Marcus Freeman explains play-calling decisions leading to game-winning field goal

Marcus Freeman’s Notre Dame squad executed wonderfully during the waning moments of the College Football Playoff Semifinals at the Orange Bowl, leading to the Fighting Irish clinching their spot in the National Championship Game.

When Penn State’s Drew Allar was picked off by Christian Gray with less than a minute remaining, Freeman knew Notre Dame had a chance to drain the clock and kick a game-winning field goal. That’s exactly what they did, and the Fighting Irish are headed to the CFP finale due to the leg of Mitch Jeter.

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After the dust settled on the game, Freeman took some time to explain his play-calling decisions on the final drive for Notre Dame, elaborating on the Fighting Irish’s strategy to avoid a potential Nittany Lions comeback.

“We had great communication, in terms of what we’re going to do,” Freeman responded, regarding his play-calling decisions that led to the game-winning field goal, via his post-game press conference. “You know, I wanted to see if they were going to call a time out, right? If they’re not going to call time out, then I had to have a plan, ‘Hey, when do we want to use our time outs?’ And once we figured out what they were going to do, we said, ‘Okay, we want to center this ball on [second] down,’ and we centered the ball on second down. That’s when we decided to do the QB sneak, because they called a time out, and they executed it flawlessly. Nobody panicked. It was great communication. Riley [Leonard] kept everybody under control, and we knew we in range where Mitch [Jeter] could make that field goal.

“He is a confident guy, man. There is no moment too big for Mitch Jeter. I had a lot of confidence in him, in that moment, [that] he was going to do exactly what he did, and he did a great job of doing it.”

Alas, Marcus Freeman and his Notre Dame team played their cards perfectly, and it’s all led to them moving on to the final round of the College Football Playoff. If they can cap off their campaign with a national title, the 2024-25 Fighting Irish will go down in history, among the greatest to ever compete for the fans in South Bend.