ATLANTA — Notre Dame is angry. Notre Dame is really angry. Notre Dame wants the media to get out of the locker room. Actually, Notre Dame wants the media to get the [expletive] out.
Forty minutes have passed, give or take, since Ohio State’s 34-23 win in Monday night’s College Football Playoff national championship game, and the Fighting Irish — angrily, loudly, emotionally — are working through some things.
Thing one: This was a game they should’ve won.
“I think we came out and beat ourselves,” said sophomore wide receiver Jordan Faison.
Said sophomore receiver Jaden Greathouse, who had a game-high 128 receiving yards, “We were just making a lot of mistakes that we usually don’t make. And when you play another good team, that’s the outcome that you’re going to get.”
Thing two: They are motivated.
“The statement that we put out there is that we’re a dog team,” Faison said. “Altogether, everyone on this team is a dog. We show our best, fight to the max, and we’re definitely going to use this going into next year. It would be a waste for us not to use this next year as motivation.”
And thing three, most important of them all: This program is on a collision course for a national championship, making the program’s first crown since 1988 a matter of when, not if.
“I said it before and I’ll say it again. We sent shockwaves throughout college. We sent shockwaves,” senior defensive tackle Howard Cross III said.
“Before this, it was what we can’t do. Now, I really feel like after this year it’s really like, what Notre Dame can do. Who can play against us? Who can stop us? The ground has changed forever. Because before, going to a playoff game, it was like, maybe they’ll win.”
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There are two ways to take this sort of braggadocio, a not altogether uncommon first reaction in losing locker rooms after coming up one win short of the championship. Nine years ago, Clemson coach Dabo Swinney said after losing to Alabama that his program had been given a glimpse of college football’s mountaintop, and that experience stoked his faith in the Tigers eventually reaching the summit. One year later, they did just that.
Notre Dame showed enough growth since a shocking loss in September to Northern Illinois to supports the team’s confidence that the national championship could return to South Bend as soon as next season.
Previous trips to the doorstep of the championship have ended also ended short, but under vastly different circumstances and with a dramatically different vibe heading into the offseason.
Back in early 2013, a blowout loss to Alabama showed the immense gap still separating the Irish from the top teams in the Bowl Subdivision, especially the best teams in the SEC. And that gap never closed during two ensuing playoff berths under former coach Brian Kelly, which ended with a 30-3 loss to Clemson in 2018 and a 31-14 loss to the Crimson Tide in 2020.
This postseason showed the gap has been narrowed. The Fighting Irish had no problem handling Indiana in the opening round. They then beat Georgia 23-10, smothering the Bulldogs on the line of scrimmage in a message-sending win against the SEC champion. Notre Dame then topped Penn State 27-24 in the Orange Bowl to reach Monday night.
“We’ve been winning games, you know what I mean,” Cross said. “We beat the SEC champs. We went on a three-game playoff streak.”
Yet there is still something missing, making Notre Dame’s confidence seem somewhat misguided in the wake of a loss that showed the importance of accumulating the maximum amount of offensive skill talent within an eclectic scheme.
The offense sent an early message with an 18-play touchdown drive on the game’s first possession, showcasing the physicality that has come to define the offense and broader program. But as the game progressed, Ohio State’s explosiveness illustrated how this more plodding style leaves Notre Dame with far less room for error — the Irish had to be perfect, and they weren’t.
But even the most hardcore Notre Dame skeptic has to admit that Freeman seems to have steered Notre Dame into a more serious contender. Part of that stems from his ability to handle adversity: After the loss to Northern Illinois, the Irish needed his steady hand to remain on track for the playoff and possible national championship.
He’s learning on the job, still, three years into his tenure as the full-time coach, and the decision to attempt a field goal instead of a fourth-down conversion when down 31-15 in the fourth quarter — the 27-yard try was missed — represents Freeman’s need to have a better handle on game management.
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There’s a sense that Freeman and the Irish are learning on the job, just like Swinney and Clemson almost a decade ago. An angry and hurt program looks to follow in the same script: Notre Dame believes next year will be the year, and you can’t help but take that seriously.
“It’s the first time for everybody,” Cross said. “This is uncharted territory. I’m sure we’ll understand what to do next year. I’m not worried. The team is in extremely good hands for next year.”