Notre Dame Loses to Northern Illinois: There Are No Words…

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The last thing I want to be doing right now is writing this. But I have to eventually, so might as well rip off the band-aid.

It should be said at the outset that the lone bright spot for Notre Dame is that they can still make the newly-expanded 12-team College Football Playoff so long as they win the remainder of their games. As for the feasibility of doing so after what just happened against Northern freaking Illinois — as well as the feasibility of actually winning games in the Playoff since a 5-seed is likely off the table for the Irish — the outlook isn’t so bright.

But with that nitty gritty stuff out of the way, let’s get straight to the point: it’s now fair to legitimately have conversations about Marcus Freeman’s competency as head coach at Notre Dame.

Photo by Jack Gorman/Getty Images

Losses to Marshall and Stanford in year 1 were atrocious but arguably part of Freeman learning how to be a head coach. Year 2 seemingly showed improvement since Notre Dame destroyed every team over whom they had a distinct talent advantage. But now here we are in year 3, following up what seemed to be a really good win at Texas A&M with unquestionably the worst loss of Freeman’s tenure.

You could debate that Marshall or Stanford were worse, but the 2022 season bore out that that Notre Dame team was deeply flawed and, again, had a first-time and first-year head coach. This season may bear out this team’s faults as well (that is, faults that haven’t already been exposed by Saturday’s loss). But losses like this shouldn’t happen to a program with a third-year head coach, one of the most experienced pairs of coordinators in the country and such markedly superior talent compared to the opponent. So, yeah, it’s the worst loss.

There are a lot of different ways to dissect the L the Huskies handed to the Irish. From what seemed to be baffling coaching decisions to the players’ consistent inability to execute, this was a complete and utter disaster. But with so much that went wrong, it would be a fool’s errand to follow every tributary to the source of what ails this year’s roster and coaching staff so severely that they could possibly lose to NIU.

So, I’ll simply point out the thing that frustrates me the most. In short, time is a flat circle. The parallels are plentiful between this game and the losses to Marshall (another home-opening loss in a letdown spot after a marquee season-opener on the road) and Stanford (the exact same final score in a slog of a game where a late turnover cost the Irish the win). But this reminds me all too much of that 2018 game against Ball State where Notre Dame tried to make quarterback Brandon Wimbush into something he wasn’t.

If you’ve (understandably) blocked out that Ball State game from your memory, all you need to know is that Wimbush’s final stats were 17-31 passing for 297 yards, 0 touchdowns and 3 interceptions to go with 11 carries for -7 yards (counting sacks). Did Ball State manage to contain one of the most dynamic running quarterbacks in Notre Dame history? Of course not. The Irish coaching staff knew they had a better team and thought they could use the game as a last-ditch opportunity to make Wimbush — a 49.5% passer the year prior — into something he wasn’t by telling him to stay in the pocket and not bail out with his legs.

New dual-threat (or, let’s be honest, single-threat) quarterback Riley Leonard made comments pregame about using the NIU matchup as an opportunity to work on his passing. Freeman was informed of this and said Leonard just needed to focus on executing the game plan. Regardless of whether working on Leonard’s passing wasn’t part of the game plan or, like that Ball State game, it was and Freeman simply didn’t want Leonard disclosing as much, there was a disconnect.

Once again it was plain to see that Notre Dame doesn’t have an SEC-level pass-rush or home atmosphere that can cover up for severe offensive ineptitude. Once again, trying to fit square pegs in round holes came back to bite them.

Blame Leonard for making terrible passing decisions that led to two costly interceptions. Blame the offensive line for failing to protect him like they should have against a MAC opponent. Blame Jaden Greenhouse for dropping a potential touchdown catch that would have at least put Notre Dame in scoring position. Blame a defense that came up short in crucial situations — and yet still held the opposing team to a point total (16) that should have been easy for the offense to clear.

Blame everyone you want. But the buck stops with Freeman. He approved bringing in Riley Leonard from the transfer portal. He approved bringing in transfer wide receivers who, with the exception of Beaux Collins, aren’t living up to the hype the media gave them this offseason. Freeman didn’t bring in a transfer on the offensive line and he hired an O-line coach who had an inexperienced group ready to play at Texas A&M one week and then floundering against a MAC opponent the next.

To be frank, Freeman’s pulling the same crap as head coach that his predecessor did. The difference is that Brian Kelly — for all the hate he catches from Notre Dame fans because he didn’t think he could win a championship in South Bend — still found a way to win games like this by the end of his tenure.

Fans will point out Kelly’s failings against college football’s best when he coached the Irish. But at least Notre Dame didn’t lose to an unranked team in the last five years with Kelly as coach. Fans will also point to Freeman’s 8-4 record against top-25 teams versus Kelly’s 5-6 record his final three years, but that’s a BS statistic. Freeman is 3-5 against teams that actually finished a season ranked. 2022 BYU and Syracuse finished unranked, as did 2023 Duke, USC and Oregon State — and my money’s on Texas A&M to finish unranked this season as well.

Freeman isn’t a good enough coach and his roster is too flawed at too many key positions to f*ck around and find out with a MAC team. That’s a bitter pill to swallow, but one that needs to be swallowed nonetheless. Pussyfooting tempts fate, and fate is a cruel mistress.

Being a head coach means having a grasp on your personnel. You have to know their strengths, know their weaknesses and know how to push their buttons so they don’t make the kinds of decisions Notre Dame’s players made to lose that game. I don’t want to hear any more about what Notre Dame’s staff thought they might have had with Leonard, these receivers and this offensive line. What matters is what they actually have.

Obviously, a coaching staff won’t have a perfect read on their team if they only go off what they see in practices. The conundrum is how to ascertain your team’s capabilities without a little experimentation while bullets are flying. I’m not saying it’s easy, but these kinds of losses aren’t happening to other teams at the top of the sport, so it is possible.

It doesn’t feel like too much to ask that Notre Dame’s coaches find a way to keep fans from feeling sheer embarrassment when they wear their Irish paraphernalia in public. Here’s hoping the coaches can eventually oblige.