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“He said after that Notre Dame disrespected his family during the recruiting process. And he was not losing to Notre Dame. And he played like it. A lot of guys talk, a lot of guys talk and talk and talk and talk and talk. That dude played and played and played and played and played. He played hard, really hard.”
Marcus Freeman is 49-13 overall as the head coach of Notre Dame since taking over the Fighting Irish at the end of the 2021 season. It’s a respectable record, but when you take a slightly deeper dive into the numbers, the situation turns into an utterly embarrassing one.
Notre Dame’s best season under Freeman came in 2024 when the Irish finished the regular season at 11-1, rattling off 10 straight wins after losing at home to Northern Illinois, before ultimately losing in the national championship game to Ohio State. That campaign was unquestionably great and very respectable, but when you peel back the curtain and focus solely on the regular season, not even 2024 could be labeled impressive.
On the heels of the Irish losing on the road to BYU in Week 7, the team’s first noteworthy opponent of the season, Notre Dame has been in the crosshairs yet again as a program that simply can not win the rare meaningful game it actually schedules during the regular season, and it turns out that there is some very real legitimacy behind that idea.
Notre Dame Fighting Irish Head Coach Marcus Freeman prior to a college football game between the Stanford Cardinal and Notre Dame Fighting Irish on October 10, 2026 at Notre Dame Stadium in South Bend, IN. (Photo by James Black/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images) (James Black/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
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Chris ‘The Bear’ Fallica of Fox Sports did some digging into Notre Dame’s record under Freeman to find out if the narrative about the Fighting Irish was as bad as some in the college football world have made it out to be, and the numbers paint quite the picture.
Notre Dame Fighting Irish head coach Marcus Freeman prior to a college football game between the Syracuse Orange and Notre Dame Fighting Irish on November 22, 2025 at Notre Dame Stadium in South Bend, IN. (Photo by James Black/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images) (James Black/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
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Notre Dame has won 16 games dating back to the start of the 2025 season, and according to Fallica’s findings, those 16 teams have posted a combined record of 62-91 against FBS opponents. If you take those 16 teams and look at their record against Power Four schools, it drops to a stunning 32-78 mark.
While those numbers reflect how soft Notre Dame has made its schedule over the years, it somehow gets even more alarming.
Notre Dame Fighting Irish Head Coach Marcus Freeman prior to a college football game between the Stanford Cardinal and Notre Dame Fighting Irish on October 10, 2026 at Notre Dame Stadium in South Bend, IN. (Photo by James Black/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images) (James Black/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
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Freeman has posted a 44-11 regular-season record while in charge of the Irish, and of those 44 wins, a whopping five have come against teams that finished the season ranked. Two of those five ranked opponents happened to be service academies.
Looking ahead at the remainder of Notre Dame’s regular season slate, the Irish play host to No. 1 Miami on Nov. 7 and No. 23 SMU two weeks later.
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Things will fall into place as they always do, but it’s relatively safe to assume that if the Irish finish the year at 10-2, they will punch a ticket into the College Football Playoff.
If Notre Dame finishes inside the Top 12 in the final CFB Playoff rankings, it automatically qualifies for the Playoff no matter the teams or resumes in a similar position.