Marcus Freeman’s Unshakable Belief Guides Notre Dame Into CFP Title Game

From dazed and down double digits to the Nittany Lions, the Irish’s confidence rose with their coach to knock off another top opponent.

Notre Dame wide receiver Jaden Greathouse celebrates a touchdown against Penn State in the Orange Bowl. / Sam Navarro-Imagn Images

The Notre Dame Fighting Irish were limping. They were dazed. They were confused. They were outplayed. They trailed the Penn State Nittany Lions 10–0 in the Orange Bowl, and it felt more lopsided than that. Then it seemed to get immediately worse when quarterback Riley Leonard was knocked out of the game on a hard hit late in the first half.

In came backup Steve Angeli, a third-year guy whose only game-on-the-line playing time at Notre Dame was in the Sun Bowl last season. At that moment, with two starting offensive linemen out injured as well, Irish coach Marcus Freeman could be forgiven for going into damage control, playing conservatively and just getting into halftime down 10.

That’s not what Freeman chose. The Irish sent in Angeli and had him let it rip, immediately throwing a third-down strike to receiver Jordan Faison for 14 yards. After Angeli survived a strip sack when an offensive lineman fell on the fumble, Freeman again stayed aggressive. Angeli threw on the next five plays, moving Notre Dame in range for a field goal on the last play of the half. 

The game turned right then and there. The Irish came out of the locker room rejuvenated, rolling down the field for a touchdown to tie the game with Leonard back in the lineup. Those two drives signaled that a potential mismatch would instead be a four-quarter brawl—an instant classic filled with breathtaking surges in momentum. Penn State’s 10–0 run to start was answered by a 17–0 run by Notre Dame, which in turn gave way to a 14–0 run by the Nittany Lions, and then finally a 10–0 Irish run for a 27–24 triumph and a spot in the College Football Playoff championship game.

There were a dozen or more Notre Dame heroes in Hard Rock Stadium—several you would not have expected. But the one who triggered the comeback was perhaps the least likely of them all in Angeli.

Trusting him in a two-minute drill against a scary defense was a microcosm of the unshakable belief Freeman has in his players—all of his players—and this team’s unbreakable will. 

“It’s earned,” Freeman said. “We’ve got a lot of confidence in Steve and those other guys that had to step up when their number was called. They earned that confidence in practice—from the coaching staff and their teammates. We weren’t just going to put him in there to hand the ball off. We were going to try to go score.”

Said Angeli, “My coach prepared me well to step in there.”

Angeli throws the ball at the end of the first half against Penn State. / Nathan Ray Seebeck-Imagn Images

Angeli stepped up. Backup linemen Tosh Baker and Charles Jagusah stepped up. With leading receiver Beaux Collins out injured, sophomore Jaden Greathouse stepped up with his first 100-yard receiving game of his career—highlighted by an ankle-breaking, 54-yard catch-and-run score that tied the game in the fourth quarter. Star running back Jeremiyah Love stepped up despite a knee sprain that limited his explosiveness—his raging-bull touchdown from two yards out, powering through three Penn State tacklers, was sheer competitive will.

“It speaks volumes to the heart he has,” Freeman said. “He gave everything he had to this place. He did not have to play today. Nobody would have batted an eye. But he put team in front of himself and how he felt, and we’ve got a whole bunch of guys like that in that locker room, and that’s why we’re in this position.”

Here is another reason why Notre Dame is in this position, awaiting the winner of the Texas Longhorns–Ohio State Buckeyes matchup in the Cotton Bowl on Friday: because Freeman has completed his maturation into an excellent game-day coach. For the second game in a row against the kind of heavyweight opponent that has beaten Notre Dame since 1993, the Irish executed in the clutch and found victory in the small margins.

Against the Georgia Bulldogs last week in the Sugar Bowl, Notre Dame scored 17 points in a span of 54 seconds—10 in the final 39 seconds of the first half, and seven in the first 15 of the second. That flurry all but put away the Dawgs.

Here, Notre Dame again worked both sides of halftime to perfection. After the Angeli-led drive before intermission, the Irish roared 75 yards in eight plays to tie the game. Halftime adjustments, after looking close to overwhelmed in the first two quarters, were key. 

The “middle eight” minutes surrounding halftime have been a secret weapon for this team. Notre Dame now has scored in the final minute of the first half in all three playoff games. The Irish have been opportunistic and resourceful, but now they’ve also been clutch.

The Irish haven’t played too many close games, but there was no panic being in a dogfight with everything on the line. With the game tied and the Nittany Lions owning what seemed to be the last chance to win in regulation, Notre Dame made the big plays and Penn State quarterback Drew Allar made the critical mistake.

With 47 seconds left, Penn State took over at its own 15-yard line. Nicholas Singleton peeled off a 13-yard run on first down, and then Allar dropped back to throw. With his first two reads covered and linebacker Jaylen Sneed bearing down, Allar threw to the middle of the field in the direction of Omari Evans. But Evans was covered—as the Penn State wideouts were the entire game—and cornerback Christian Gray made a diving interception on the Nittany Lions’ 42-yard line with 33 seconds left.

“I should have just thrown it away,” Allar said afterward, tears in his eyes as he spoke to the media.

Freeman stands on stage with his team after winning the Orange Bowl. / Nathan Ray Seebeck-Imagn Images

From that point, Notre Dame expertly managed the clock and moved the ball into position for the winning field goal. Leonard ran the ball twice, then calmly hit Greathouse for 10 yards on third-and-2. With field goal range secured, all that remained was to bring on kicker Mitch Jeter for the win.

Jeter is another Irish player who has battled through injuries. The South Carolina Gamecocks transfer made just one out of five field goals in November after missing a couple of games, and it seemed that placekicking could be Notre Dame’s playoff demise. Instead, Jeter made a couple of field goals against the Indiana Hoosiers in the first round and three against Georgia. He was ready for his moment Thursday night, drilling a 41-yarder for the win.

“It was like, ‘All right, it’s going to come down to a kick. Let’s go make it,’ ” Jeter said.

Said Freeman: “There is no moment too big for Mitch Jeter.”

And there is no moment too big for Freeman. It wasn’t that long ago—the fifth game of the 2023 season, to be exact—when Freeman had to answer for having only 10 defensive players on the field for the final two plays against Ohio State, and giving up the winning touchdown because of it. Earlier this season, Freeman didn’t have his team ready to play and lost a shocker to the Northern Illinois Huskies.

The coach who looked so fallible in those moments is gone. He’s been replaced by a guy who has beaten two-time national champion Kirby Smart and James Franklin in consecutive games. A guy whose belief in his players—all his players—has never wavered even as injuries piled up. A guy who will now play for a national championship. Marcus Freeman has arrived in full.