SOUTH BEND, Ind. — Notre Dame was not wrong to almost certainly have fireworks primed to celebrate a win against a top-10 opponent when Ohio State arrived in South Bend. It was just early. As soon as the green explosions dotted the sky on Saturday night after the Irish (6-2) topped No. 10 USC, 48-20, it was logical to assume those pyrotechnics had waited for three weeks, first readied for No. 6 Ohio State’s visit.
Notre Dame fans were not wrong to be discussing field-storming logistics as that September clock wound down in the final minute, just early.
And Irish head coach Marcus Freeman was not wrong a year ago, discussing a game plan of aggressively pursuing Trojans star quarterback Caleb Williams rather than spying on him. That plan burned Notre Dame in 2022, sealing Williams’s Heisman Trophy win, but it proved effective Saturday night, the Irish ending Williams’s hopes at repeating that individual honor. Freeman was just early.
More often than not, college football does not yield just early. One ill-fated bounce of an oblong ball, one lost recruit or one clock management mistake can lead to a butterfly effect ruining any salvage hopes in a season, can undo an entire roster construction or can knock over the first domino in a coach’s downfall.
Twice now in his two seasons as a head coach, Freeman has defied that likelihood to find a signature moment, no matter that the adjective signature is singular. The fact that Freeman has instilled outward joy in Notre Dame fans in two consecutive seasons after all Playoff hopes had already been dashed may be his actual signature on the program.
Marcus Freeman embraces the moment in the tunnel with Notre Dame fans pic.twitter.com/ARwlJzPaiq
— Douglas Farmer (@D_Farmer) October 15, 2023
“I don’t have a whole bunch of words,” Freeman said Saturday night, a rarity for a 37-year-old who sometimes says a few more words than he should. “I’m just going to enjoy this one, and I’m so happy to be a part of this place with this team and this university.
“You realize the support through adversity sometimes, and the amount of people around this university and our players, they understand how special it is to be a part of this football program.”
Those fireworks could have been emptied by hand after the loss to the Buckeyes, but the university kept them loaded, a passive yet tangible piece of support of the head coach.
— Matt Cashore (@mattcashore) October 15, 2023
While 18- to 23-year-olds (and Sam Hartman) may not have the longest memories, they are also prone to emotional momentum. A clear coaching blunder (the current situation at Miami; Notre Dame playing only 10 men for the final two defensive plays against Ohio State) or a season doomed to fall short of its goals (the current situation at Texas A&M; the Irish suffering a second loss at Louisville) can quickly devolve into more and greater problems, particularly in the era of the transfer portal when no player is cemented into a spiraling program for years to come.
Instead, Notre Dame rallied. That may be the fans’ expectation, but it is not as common as expectations want.
“When you have a loss like that, you either win or learn,” Irish junior running back Audric Estimé said. “Last week (at Louisville) was a learning experience. What anti-fragile means is you get stronger from adversity, we did that. We had a great week of practice and came out today and that was the result, being stronger from last week.”
Notre Dame’s offense is still rife with worries. It averaged 3.8 gains of 30 or more yards in the season’s first four games and has managed just one per week in the last four games, including Chris Tyree’s 46-yard touchdown catch Saturday night. While the gross Irish stats were actually diminished by the defense’s success, the fact that Notre Dame scored only one touchdown on seven drives beginning in its own territory is a sign for further concern this year.
That touchdown was Tyree’s, turning what could have been a sustained drive into an explosive one, a weekly want and need but also one not predictive. It halted any USC comeback thoughts, but it does not serve as proof of concept moving forward.
#USC HC Lincoln Riley said he told the coaches on the headset both times USC trimmed the lead to 11 that if the Trojans got one more stop and got the ball back, they were going to win the game.
— Shotgun Spratling (@ShotgunSpr) October 17, 2023
USC’s last three opponents converted 58 percent of their late downs (third- and fourth-down conversion lumped into one), compared to just 46.5 percent against their other opponents entering this past weekend. And Arizona State, Colorado and Arizona are, broadly speaking, below average Power Five offenses. The Irish went 3-of-10 on late downs, somehow lower than their 42.7 percent rate through the previous seven games.
Notre Dame continues to have offensive woes, ones camouflaged Saturday by two return touchdowns, two exceedingly short fields and a fifth touchdown set up by an interception exactly at midfield.
But the Irish defense should continue to make up for it through season’s final third, a quirk of the calendar that it will feel like the final half.
Leading into last season’s matchup with USC, Freeman outlined an aggressive approach to hemming in Williams, one utterly ruined by his ability to consistently evade Notre Dame’s pass rushers and even second-level defenders.
“Stay in your rush lanes. If you have an opportunity to bring him down, bring him down and bring your feet and don’t dive,” Freeman said last November. “Don’t play spy. I like to use the term ‘controlled aggression.’ We have to be aggressive, but it has to be under control.”
Williams ran for 70 yards and three touchdowns on seven carries (sacks adjusted), complementing his 18-of-22 passing for 232 yards and another score. USC receiver Jordan Addison pantomimed placing a crown on Williams’s head, deservedly so.
Afterward, Freeman had little interest in further discussing Williams. The talent had entirely outdone Notre Dame’s game plan.
“I don’t have anything else to say about him,” Freeman said when asked a year ago for a second summary of the Heisman-winning performance.
It was in a tone that suggested the Irish would not be beaten by Williams again, and they very much were not.
Notre Dame blitzed on 16 of USC’s 45 snaps Saturday, but gave Caleb Williams more trouble with a four-man rush. ND sacked Caleb five times w/o the blitz, per @pff. Of the 29 dropbacks ND didn’t blitz, Williams was pressured 14 times and threw two picks, both while under pressure.
— Ryan Kartje (@Ryan_Kartje) October 16, 2023
“Be aggressive,” Freeman said Saturday, echoing his plans from a year ago. “... We have to have relentless rushers against Caleb Williams, and we were able to do that, and it was a group of guys that were able to really get pressure on him.”
That pressure was not the wrong move a year ago, just early. In that instance, it was often literally early, only one pass rusher putting pressure on Williams and thus leaving him plenty of exit routes before support showed up in the backfield. This year, Javontae Jean-Baptiste was joined by Marist Liufua or JD Bertrand, Jaylen Sneed was buttressed by Howard Cross.
Their aggression embodied the Irish need to push forward this season, far from a certainty but now a reality, one that elicited the kinds of joys from Notre Dame fans in South Bend not seen since last November’s upset of Clemson and, before that, not seen since … at least a decade ago.
Never wrong, just early.