Freeman Keeps Notre Dame's Eyes on Wisconsin, Not Last Season's Playoff Snub
The Fighting Irish open Sept. 6 at Lambeau Field with a coach determined not to look past Week 1
By Gus "Walk-Off" Fields
Marcus Freeman has heard all about last season. He'd rather talk about Sept. 6.
Notre Dame missed the College Football Playoff at the end of last season, a result that stung a program built on the expectation of January football. But according to ESPN, Freeman isn't letting his players dwell on it. The message this preseason has been simple: win now, worry about the postseason later.
That starts with a season opener carrying its own weight of history and spectacle — the Fighting Irish against the Wisconsin Badgers at Lambeau Field, home of the Green Bay Packers. Playing college football's most storied program in an NFL cathedral is the kind of setting that could distract a team chasing redemption. Freeman's bet is that keeping the focus narrow — this game, this week — is what actually gets Notre Dame back to where it wants to be.
It's a familiar coaching line, the one about controlling what you can control. But for a program that has felt the sting of just missing the field when the bracket expanded last year, there's real substance behind the cliché. The Irish don't need to win a championship in September. They need to beat Wisconsin.
ESPN's report doesn't detail specific quotes from Freeman on the matter, so the full flavor of his message to the locker room remains, for now, behind closed doors. What's clear is the intent: no shortcuts, no scoreboard-watching a playoff committee months away. Just Lambeau, just the Badgers, just Week 1.
For Notre Dame fans still sore about last December, that kind of tunnel vision might be exactly the medicine the program needs.
— Compiled from reporting by ESPN.
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