Marcus Freeman explains balance of National Signing Day, preparing for College Football Playoff

Marcus Freeman is fine with the balance of National Signing Day and the College Football Playoff coming up.

Essentially, the Notre Dame coach and staff are ready to bring in the new recruits, sign them and then shift back to the field. Notre Dame doesn’t play a conference championship and is pretty much locked into a home game in the first round of the CFP.

When the time comes, Freeman and company will get ready more so than they are now. But, make sure you give the recruits their shine!

“I think this is a great week for signing day,” Freeman said, via 247Sports. “You try to eliminate distractions during the season. And you know, we’re using this almost as a bye week in terms of we didn’t get a first round bye, but we can use this week as our bye week, Week 13. And then once we know who our opponent is on Sunday, then we’ll get back to work and back to focus. 

“But this is a perfect week for us to really sign these ‘25 guys, and really take care of all the things you tried to move to the back end during the season. So we’ll get back together on Sunday, refocus once our opponent (is determined), and get back to work for a home playoff game at Notre Dame Stadium.”

After the harsh criticism the Fighting Irish received due to their loss against Northern Illinois earlier this year, making it back to the College Football Playoff would be a tremendous endorsement for their head coach. 

Freeman has been beloved by his team, and the fanbase might finally be convinced he’s the right man for the job if he’s able to punch his team’s ticket to the dance.

That seems like a done deal with Notre Dame ranked No. 4 in the College Football Playoff rankings and seemingly locked into the No. 5 or 6 seed.

Freeman and the Irish hosting in South Bend with the CFP logo on the field? Sounds like a movie.

“So, is the noise louder,” Freeman said last week. “If you let it be. If you let it be, right? We control the volume of the noise, in terms of what we read, who we listen to, who we talk to, we control that. We control what things go into our head, so it’s a choice we all have to make, to turn down the noise. The noise is loud, sure, I mean, shoot, I’m sure I can get on social media and it’ll be a lot louder. But we, I, control the volume of the noise that goes into my head.”