Xavier Watts on Marcus Freeman's confidence in Notre Dame players: 'It's just so refreshing'

Notre Dame‘s confidence is at an all-time high, riding a 12-game winning streak into the College Football Playoff semifinal on Jan. 9 in the Orange Bowl.

According to Notre Dame’s veteran safety Xavier Watts, that confidence starts beginning at the top. Head coach Marcus Freeman has proven the trust he has in his players throughout their win streak, and his players trust him right back.

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“Just having a coach and a coaching staff – like you said, that aggressive mindset gives us the confidence. That, ‘Alright, these guys are all in. We need to be all in on the play call, too.’ So when they go out there, and we need to go on fourth down, and we they want to be aggressive, you need to go all in,” Watts said after the quarterfinal win. “Make sure you do your job and get it done.

“It’s just so refreshing to have coaches like that.”

If Watts, a leader of the defense and a consensus two-time All-American defensive back, feels this way, the rest of the team is likely to follow suit. It takes a large amount of buy-in from everyone to piece together a 12-game winning streak — especially after suffering its last defeat to Northern Illinois back in September.

After that game finished, there weren’t many on Notre Dame’s side within the national media or on X. Still, those within the Fighting Irish program had an internal belief that they could work their way back — and that’s exactly what happened.

Since Notre Dame is unattached to a conference, the best they can be seeded in the CFP is fifth, and they accomplished it all. Now, they’re one win away from playing in a national championship game.

They can’t get caught looking ahead, though. They have to go through a tough Penn State team that finished as the Big Ten runner-up and beat SMU and Boise State to get to where they are ahead of the Orange Bowl.

Kickoff is set for Thursday, Jan. 9 at 7:30 pm. ET and will air live on ESPN. The Fighting Irish are 1.5-point betting favorites to begin the week. The over/under is set at 45.5 in what is expected to be a tight battle between stout defenses.