Marcus Freeman on NIU loss fueling Notre Dame in playoff: 'There's great opportunities to learn from failure'

Marcus Freeman and Notre Dame remember the NIU game quite well from earlier this season. Well, since that loss, Notre Dame’s won 12 games in a row to get to 13-1 and the College Football Playoff semifinals.

Freeman’s crew beat Indiana and Georgia in the first two rounds of the CFP and will get Penn State at the Orange Bowl. The winner takes on Ohio State or Texas for the national championship.

Get your team’s official College Football Playoff watch from AXIA by CLICKING HERE: “Watches that tell so much more than time”

But the message since the Northern Illinois loss has been the same, learn from it and use it as an opportunity.

“Well, I remember telling Riley (Leonard) the same thing I told the team the following day, is that we will be grateful for this loss, and this will be the greatest thing that happened to us, if we continue to remember the lessons that this game has taught us,” Freeman said on SportsCenter. “And that’s the thing. There (were) so many valuable lessons from that game that we have to continue to utilize. And you know, it’s a reflection of life. Things don’t always go exactly how you foresee it, but there’s learning opportunities in every event that happens, and sometimes the best learning opportunities come from failure.”

Notre Dame fell at home to NIU 16-14 back on September 7th. They’ve been on a tear since. While Freeman loves to use failures as an opportunity to get better as Notre Dame develops, you can’t let it become a habit.

“That’s what I want our guys to understand, is that you don’t want to fail too much, right,” Freeman said. “I won’t be here long if we continue to fail. But there’s great opportunities to learn from failure, and if we can continue to keep the pain as I always and remember those learning opportunities that that game taught us, then it’s going to be the greatest thing that happened to us. But we got to continue to do that.”

Penn State has its own set of challenges for Notre Dame and Freeman. While the Irish played excellent defense against Georgia, the Nittany Lions have a plethora of playmakers.

Quarterback Drew Allar is morphing into the best version of himself, tight end Tyler Warren looks like a future NFL star and the running back tandem of NIck Singleton and Kaytron Allen is a sight to behold.

But if Freeman’s words are any indication, it’s to not underestimate this football team when they take the field.