Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman has not been shy about letting his team feel losses and feel the noise coming from national media. He picks and chooses when to use these motivational tactics, of course, and now is the exact sort of scenario where Freeman would be sure to let his team know that no one in the national media is picking them to win.

He also is probably making them aware, if they aren’t already, of the massive spread that favors Ohio State to beat Notre Dame in the national title game by over eight points.

The Fighting Irish won’t be lacking any motivation to go on and win Notre Dame’s first national championship in nearly 40 years, however this sort of extra inspiration can never hurt.

Not to mention, many of the players taking the field will remember the painful losses to Ohio State in both of the last two seasons. Especially last season, where Notre Dame lost to the Buckeyes on essentially a walk-off touchdown.

Freeman has instilled in his team to “feel the pain” and not forget what losing to the Buckeyes in that fashion felt like last season.

There are dozens of “mouthpieces” in college football and among them, the most popular at the moment are CBS Sports’ Josh Pate, On3’s JD Pickell and FOX’s Joel Klatt.

Each one of them picked Ohio State to win and cover. That probably is the “right” and safe bet with Ohio State being such a big favorite, but you can bet Freeman will be letting his team know that everyone is picking against them and that no one believes they can actually do this.

That is the kind of extra push that can motivate guys to make that one extra play or gain that one extra yard in order to win the game.

National media – keep giving Marcus Freeman more bulletin board material at your own risk.

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