Notre Dame football plummets from polls after loss to Marshall
Remember when Notre Dame was ranked No. 5 in both the Coaches Poll and the Associated Press Poll? That lasted all of one week until a season-opening loss to Ohio State.
Now, the Fighting Irish (0-2) have fallen out of both polls entirely.
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Notre Dame entered Week 2 ranked No. 8 in the AP Poll and No. 9 in the Coaches Poll. Saturday’s 26-21 loss to Marshall sent the Irish spiraling out of the rankings. This is the first time Notre Dame has not appeared in the AP Poll since 2017, snapping a streak of 80 consecutive weeks in the rankings. Head coach Marcus Freeman is still searching for his first win in charge of the program, and he became the first coach in Irish history to lose his first three games.
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• Quotes and notes: Analyzing what Marcus Freeman said after Notre Dame loss to Marshall
Losses to No. 9 Oklahoma State in the Fiesta Bowl and then-No. 2 Ohio State on the road in this year’s season opener were not nearly as harmful to the program’s psyche as this weekend’s upsetting upheaval at the hands of the Thundering Herd, a Sun Belt conference member who entered the game as a 20-point underdog.
With two losses on the ledger and hopes of a third College Football Playoff appearance since 2018 effectively dashed, Notre Dame doesn’t need to focus on the polls. The Irish simply have to find a way to play better football, and they need to do it in a hurry. A loss to California on Saturday would be the program’s first four-game losing streak since 2014.
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Notre Dame had previously beaten 42 unranked opponents in a row. The Irish hadn’t lost consecutive regular season games since 2016. They hadn’t lost three games in a row of any kind since the final two games of 2015 and the 2016 season opener. Notre Dame went 4-8 in 2016. The Irish were 54-10 from 2017-21.
Needless to say, these are trying times for Freeman and Fighting Irish football. The program hasn’t endured a stretch of losing like this in over half a decade.
Week 3 AP Poll
- Georgia
- Alabama
- Ohio State
- Michigan
- Clemson
- Oklahoma
- USC
- Oklahoma State
- Kentucky
- Arkansas
- Michigan State
- BYU
- Miami
- Utah
- Tennessee
- NC State
- Baylor
- Florida
- Wake Forest
- Ole Miss
- Texas
- Penn State
- Pitt
- Texas A&M
- Oregon
Week 3 Coaches Poll
- Alabama
- Georgia
- Ohio State
- Clemson
- Michigan
- Oklahoma
- Oklahoma State
- USC
- Michigan State
- Kentucky
- Arkansas
- NC State
- Miami
- BYU
- Utah
- Tennessee
- Ole Miss
- Wake Forest
- Baylor
- Texas
- Florida
- Texas A&M
- Penn State
- Oregon
- Pitt
