season in South Bend, did not hesitate. “Before I answer your question, I want to thank my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ for giving me the opportunity to play this game. I wrote on my hand Proverbs 27:17, ‘As iron sharpens iron, so shall one man sharpen another.'”
He finished up his thought by talking about how the program had indeed sharpened him, “”I’ve been through ups and downs. I don’t even recognize the person I was before I got to Notre Dame, and it’s all credit to these guys beside me and everybody else in the locker room. They’re all about team glory.”
In answer to a later question about his overall development as a quarterback, he continued on the theme, this time his voice cracking with emotion. “I’ve never been so prepared in my life. I’ve just learned so much within this past year.” He then got specific, ” The o-line…the wideouts as well. Every single one of those guys, ….those guys don’t budge. They do their jobs, they smile.”
He moved on next to his backfield, his voice a bit stronger after having temporarily subdued the close to tears emotion he was feeling. “In the backfield with J-Love and all those guys. How could I not become a better player on the field?”
Iron sharpens Iron, indeed.
Jack Kiser’s Final Reflection
In silence for most of the press conference, eyes red and swollen, emotions silently were pouring out of Jack Kiser. In six years his life had changed.
Profoundly.
Kiser got his chance when asked how he is leaving the program after his record long stint prowling the linebacker position for the Irish. ” When you look at the six years I’ve been here, what I remember is the people. From when I was a small underclassman just trying to learn the ways, looking at a Drew White, Bo Bauer, to be a guy running with my boys in JD (Bertrand) and Marist (Liufau), and then this year coming back and feeling like I had a chip on my shoulder and then getting to meet amazing guys like Riley coming in and….going on the journey we went on.
“And Coach Freeman-yeah, it’s about the people. It’s the people that made this place different.”
Kiser finished his thought emphatically, “The people in this building are the best, absolute best.”
Marcus Freeman and the Notre Dame Way
Culture, culture, culture. Every coach talks about it, some actually build it.
Notre Dame’s resident culture builder, Marcus Louis Freeman, reacted to the comments of two of his star pupils. “You sit up here and listen to these two guys speak and the passion they have for Notre Dame and to each other and in that locker room. I’m just sitting here listening like this is one of the greatest gifts in life to able to be the leader of this program. Because you have young people like this that share the blame, share the success when you win and own the blame when you lose.”
In his third year as head coach, Marcus Freeman brought his team agonizingly close to the pinnacle of college football. But the 2025 Fighting Irish proved something even more important: in an age of NIL deals, transfer portals, and win-at-all-costs mentalities, there is still a place for integrity, team-first culture, and doing things the right way.
And for Notre Dame, that may be the greatest victory of all.