Notre Dame’s Loss Exemplifies The Fighting Irish’s Woes Throughout The Years
After dropping to Northern Illinois in a stunning upset, Notre Dame is haunted by their past and future.
THIS YEAR IS OUR YEAR,” an ecstatic Fighting Irish fan says to me in a bar in Minneapolis over the summer. How a Notre Dame fan ended up over eight hours away in the deep Midwest a ways away from South Bend, I never really got. But as for his argument, it made sense.
After falling just short of the College Football Playoff year after year and ranking in the top-25 for the past seven, it was due time for the Navy and Gold. The prized entrance eluded them since their 2020 Covid year run and the team had failed to do much in the postseason that year. Losing 14-31 to Alabama in a Crimson Tide blowout, the pits in the stomachs in South Bend only got worse. Last year, signing Sam Hartman away from Wake Forest made it seem like it could really be a chance at a generational run, especially starting the year 4-0 facing off against a significantly weakened Ohio State foe.
Yet, just like nearly every year– Notre Dame’s postseason hopes came crashing down as quickly as the hype festered. The Irish lost to Ohio State that year, riddled with offensive trips and the team rapidly slid into malaise. Losing to Louisville and unranked Clemson, head coach Marcus Freeman couldn’t help but try to dissect exactly what happened to a year filled with so much promise.
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The hype this year was real and a opening week win in College Station against 20th-ranked Texas A&M kicked off a party in northwest Indiana that was set to get Marcus Freeman’s squad back on track and eyes on the ever-so enviable CFP ticket. The vibes were immaculate, this past offseason, Notre Dame pulled a carbon copy of their move a season ago– poaching a ACC quarterback to play for the Irish. This time it was Duke QB Riley Leonard who completed 18 of 30 passes for 158 yards.
If Irish fans were hoping for a Sam Hartman 2.0, they didn’t get it. Leonard performed decent at Duke, getting them onto the national stage after years of being mainly a basketball school. But that same quality of quarterback play hasn’t yet transferred over to South Bend. In his two games with the Irish, Leonard was abysmal with PFF grading him a 58.7 in College Station and 45.0 against Northern Illinois.
But nevertheless, this is the situation the Irish are in, and Leonard’s lack of production should’ve had nothing to do with Notre Dame’s Week 2 loss against Northern Illinois. Northern Illinois is a Group of Five team and the Fighting Irish are one of college football’s perennial powerhouses. End of story. But it didn’t end that way.
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On a last-second field goal, the Northern Illinois Huskies, who by every measure were David against a college football blue blood, pulled off an incredible upset that crumbled any paths to a undefeated season and maybe even the postseason. Whatever the Fighting Irish thought they had, it crumbled away at the leg of Kanon Woodill, NIU’s kicker. It was a season of unimaginable investment– from the arrival of Leonard, supposed improvements across every facet of the team, to even scheduling NIU on the ledger– but it was all for naught.
Notre Dame has suffered some gashing losses in the past– a blowout from Alabama in 2012, Boston College in 2002, Clemson in 2018, even Marshall in 2022, but none ever of this magnitude. In fact, it was the first time the team has ever lost to a MAC program in its history, a crushing blow for a team that had such high hopes to kick off the year.
Marcus Freeman can only wonder what hex was put on the Irish so long ago– to the point that not only smooth sailing seems impossible but simply getting out of the harbor. But Notre Dame isn’t out for the count just yet. The expanded playoff format to 12 teams this season keeps the Irish in contention for the postseason. But there’s still a long way to go before the Irish can get there. Leonard is hurt– known not just as a pocket passer but as a dual-threat quarterback. His inability to run takes away from a major point of emphasis for the Irish they planned to use throughout fall camp.
Plus, their schedule isn’t the friendliest either. Games against Louisville and Georgia Tech after a blustering performance on offense in the first two games draw major red flags and question marks. If they can pull out both of those games and be on track for the rest of the season, there’s a good chance that Notre Dame can find its way back into the playoff scene.
But there’s always one thing that haunts Notre Dame fans. It’s never that easy and it’s never “their year”.
