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AP Top 25 Takeaways: Marcus Freeman again explains a surprising loss at Notre Dame 3 years ago

By RALPH D. RUSSO, AP College Football Writer

Notre Dame coach Marcus Freeman has yet to master the most underrated part of coaching college football at a top-tier school: beating the teams you’re supposed to beat.

It’s not always easy. Just ask No. 7 Oregon and No. 8 Penn State.

Freeman can now add Saturday’s surprising home loss to underdog Northern Illinois by 28 points to a resume that already includes being upset at home by Marshall and a Stanford team that was in the midst of a 3-9 season in 2022.

“We’ve been here before,” Freeman told reporters.

More or less. This one is much worse.

This is Freeman’s third year at the helm of the Fighting Irish. At 38, he’s still a young coach, but inexperience is no longer an excuse. Not for Freeman or his team.

“Our job as coaches is to make sure these guys are ready to play. I’ve always said that performance is a reflection of preparation,” he said.

Notre Dame came in fifth, coming off a quality road win over Texas A&M and looking like a team with perhaps the most manageable path to the College Football Playoff in the country, starting with a Mid-American Conference team at home.

The Fighting Irish scored a touchdown the first time they touched the ball and then scored just one more time the rest of the day, a third-quarter rushing touchdown by Jeremiyah Love to go up 14-13.

It looked like it was going to be enough for a while, but new Notre Dame transfer quarterback Riley Leonard and the offense were never able to put up any points. When Leonard threw a gruesome interception that put the Huskies at midfield with about six minutes remaining, you could almost feel the fear gripping Touchdown Jesus.

Even with the help of a couple of pretty glaring officiating errors in the final minute (a misplaced ball cost NIU a first down and then the refs forgot to run the clock after a measurement), the Irish couldn’t pull it off in the end and lost 16-14.

Northern Illinois outgained Notre Dame by 102 yards, was better on third down and held the ball for nearly 10 more minutes.

But how?

Freeman was hired with much enthusiasm when Brian Kelly left for LSU. Yes, he was his first head coach, but he seemed to be the antithesis of Kelly in all the best ways.

He connected with players and fans in a way Kelly never had. He was present, passionate and charismatic.

For more than 12 years, Kelly won more games than any other coach in Notre Dame’s storied history, but he was never beloved in South Bend.

It took Kelly several years to figure out the formula for success at Notre Dame, and he suffered plenty of such losses early on, to teams like Tulsa, Navy and South Florida.

In 2017, Kelly was successful as the Irish posted seven consecutive 10-win seasons and two playoff appearances with four teams. The criticism of Kelly was that his teams couldn’t win the biggest games or compete with the best teams.

But he swept the board in the games he was supposed to win and Irish fans couldn’t help but appreciate it.

It’s not the most attractive trait for a college football coach, but avoiding being the biggest story of the weekend by losing to a clearly underdog team keeps the peace.

According to Fox Sports’ Chris Fallica, there have been 28 losses by a home favorite by at least 16 points in college football since 2022. Freeman’s teams now account for three of them.

The third year is historically a big year for Notre Dame coaches, filled with national titles and championship game appearances.

By all accounts, this seemed like the team with Freeman’s highest ceiling, though perhaps we underestimated the problems a completely rebuilt offensive line would present. Still, that can’t be exposed against a MAC team in the home opener.

“We’re 1-1. We have to accept that fact. But we’ve got a long season ahead of us,” safety Xavier Watts told reporters.

He’s right. The 12-team College Football Playoff changes everything this year, but Notre Dame was already in danger of facing intense scrutiny from the selection committee for a schedule that isn’t very loaded.

Maybe that will change. Louisville is ranked No. 22. No. 13 Southern California is off to a good start after beating Kelly’s LSU team in Week 1. That seems like a stretch.

“We have to take this on. Every coach. Every person here. We all have to take this on,” Freeman said.

Oh, you definitely will.

Surviving Jeanty

Oregon found itself in a tough game in the fourth quarter for the second straight week, this time facing serious pressure from perhaps the best running back in the country.

Boise State’s Ashton Jeanty scored three more touchdowns, including a 70-yarder, for his nine in two games. The Ducks survived thanks to two special teams touchdowns and a short, last-second field goal.

Oregon will next be part of a fascinating doubleheader in the Pacific Northwest. The Ducks will visit Oregon State in the first game of the rivalry since the Pac-12 collapsed.

In Seattle, Washington State and Washington are playing for the Apple Cup. None of the four have lost yet.

Miss Michigan

You could say No. 3 Texas’ blowout win over No. 10 Michigan was decided in the first half, but in reality it was probably decided last December when the Wolverines fell out of the transfer portal.

To be fair, Michigan was on its way to winning a national title with a head coach in Jim Harbaugh, who anyone with the internet knew would most likely return to the NFL.

Not exactly an ideal way to begin the rebuilding process for a roster that was on the verge of sending more than a dozen players to the NFL.

Still, in this era of free agency in college football, it’s hard to believe new Michigan coach Sherrone Moore has entered a season with this quarterback situation.

Davis Warren is a great story, a cancer survivor who is better than your average player, but right now he doesn’t look like a player who should be a starter on a team considered a playoff contender.

Alex Orji looked like the heir apparent to first-round draft pick JJ McCarthy, despite throwing just six career passes during his first two seasons at Michigan. At the very least, the 6-foot-3, 230-pound Texan would be a ground threat for the Wolverines’ offense. But he was outclassed by Warren, who threw two interceptions against Texas and had just 73 passing yards through three quarters.

A transfer quarterback isn’t a sure bet, as Kentucky and Florida State are finding out. But what would Ohio State transfer Kyle McCord (eight touchdown passes in two games for Syracuse) have looked like in a maize-and-blue winged helmet this year?

How about something more like a developmental player? Alabama transfer Eli Holstein has six touchdown passes and two 300-yard passing games, leading Pitt to a 2-0 start. Texas transfer Maalik Murphy has Duke 2-0, with five touchdown passes.

Of course, it’s not just a quarterback problem on Michigan’s offense. It’s the most glaring problem.

“I never thought about the struggles of growth, but rather what we can do to get better,” Moore said. “We knew we were a new team. We never tried to rest on our laurels because we won the national championship last year.”

All over the country

There are currently three Southeastern Conference teams in the top four of the AP rankings: No. 1 Georgia, No. 3 Texas and No. 4 Alabama. No. 14 Tennessee might be closer to that group than its ranking suggests. The Volunteers overwhelmed No. 24 NC State. … Freeman could benefit from some advice from Penn State coach James Franklin. The eighth-ranked Nittany Lions allowed 24 points and 289 yards and trailed Bowling Green (another MAC team) in the first half before fixing what was wrong at halftime and winning a one-score game. Surely, Penn State fans weren’t thrilled, but almost losing is still winning, so Happy Valley is a better place to be this weekend than South Bend. … Big 12 contenders No. 16 Oklahoma State and No. 17 Kansas State both needed second-half comebacks to win tough nonconference games. The Cowboys allowed 648 yards to Taylen Green (another hot transfer quarterback) and Arkansas but took advantage of a slew of Razorbacks mistakes to win in double overtime. … The Wildcats needed a last-second rally, and benefited from an offensive pass interference penalty on Tulane, to emerge undefeated from New Orleans. … A pair of ranked teams weren’t as fortunate against unranked teams: Iowa State rallied to beat No. 21 Iowa on freshman kicker Kyle Konrady’s 54-yard field goal in the final seconds. Illinois beat No. 19 Kansas for its first win against a ranked nonconference opponent since 2019. … No. 11 Utah was rolling against Baylor before sixth-year QB Cam Rising exited with a hand injury. The Utes closed out the win and said afterward that Rising’s injury wasn’t serious. Better not be considering how Utah’s offense operates without him. … When UAB made the unusual, splashy hire of former Super Bowl champion Trent Dilfer, who was coaching a high school team in Tennessee, the school passed on interim coach Bryant Vincent. Louisiana-Monroe hired Vincent this offseason and on Saturday ULM beat UAB 32-6. … No. 25 Clemson played like a team that was tired of hearing that it shouldn’t be taken seriously as a national contender anymore, scoring 35 in the first quarter against Appalachian State.

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Follow Ralph D. Russo at https://twitter.com/ralphDrussoAP

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The Associated Press contributed to this article.