by Kyle Golik
Finding His Footing
Notre Dame entered the 2023 season with great expectations. They had gotten their quarterback in Wake Forest transfer Sam Hartman. They had entered the 2023 season, defeating 32 of 33 ACC opponents since 2017 in the regular season.
While the Irish still had question marks at the wide receiver position and lost tight end Michael Mayer to the NFL Draft, they still possessed one of the top offensive line units in the country, with arguably the best left tackle in the country in Joe Alt. Audric Estime looks like the second coming of Jerome Bettis. The Irish looked like they were going to dominate the trenches, win on the ground, and hope the passing game would progress through the season.
They walked into the trap of visiting Death Valley and Clemson. Grant you the Tigers talent-wise are better than their 4-4 indicated. It was Clemson, a program that has defined college football for a decade that still has that cache and a golden opportunity to catch them at their lowest. The 31-23 defeat to a struggling Clemson program is the latest example of the Irish falling short in big moments.
The big moment wasn’t necessarily beating Clemson or winning in Death Valley. It was trying to maintain their position to reach a New Year’s 6 bowl game, considering they were effectively eliminated from the playoffs following their loss to Louisville.
“As I challenged the team, each individual has to look at themselves and say, ‘Why am I in this position I’m in?’ And, ‘What do I have to do to find a way to improve?’ That’s the message. Every individual — every coach and every player in that locker room — has to own where we’re at and what we need to do to improve. So, that’s schematically. That’s as an individual. And then we’ve got to go back to work. Like, there’s no magic formula to improve. It’s hard work, and it’s the only thing we know how to do, but it starts with owning where you’re at and finding a better way to do what we do,” replied Freeman when he was asked about his Irish chasing their fullest potential following their Clemson defeat.
Wake Up the Echoes
The challenge for Freeman is and always will be living up to the “echoes” that reside at Notre Dame Stadium as long as Freeman wants to be a head coach.
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The positives in his first two seasons are that his Irish played close to Ohio State in back-to-back games. Some will argue the coaching gaffe this year cost them at the end of this year’s contest when they only came out with ten men on the field on a crucial goal line play that ended up being the deciding score.
Freeman has wins over Southern California, Clemson, and a New Year’s Day bowl win over South Carolina.
For all intents and purposes, Freeman has not only maintained the level of his predecessor, Brian Kelly, but exceeded his total in ranked wins over Kelly’s final two seasons (Freeman 5, Kelly 3).
Freeman felt he finally had his quarterback in Sam Hartman. Hartman started off on fire, looking like he would be in New York for the Heisman Trophy. However, in his last four starts, the Wake Forest transfer has cooled down, completing just 59.5% of his passes, throwing only four touchdowns to seven interceptions, and has a QBR of 54.1.
When asked about what Hartman has to do to be better, Freeman replied after Hartman’s 146-yard and two-interception performance against Clemson, “I’ve got to look. I’ve got to watch film. Obviously, we can’t throw a pick-6. You can’t do that. I know he knows that. Now, he did some really, really good things, extending plays with his legs and running for first downs and touchdowns, but the biggest thing we can’t do is turn the ball over. We know we have to take care of the football, and one of our things going into this game was we had to beat them in the turnover margin. And we didn’t do that today.”
What Does the Future Hold?
The optimistic outlook on Notre Dame is the ceiling is as high as any program in the country.
The realistic ceiling is Freeman is still learning as a head coach. The question is, will Notre Dame fans be patient enough through these growing pains?
Kelly was able to get Notre Dame to play in a BCS National Championship Game and two College Football Playoff appearances. However, he was always missing an elite quarterback and offensive weapons that could compete against Alabama and Clemson.
Freeman will watch Hartman graduate this year, and he could still lead Notre Dame to a 10-win season, which is successful.
The question does Notre Dame have the answer beyond Hartman? Is Steve Angeli good enough to become a starter, or is the highly touted Saline, Michigan recruit CJ Carr going to be Freeman’s answer?
If neither of these formerly highly-coveted prospects pan out, it will be tough sledding for Freeman. The wide receivers haven’t developed well, and the offense being coordinated by Gerard Parker might be a poor man’s version of Tommy Rees. Freeman is still ruing the fact Notre Dame would not meet the buyout demands for Utah offensive coordinator Andy Ludwig.
With the Playoff expanding to 12 teams, a 10-2 Notre Dame team should make the playoffs. The question of how far it can go really depends on how Notre Dame improves.
For now, the ceiling is a New Year’s Day bowl team. Freeman outlined what’s next, “You just have to go back to work. We’ve got to own where we’re at. Own it. We’re 7-3 right now, and we’ve got two opportunities to go out there and go compete. And so, we’ve got to improve in these next two [games]. And then we’ve got to find a way to improve as a football team, schematically and as individuals. And so, we just have to go back to practice, go back to work and figure out a way to make sure we improve as a team, so we can obviously get the outcome that we want.”
