For all the nods to history No. 6 Notre Dame and its third-year head football coach, Marcus Freeman, were asked to make this week right down to the near-impossible-to-discern numbers on the specially designed uniforms, they never lost sight of the most important historical thread.
The one they continue to spin themselves.
The 49-14 defrocking of CFP 19th-ranked Army at Yankee Stadium in The Bronx, in the 100th anniversary season since the Four Horsemen galloped to a much-less comfortable 13-7 victory over Army at the Polo Grounds in Upper Manhattan, perpetuated the most tantalizing possibilities for the 2024 Irish.
At least for another week.
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“This is a team that’s hungry,” Freeman said after his 10-1 ND team terminated the nation’s longest active win streak at 13 games, while now sharing the No. 2 spot with Boise State at nine straight wins behind only No. 1 Oregon’s 12 in a row.
“There’s a lot more,” Freeman continued. “We’ve got more. We didn’t play perfectly, and we strive for perfection. Do we ever play perfect? No. But that’s what we’re going to strive for. That’s what we’re chasing as an entire football program.”
The Irish may not be chasing context necessarily, but those who follow them are and certainly those who will place them in the first College Football Playoff bracket on Dec. 8 — with a win next Saturday at USC (6-5), that is — are as well.
And the Army win itself in the 52nd ever meeting screams for context, given this was the highest-ranked (AP 18th) Army team since 1962, before anyone on Freeman’s coaching staff was even born. And given that the Black Knights (9-1) had won every game this season by double digits coming in and had only even trailed for 5 minutes and 48 seconds this season.
They trailed for all but the first 4:36 on Saturday night before a capacity crowd of 47,432.
And had the No. 1 rush offense in the FBS entering the game, and got outrushed 273-207 in total and per carry 9.4 yards to 3.6.
And were No. 1 in passing team pass efficiency (187.91) but managed a 59.38 rating against the nation’s No. 1 pass-efficiency defense. And labored for 26 passing yards playing from behind, the fewest an ND team has yielded in nine seasons.
And Army, the nation’s No. 1 team in fewest sacks given up and turnovers lost, coughed up one of each. And had four three-and-outs on offense in the first half alone after accruing a total of 10 over its first nine games.
And surrendering five rushing TDs on defense Saturday night in ND’s 12th Shamrock Series win in the 12 played since the offsite home game concept started largely annually in 2009. Army had just yielded just three rushing TDs all season.
So, what does it all mean, big picture, to Freeman on a weekend where scoreboard shock was popular among seemingly CFP locks and some near misses almost made it downright chaotic?
“I’ve always said that’s for you all and everybody else to interpret the message that’s sent,’ Freeman said. “There’s one goal on Saturdays, and that’s to achieve team glory. The way you prepare gives you the best opportunity to do that.
“That’s the message that I want our players to understand is that we prepare the right way, we continue to find ways to elevate and improve and you’re going to get, hopefully, a result that we got tonight.
“I don’t worry about the message it sends to everybody else as much as I worry about the message that it sends to our players and this program.”
Pragmatically, there’s very little schematically from playing Army on Saturday night that will translate to what the Irish will see from their arch-rivals at the LA Memorial Coliseum next weekend (3:30 p.m. EST on CBS).
But what will likely travel for the Irish is their ability to focus on a unique task at hand and take care of business. Aggressively, even violently, using Freeman’s word.
There’s no tiptoeing to the finish line with this group.
And it’s showing up in a lot of places, with the possible exception of starting place kicker Mitch Jeter making more tackles (1) than field goal attempts (0-for-2 with one blocked) on Saturday night.
Like QB Riley Leonard’s career-best pass-efficiency rating (223.3) and Jeremiyah Love scoring a TD or more (he had three Saturday) for the 11th straight game, tying Wayne Bullock’s 50-year-old school record. And career-high tackle totals from sophomores Adon Shuler (8) and Jaiden Ausberry (7). And a blocked punt by freshman Bryce Young to go along with his two blocked field goals earlier this season.
And it’s defining Marcus Freeman, just like every third season at Notre Dame seems to have done so accurately over the decades. Not just who those coaches are in the moment, but who and what they will become.
“We’ve improved, but we’re starting to be more consistent,” Freeman said, reflecting on the 16-14 upset loss to Northern Illinois on Sept. 7 that preceded the surge back into national title talk relevance.
“That’s the sign of great teams, great businesses, great people, is consistency. Not the ability to do it one day and be really high and the next day be really low. But the consistency throughout a game, throughout a season.
“That’s what we’ve seen in the past couple weeks. We had to improve. We had a lot to improve from that Northern Illinois performance, and we have done that. But now you’re seeing a consistent football team. We’ve got to continue to be that.”
Next Saturday night is a chance to take another step into history — into the kind of history Notre Dame wants to make now, not just to reflect upon.
The best kind of history.
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