MIAMI GARDENS, Florida – Before Mitch Jeterthe 41 yard field goal is sent Notre Dame to the national championship gameBefore Christian GrayDiving Intercept set it up or before Jeremy LoveWith his mutant performance on a braced right knee, Marcus Freeman stood in front of his team inside the Diplomat Hotel in Hollywood Beach on Wednesday afternoon.
Notre Dame’s head coach was just returning from a final news conference before kickoff, the kind of throwaway media meeting usually forgotten before the last photo of the bowl trophy can be taken. This was not one of those times. Not for Freeman, the Notre Dame head coach whose youth was at odds with what it takes to succeed in this sport of old guards and vintage attitudes. A head coach criticized for not winning enough big games has decided to put his counterpart forward.
State of Pennsylvania Head coach James Franklin playfully asked Freeman how old he was. He complimented her hairline. He might as well have patted the 38-year-old on the head and told him what a good job he was doing. Because that’s how Freeman heard it, through gritted teeth. And now Freeman was going to give that energy to a new source.
His players found it hard to believe it.
“He was angry. He was angry about the press conference, no matter what happened in between. Xavier Watts said. “He was crazy about it. All the anger was directed towards us and that anger was directed towards the field.
In a game where Notre Dame needed everything from its backup quarterback to two backup offensive linemen, Franklin was able to give the Irish a little more. There was more to this dramatic College Football Playoff semifinal than Franklin’s self-inflicted verbal wounds — the confetti littering Hard Rock Stadium told that story. Notre Dame didn’t win because of something that was said on the other side. It won because this program knows how to catalyze all the benefits and address all the challenges.
Franklin just gave one away as a bonus.
“I’m not going to talk about their head coach, but we felt like their team didn’t really respect us,” Love said. “We wanted to come into this game and make a statement. Be the aggressors. Dominate them physically. That’s the message. Be physical and play violently. The whole game.”
At the end, Notre Dame wins 27-24 over Penn State it was all that and more. The Fighting Irish lost three offensive starters in the first half, with two offensive linemen out for the game and one quarterback. Riley Leonard suffering from a head injury, which Notre Dame classified as something other than a concussion. In his absence, reinforcement Steve Angeli saved the first half, if not the day, by leading Notre Dame to a field goal after the Irish fell behind 10-0, their first double-digit deficit of the season.
There was still fire at halftime, with Freeman demanding that Notre Dame follow its Biggest bowl win in a generation against Georgia in the Sugar Bowl with something bigger here. The Irish had been cut to the ground by Kaytron Allen And Nicholas Singleton in the first half, not to mention the tight end Tyler Warren. They didn’t define the edges, didn’t make their drops, failed to get the details they’d been nailing all year.
And Notre Dame’s offense, a disastrous class in the first half, needed Love to play the hero when so few others could. Left tackle Anthony Knapp had already been lost, replaced by a career save Tosh Baker to face a future top-five pick Abdul Carter. When keeps Rocco Spindler fell, redshirt freshman Charles Jagusah intervened, a tackle who hadn’t played all season asked to work him as a guard. And inexplicably he did, as Notre Dame built a 17-10 lead early in the fourth quarter when Love’s 2-yard run crossed four State of Pennsylvania tacklers somehow overshadowed his 98-yard score against Indiana to open the College Football Playoff.
This view of Jeremiah Love’s touchdown 😳 pic.twitter.com/oSdhKereqU
– ESPN College Football (@ESPNFCB) January 10, 2025
Love aggravated his MCL injury against Georgiaso much so that his availability seemed in question before Notre Dame arrived in Florida. And even during the week, Love wasn’t sure if he’d be able to do more than just take snaps, which wouldn’t have been enough for Notre Dame. Not in a game like this.
“I kind of came here and said f-it and went out there and played,” Love said. “Whatever happens, I trust in God. I trust in His plan for me.
After two Singleton touchdowns pushed Penn State ahead 24-17, making it seem like Notre Dame might not have an answer to those final questions asked, Leonard threw back a roughing interception to find Jaden’s Big House for a 54-yard touchdown with 4:38 left. It was part of Greathouse’s seven-catch, 105-yard night, the first 100-yard performance of his college career.
“This team has fought adversity all year, challenges and struggles, we have been able to overcome them all,” Greathouse said. “That’s the feeling tonight.”
Notre Dame coach Marcus Freeman turned 39 on Friday. (Carmen Mandato/Getty Images)
And then Notre Dame closed the door on Penn State as it knows best, by baiting Drew Allar in an interception that reportedly took place all night. One from Gray in the first half was erased by penalty. Another in the second half by the linebacker Jack Kisser was taken off the board due to pass interference. Gray made sure the third would stay, playing coverage that defensive coordinator Al Golden said he didn’t call all night.
“He’s going to throw one at us, he’s going to throw one at us,” Watts said. “We knew it would happen at some point and it happened when it mattered most.”
Linebacker Jaylen Sneed I had just enough pressure on Allar to give the quarterback a little less time to throw, which is what Gray needed. Once again, nice margins. Some won in the movie theater. Some taken in the field. Some are gifted, if you know where to listen when the microphones are rolling.
Notre Dame turned Gray’s pick into a seven-play, 19-yard procession to the field goal. By then, Franklin had exhausted his timeouts, unable even to freeze Jeter’s game-winning try. And maybe it wouldn’t have mattered anyway. The transfer kicker drilled his second 41-yarder of the night to send Notre Dame to Atlanta, seeking its first national championship since 1988.
In the Notre Dame locker room, Kiser tried to make sense of it all, of his six-year journey to becoming Irish captain under this promising head coach, hired to take the program where some thought it might not happen again. Kiser didn’t want to go into too much detail about the fire and brimstone Freeman spewed the day before kickoff when the 38-year-old head coach showed this program had a weapon to lead it.
And yet, as Kiser returned to the locker room, a red digital clock flashed: 12:17 a.m. had passed. It was no longer game night. It happened to be Marcus Freeman’s birthday, now in the early morning hours of January 10th.
“Let’s just say 17 minutes ago Coach Freeman turned 39,” Kiser said. “So he’s not that young man the way a lot of people treat him. Guys want to play for Coach Freeman, and when you add gasoline to that fire, it can get really explosive in this locker room.
GO DEEPER
Drew Allar’s late interception in Orange Bowl loss leaves Penn State with familiar punch
(Photo: Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)