Notre Dame historic loss to Northern Illinois is latest blemish on Marcus Freeman's resume

Marcus Freeman ain’t making it easy on himself. 

For the second time in three seasons, No. 5 Notre Dame got embarrassed at home by a Group of 5 opponent — this time paying Northern Illinois $1.4 million to become the first MAC program to ever beat a Top 5 team.

The Huskies 16. The Irish 14.

The pressure on Freeman for the rest of the 2024 season? Priceless. 

Once again, the Irish had a major letdown coming off a spirited performance. Two years ago in Freemen’s debut season as a head coach, Notre Dame fought valiantly against No. 2 Ohio State only to get upset by Marshall at home the very next weekend. Later that season, the Irish upset then No. 16 BYU in Las Vegas and returned home to lose to a Stanford team that went 3-9 in 2022. 

Now, a week after getting their flowers for displaying their toughness and defensive savviness in a win at Texas A&M, Freeman’s team couldn’t avoid another no-show performance against an undermanned opponent. 

“It’s obviously disappointing,” Freeman said postgame. 

“It’s our job as coaches to make sure these guys are ready to go. We got to go back and evaluate the way we prepare and figure out exactly the mishaps that occurred in the preparation. I’ve always said performance is a reflection of preparation. So we’ve got to figure out where we failed in preparation.

“It’s disappointing. You go from the highest of highs to the lowest of lows in the tale of two weeks. We’ve got to own this thing as coaches and players. We got to own it. We got to fix it. We’ve been here before. Now it’s time to get it fixed and get back to playing football the way we know how to play. We can and we will.”

We’ve heard this refrain from Freeman before. He’s great at taking ownership of cataclysmic losses, but at some point these inexplicable performances will be deemed unacceptable. 

Notre Dame has one of the more underrated rosters in all of college football. In my offseason unit rankings, only the Irish — and No. 1 Georgia — made the cut for ever positional unit. 

Why do the Irish play their best against the best, only to completely lack competitiveness or juice against below-average teams?

The loss to Marshall was bad. Saturday’s defeat to Northern Illinois was historic. After beating the Aggies, the Irish had odds over 66% to go undefeated the rest of the regular season. They were four-touchdown favorites against the Huskies — resulting in the program’s biggest upset since the Clinton Administration. 

Somehow, a week after blocking the likes of Nic Scourton, Shemar Turner and Shemar Stewart (zero combined sacks), the Irish’s offensive line had Riley Leonard running for his life (three sacks, multiple hurries) against a MAC defense. Leonard was also terrible when he did have time to throw (two interceptions including an awful throw that set up Northern Illinois’ go-ahead field goal). New OC Mike Dembrock displayed little confidence in the Duke transfer quarterback, and the result was an Irish offense that ended the game with four drives with no punt, two punts and two turnovers.

Meanwhile, the Irish’s defensive line — one with Howard Cross and other future NFL players — got pushed around by the Huskies’ veteran offensive line. In the end, Notre Dame was out-gained by over 100 yards and had to punt five times. 

The fact that the first and second halves ended with Notre Dame blocked field goals was the perfect sad trombone to the Irish’s no-good, very bad day. 

It’s too soon to write off Notre Dame for the College Football Playoff, but there’s no doubt the Irish’s odds took a major hit with a schedule that’s littered with cupcakes from your favorite local bakery — Northern Illinois included.

Based on Notre Dame’s program history, Year 3 was always going to be a make-or-break season that defined Freeman’s future tenure. And after a whirlwind of two weeks, there continue to be more questions than answers. 

Freeman has rallied the troops before, but he was supposed to elevate the Irish after taking over for Brian Kelly. Instead, Notre Dame continues to ride a rollercoaster of highs and lows — and if that continues those in South Bend are going to tire of all the motion sickness and say, ‘Enough is enough.”