The trademark of all the first time Head Coaches before him and now Freeman. ND will always have the talent to pretty much beat anyone on any given Saturday. We have seen guys like Faust, Davie, Weis, and Freeman win big games. Freeman fan boys love to peacock over "big wins" over Clemson in 2022, USC 2023, and now Texas A&M in 2024, but those wins are completely nullified by horrific losses to Marshall 2022, Stanford 2022, Louisville 2023, Clemson 2023, and NIU 2024.
Faust won 1982 home opener, vs #10 Michigan first game ever played under the lights at ND.
Faust won a 1982 road game vs #1 undefeated Pitt and Dan Marino. The team still finished 6-4-1 and did not go to a bowl game
Faust in 1984, ND went on the road beat #7 LSU and #14 USC to turn the rivalry around. Team finished 7-5
Davie 1997 went on the road and beat #7 LSU The team finished 7-6
Davie 1998 beat #5 Michigan at home The team finished 9-3
Davie 1999 beat #23 OU at home (Bob Stoops first team at OU ND finished 5-7
Davie 2000 beat #25 Texas A&M and #13 Purdue (Drew Bees) at home ND finished 9-3
Weis 2005 beat #25 Pitt and #3 Michigan on the road ND finished 9-3
Weis 2006 beat #19 Penn State at home
If you will go back in history you will see that ND only plays on average about 2 or 3 teams a year that end up ranked in the Top 25. Meaning they play 9-10 gams a year vs unranked opponents.
Does not take a rocket scientist to figure out that priority #1, is to take care of unranked opponents and teams you are favored to beat. That will pretty much guarantee ND 10 wins per year in the regular season, That is why ND was 54-9 under Kelly his last 5 seasons, and why ND is 21-9 under Freeman through 2.3 seasons. When the ND program was handed to Freeman it was 11-1, #5 and had won 40 games in a row vs unranked opponents.
The recruiting has allegedly improved, the talent has allegedly improved, why has the record gotten worse? Coaching inexperience. Freeman needs to win out and make the playoffs to reverse all the history I just laid out.
Everyone is talking about USC the last game of the year, that game in prime time I am not worried about, the players will sense that is a big game and be ready. My worries are Louisville, G Tech, and 0-3 FSU. Those are the games ND may not be ready for, and all those teams have enough talent to beat ND. Lose any of those game and this season is officially a disaster.
Faust won 1982 home opener, vs #10 Michigan first game ever played under the lights at ND.
Faust won a 1982 road game vs #1 undefeated Pitt and Dan Marino. The team still finished 6-4-1 and did not go to a bowl game
Faust in 1984, ND went on the road beat #7 LSU and #14 USC to turn the rivalry around. Team finished 7-5
Davie 1997 went on the road and beat #7 LSU The team finished 7-6
Davie 1998 beat #5 Michigan at home The team finished 9-3
Davie 1999 beat #23 OU at home (Bob Stoops first team at OU ND finished 5-7
Davie 2000 beat #25 Texas A&M and #13 Purdue (Drew Bees) at home ND finished 9-3
Weis 2005 beat #25 Pitt and #3 Michigan on the road ND finished 9-3
Weis 2006 beat #19 Penn State at home
If you will go back in history you will see that ND only plays on average about 2 or 3 teams a year that end up ranked in the Top 25. Meaning they play 9-10 gams a year vs unranked opponents.
Does not take a rocket scientist to figure out that priority #1, is to take care of unranked opponents and teams you are favored to beat. That will pretty much guarantee ND 10 wins per year in the regular season, That is why ND was 54-9 under Kelly his last 5 seasons, and why ND is 21-9 under Freeman through 2.3 seasons. When the ND program was handed to Freeman it was 11-1, #5 and had won 40 games in a row vs unranked opponents.
The recruiting has allegedly improved, the talent has allegedly improved, why has the record gotten worse? Coaching inexperience. Freeman needs to win out and make the playoffs to reverse all the history I just laid out.
Everyone is talking about USC the last game of the year, that game in prime time I am not worried about, the players will sense that is a big game and be ready. My worries are Louisville, G Tech, and 0-3 FSU. Those are the games ND may not be ready for, and all those teams have enough talent to beat ND. Lose any of those game and this season is officially a disaster.
