[Cactus Jack]

I agree with most of that. Notre Dame has been exposed many times over the years and scoffed at for not playing a conference schedule and rightfully so.

But defense wins championships and they have a capable offense and a great coach as well. I had my doubts about Freeman but he is the best coach in college football now for my money. And NIU loss many months ago means nothing now.

I could have phrased that one much better. I think Notre Dame has a National Championship level defense. Their special teams is probably good enough to win-- kicking issues seem past them now that he's healthy. I don't think that they are that close to a National Championship level offense though.


I think Freeman is a good coach, but I want to see how he does for awhile longer before saying that he's right there with Kirby Smart.

He took over a nice situation with Brian Kelly leaving and being named the interim before their bowl game. He's almost to the point where any Kelly recruits or touches on the program are going to be phased out. More than anything, the thing that makes me hesitate to call him "great" is that he puts up good records but has a tendency to take some early (home) upsets to teams that he just shouldn't lose to:

2022 - home loss to Marshall in Week 2;
2022 - home loss to eventual 3-9 Stanford in Week 7;
2024 - home loss to NIU in Week 2... NIU ends the year 8-5 overall, and 4-4 in the MAC;