Optimism about your favorite college football season can be a tough balance, especially early on in the season. Our fandom can create hyperbole, things either being the absolute best or worst depending on how a football game goes. For Notre Dame fans, it’s tough not to be super excited following the team’s 23-13 win over the Texas A&M Aggies on Saturday.
Irish fans have been waiting a long time for the program to ascend back to prominence. Notre Dame was at one time the standard in college football, but it has been a long time since the Golden Era. College football is now in the transfer portal era, the 12-team playoff era, and it’s up in the air just how the program is going to fit into the hierarchy of college football moving forward.
Call it hyperbole. Call it unjustified optimism, but the trajectory of Notre Dame football hasn’t been this great in a very, very long time. So forget tempering expectations. Forget laying low, and keeping a target off of your back. You are the Notre Dame Fighting Irish, one of the proudest brands in the entire country. Act like you belong, because you do.
Marcus Freeman keeps growing
Not enough people talked about how difficult of a transition it was for Marcus Freeman to become the head coach at Notre Dame, his first ever head coaching position. It’s one thing to be a great coordinator, or a great position coach, and a completely different story to be the CEO of a national brand like Notre Dame.
It shouldn’t be much of a surprise that Coach Freeman had some early struggles, losing to a couple inferior opponents. In Coach Freeman‘s second year, we saw growth. There’s no such thing as quality losses but there were no bad losses like the previous year. That’s growth.
Coming into this season, there is a completely different vibe around Coach Freeman and the Irish program. There is a subtle confidence. You can tell that the team truly believes they have a chance to win every time they are on the field. That comes from Coach Freeman, from the top down. The team is taking on the personality of their head coach.
Talent on an all-time high
This is obviously directly related to Coach Freeman, whose talent acquisition has been tremendous since getting to South Bend. Everyone knows about the recruiting efforts, continuing to push the envelope for expectations around the program. There is no area of the country that the staff isn’t afraid to attack, and no player they will shy away from.
The same can be said for the transfer portal efforts from the staff. Getting someone like quarterback Riley Leonard this offseason speaks volumes. As do players like wide receivers Beaux Collins and Kris Mitchell, and pass rusher RJ Oben. Notre Dame has shown that they will exhaust all efforts to improve this roster, which will be built through high school recruiting, but the portal also provides tremendous value.
Why were so many Notre Dame fans so confident going into their battle against Texas A&M? Because of the talent. The Irish were the more talented team on paper, which hasn’t been overly common against SEC opponents in some time now.
Support around the team
If Coach Freeman and the program didn’t have support, then the ceiling can only be so high. The administration had been inconsistent with support in the past, but they certainly did this offseason.
We saw the Notre Dame program steal away offensive coordinator Mike Denbrock from the LSU Tigers. We also saw the program do what they had to do to keep defensive coordinator Al Golden in South Bend, along with some key position coaches like Mike Mickens. Keeping good people and great coaches on staff is incredibly important.
This offseason also saw plans to continue improving the football facilities for the Irish. Money was no issue for Notre Dame the last few months. As one of the biggest brands in college football, money should never be a problem. The program proved that this offseason.
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