Notre Dame Fighting Irish football coach Marcus Freeman sent dire warning on consequences of a Texas A&M loss originally appeared on The Sporting News
Notre Dame Fighting Irish football coach Marcus Freeman has his back against the wall right now. After losing to the Miami Hurricanes, 27-24, in Week 1, the Fighting Irish might not be able to afford another loss this season.
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With the No. 16 Texas A&M Aggies coming to town on Saturday, No. 8 Notre Dame has a major challenge on the back-end of a home-and-home series they got the better of during the 2024 season.
If they can’t pass this test, ESPN’s Bill Connelly is worried the Fighting Irish may not have a strong enough resume come December to qualify for one of the 12 College Football Playoff spots.
“It’s easy to see this game becoming one of trench warfare, though random chunk plays could tell the tale. One way or another, the Irish really do need a win here. Even if they were to lose and then win out to finish 10-2 — not a given considering how good future opponents like USC and Arkansas have looked thus far — their résumé might feature only one or two wins over ranked teams, and they could find themselves at the bottom of a pile of 10-2 teams. That’s really not where you want to be,” Connelly wrote.
Many of Notre Dame’s opponents look worse now than they were projected to look before the season. The Boise State Broncos and Syracuse Orange, in particular, look eons away from the CFP contenders they were last year.
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While beating the USC Trojans could be an impressive resume-builder, it can’t stand alone on a two-loss CFP resume. The Arkansas Razorbacks need to be good to give the Fighting Irish any chance of making the field with two losses.
Notre Dame needs the Texas A&M game. Badly. We’ll see if Freeman and his modified coaching staff can notch their first signature win of the season.
Starting 0-2 is a disastrous possibility in South Bend.
