The Mind of Mike is a crazy place. Thoughts on Notre Dame are here.
What the heck is happening at Notre Dame? A loss to Marshall at home and now Stanford, a team that had lost 11 straight FBS games? Marcus Freeman recruits well and he’s a players coach but none of it matters if he’s over his head and it appears he is so far. His befuddled look on the sidelines against Stanford is a far cry from the confidence I saw in the Ohio State game. This level could be too high for him and it echoes my sentiments when Brian Kelly left. No one, anytime soon, will do what Kelly did at Notre Dame with a title game appearance and two playoff appearances.
The academic restrictions, the arrogance of not needing a conference and honestly the one foot in approach to college football is too much to overcome. Freeman has done a great job recruiting to a high level and getting commitments from a limited target pool based on academics but players will be picked off here and there (Keon Keeley, etc) as the big boys without academic handcuffs come calling, especially as Notre Dame struggles.
The Fighting Irish don’t need a conference alignment for money purposes, but they sure do for the predictability of opponent and the potential layup wins. Playing a team on the regular in the ACC or Big Ten would certainly help not only with recruiting in those areas but with much needed game planning. ND has played a Big Ten team, a Sun Belt team, a future Big 12 team, two PAC 12 teams and an ACC team already this season. Regularity has been needed for awhile but their arrogance won’t allow it. And that arrogance also plays into the commitment of football as the last head coach to get any sort of recruiting break from an academic standard was Lou Holtz. A big heaping helpful of humble pie is needed for the Irish to move forward. They aren’t an Ivy League school playing FBS football, they need to be one or the other and lower themselves to a conference and that conferences middle of the road academic standard.
Let’s be clear, Freeman was a risky hire and Brian Kelly screwed them by leaving. And another great coach could right the ship although it’s unlikely they can reach recent heights again. Changes need to be made from coaching decisions to academics to conference alignment and all the rest. Or this could get worse, much worse.
