Paul Finebaum blasts Notre Dame, Marcus Freeman following 0-2 start to his tenure

0-2 is not where many expected Notre Dame to be through the first two games of the Marcus Freeman era in South Bend.

Following the season-opening loss to No. 3 Ohio State 21-10, many praised the Fighting Irish for putting up the fight they did against one of the nation’s best. They were heavy favorites heading into Saturday’s matchup against Marshall – as expected – and the Thundering Herd shocked everyone and came out with a victory on the Irish’s home turf.

SEC Network analyst Paul Finebaum commented on the state of Notre Dame through two weeks – bashing the Irish headman for not holding Notre Dame to the standard we’re used to seeing from them during the Brain Kelly era.

“We were all told how great Marcus Freeman was going to be,” Finebaum said on ESPN Sunday morning. “My question back is, ‘what’s so great about him?’ He is 0-3 as a head coach, including the bowl game last year, and Ohio State and Marshall. Ohio State we can understand – they played brilliantly in the first half and they got run over the second.

“But this game was against Marshall, and Marshall at times was manhandling them. Don’t look at the score if you didn’t watch the game. Notre Dame got a cheap touchdown, I mean, they couldn’t do anything right and their schedule gets more difficult. There’s Southern Cal, there’s BYU – we know what did what they did overnight – there’s Clemson, there’s North Carolina. There could be a lot of losses for Marcus Freeman in his first year at Notre Dame.”

Freeman has a chance to right his two wrongs to begin the season starting Week 3 against the Cal Golden Bears at home, though an 0-3 start to the season could spell disaster for Freeman’s and his tenure with the program.