Marcus Freeman's defining 3rd year begins with Notre Dame No. 7 in AP poll

Marcus Freeman begins what historically has been a defining third season as Notre Dame’s head football coach carrying something his three predecessors did not into year 3 of their respective regimes.

High expectations.

Notre Dame, coming off a 10-3 finish and No. 14 final ranking in 2023, checked in at No. 7 in the preseason Associated Press Top 25, revealed on Monday. Brian Kelly (2012), Charlie Weis (2007) and Tyrone Willingham (2004) all were unranked in the AP preseason polls in their third years.

It didn’t end well either for Weis or Willingham. Weis’ 2007 team also finished unranked and set the school record for losses in a season (3-9). Willingham’s 2004 team also finished unranked (6-6), and Willingham finished it unemployed.

Kelly’s unranked 2012 team, however, shocked the college football world, ascending to No. 1 in November of that year and playing Alabama for the national title in the old BCS format that paired No. 1 and No. 2 in a single championship game.

The Irish (12-1) finished No. 4 in that final AP poll after losing to Alabama, 42-14, in Miami Gardens, Fla.

Bob Davie (18th in 1999) is the last Irish coach before Freeman who coached a ranked ND team in the opener of his third season. But that team finished the season unranked. Before Davie, Lou Holtz’s 1988 squad started 13th and won the national title, Gerry Faust’s third team (1983) started sixth, Dan Devine’s (1977) started third, Ara Parseghian’s (1966) sixth, Joe Kuharich’s (1961) was unranked, and Terry Brennan’s (1956) was third.

Holtz, Devine and Parseghian all led their teams to national titles in year 3.

Freeman’s third-year team garnered a No. 7 ranking in the previously released preseason coaches poll, and a No. 8 standing in the FWAA/NFF Super 16 released on Monday morning.

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Georgia is No. 1 in the preseason AP poll for the second year in a row. The less-encouraging news for the Bulldogs is that only 11 times since the inception of a preseason AP poll in 1950 and only twice in the 2000s has the preseason No. 1 team also been the postseason top-ranked squad.

The two teams that did accomplish that were Alabama in 2017 and USC in 2004.

Among Notre Dame 2024 opponents, Florida State is the highest ranked among them, at No. 10. The Seminoles visit Notre Dame Stadium on Nov. 9. The teams ND play in its Aug. 31 season opener, Texas A&M, and in its regular-season finale, USC, were ranked 20th and 23rd respectively.

The Irish were 13th in last year’s preseason poll and fifth in 2022, Freeman’s first year as head coach.

The AP preseason All-America team will be released next Monday, Aug. 19, at noon EDT.

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