Likeable Irish? Don’t let Ohio State football alum Marcus Freeman distract you from Notre Dame’s true identity

Likeable Irish? Don’t let Ohio State football alum Marcus Freeman distract you from Notre Dame’s true identity — Jimmy Watkins

Posted by Admin January 15, 2025 Football

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CLEVELAND, Ohio — Break out the world’s smallest bagpipes and say a prayer. College football is spinning a sob story about a group of Irish Catholics in gold helmets who, somehow, will play in Monday’s national title game vs. Ohio State.

Notre Dame football (maybe you’ve heard of it), winners of 13 straight games and owners of 11 double-digit victories this season, has overcome several injuries during its College Football Playoff run.

Coach Marcus Freeman, a former Ohio State linebacker, has helped the Irish rebound from its stinging Week 2 loss to unranked Northern Illinois. And apparently, these two trials — plus Freeman’s Q rating — have resulted in college football’s oldest, most annoying big brand being labeled as likeable.

Oh, brother. Give me a break.

Ohio State opened as a 9.5-point favorite over Notre Dame, but the spread has since dropped to eight, presumably because the Irish are winning the sympathy wallets.

Shed a tear for the Irish’s slew of offensive line injuries. Shed another for cornerback Benjamin Morrison, defensive tackle Rylie Mills, defensive end Boubacar Traore and defensive end Jordan Botelho, all starters who will miss Monday’s matchup. And seriously, tip your caps to Freeman’s rag tag, run-focused, Tressel-esque football team for advancing to the title game in spite of these setbacks.

But do not mistake one familiar coach, or the resilient culture he has fostered during one season, for a likeable football program.

Notre Dame Football: Born on third base, somehow still stuck there

To quote a college football philosopher, some people are born on third base and think they hit a triple. Embarrassing, right? Think trust fund kids, think daddy’s money, think entitlement.

Think Notre Dame football.

ND became the eighth school to play football in 1887 (three years before Ohio State). It won four football championships before Ohio State won its first (1942), claimed more titles than any Power 5 school from 1964 until 2017 (when Alabama passed it), and we know from Old College Football rules that early dominance spawns modern powers. Or at least, it’s supposed to.

Eleven of the 13 different national champions since 2000 rank top 20 in all-time wins among P5 schools (the other two are Florida State and Miami). Thirteen of the top 15 all-time P5 winners claim at least one national title in the last 30 years. Any guesses on the lonely losers?

Penn State and — you got it — Notre Dame. Perhaps no program has won less with a stronger foundation than the Irish (fourth in wins), who last hung a banner in 1988 (Freeman was 2 years old) but still claim powerhouse program status. Even worse: Television networks embolden this false identity by repeatedly placing the Irish on a pedestal.

Think ESPN forces the mediocre Los Angeles Lakers and Golden State Warriors onto your televisions? That’s nothing compared to Notre Dame’s TV deal with NBC, which has broadcast every Irish home game since 1991. During the deal’s first 20 seasons, ND posted one more 10-win season (five) than losing seasons (four). And from 1991-2023, the Irish have changed coaches more often (five times) than they’ve claimed New Year’s Six bowl wins (four times, three of which are over 30 years old).

I get it. Brands grab eyeballs. But even the dumpster fire Dallas Cowboys, who boast two playoff wins since 2015, validate their media monopoly more often than the Irish.

Notre Dame Football Fans: Yankee fans with a bigger superiority complex

You can hear them typing now. I can already picture their emails. Notre Dame fans are about to explain why the Irish have squandered their massive, boomer-era brand for almost four decades.

Here goes: DON’T YOU UNDERSTAND? Recruiting is harder at Notre Dame.

Ah, yes, play the bag pipes again. The Irish only lose football games because of their stringent academic standards, or their wholesome catholic values, or — what this argument actually insinuates — star athletes’ inability to meet either. Those receivers at Ohio State? Couldn’t even crack the waiting list in South Bend, where only dean’s list candidates are welcome. The edge rushers at Georgia, Texas or Alabama? Not close enough with God (never mind their bible verse tattoos). Poor Notre Dame, running a football program with handcuffs on.

You know the shpiel if you know an Irish fan. And odds are, you know a Notre Dame football fan. Pretty funny, considering the school has a 12.9% acceptance rate, isn’t it?

I didn’t get a big, fancy degree from Notre Dame — go Ohio Bobcats — so help me with this math. A recent study counted 8.21 million Notre Dame football fans. America boasts a population of about 333 million. So even if only half of the Irish’s fanbase was American — a conservative estimate, no doubt — ND fans would account for over 20 percent of our population.

How does 20% fit into 12.9? Put another way: How do you get 8.21 million fans from 151,115 living Notre Dame graduates?

I know how: Because many Notre Dame fans, like many Yankee fans, Laker Fans (aka LeBron fans) and Cowboys fans, choose their rooting interests after they know the score. I’m sure many Irish fans were young when they decided to join the bandwagon. And I bet some of their elder ancestors, who took pride in their Irish roots, or Catholic faith, or both, appreciated what Notre Dame football stood for. I’m not talking about those people, or (goes without saying) the actual Irish grads.

Nope, I’m talking about the front-runners, always happy to explain their fan origin story, never able to explain it within three degrees of separation. They don’t know why we celebrate St. Patrick’s Day (though they drink ‘til they drop every March, anyway). They don’t attend church regularly (certainly not if March 18 falls on a Sunday). And they couldn’t name a professor who works in South Bend. But they love their Irish. Or, should I say, their uncle’s best friend’s sister’s Irish. Been a fan for years, bro.

Funny thing: Sometimes the loudest Notre Dame supremacists harbor the weakest ties to its football team. The same person screaming that five-star recruits — of which Notre Dame has landed two since 2020 — couldn’t stomach the Irish’s academic standard? Never tasted it themselves. The same person droning on about the school’s emphasis on character? Only acting like they understand it. And for the record, the same sort of problem exists at schools like Stanford (3.7% acceptance rate), where the football program won 98 games from 2010-19 (which only includes one Jim Harbaugh season).

The Irish won 92.

Marcus Freeman: A better torch bearer for an unlikeable football program

LSU coach Brian Kelly fit Notre Dame perfectly. And by that I mean: The former Irish coach couldn’t accept his program’s failures, so he blamed external factors. Just like his former fan base.

We can count the sideline cutaways of Kelly chewing out a college student for making an honest mistake. And we can recite the reasons why Kelly left Notre Dame for LSU after the 2021 season. From to grades to character, to NIL investment, the Irish were too stingy to attract star players.

“I want to be in an environment where I have the resources to win a national championship,” Kelly said then.

Somehow, Freeman found them this year despite a string of bad luck. The third-year coach lost several starters to injury and lost the game he couldn’t afford to. College football media wondered if he might lose his job by year’s end, too.

But Freeman stood his ground, developed his depth chart and maximized his surroundings, unlike Brian Kelly. He won more playoff games (three) this season than Kelly did during his entire Notre Dame tenure (zero). And three years after Kelly’s public exit, you can see how the Irish’s arrival might alter the program’s perception.

Freeman, who solves problems, presents more likeable than Kelly, who runs from them. The 2024 Irish, playing through pain and without important players, embody Freeman’s spirit. By losing Kelly and adding Freeman, Notre Dame has become more likeable.

But tha’s like saying Medusa had a mole removed. You still can’t bear to look at her. You still can’t justify 34 years on the pedestal for a team with a 37-year title drought. And you still can’t spend more than 20 minutes talking with the wrong Notre Dame fan about why the Irish haven’t won big.

Ahead of Monday’s game, don’t let Freeman or his hard-fighting Irish fool you:

No volume of tiny bagpipes, big media praise or even prayer can make Notre Dame football a likeable brand. Not when we have so much obnoxious evidence that suggests otherwise.