This past weekend, the Notre Dame Fighting Irish experienced one of the program’s worst losses ever. Northern Illinois went into South Bend, and the Huskies emerged as winners. NIU scored the program’s biggest win ever, defeating the Irish 16-14. Head coach Marcus Freeman wasn’t bullish after the loss and admitted something fierce after.
Freeman believes his team bought too much into their own hype.
“This is the first time in my three years as a head coach that we have won the big game early in the season. Two losses to Ohio State and then all of a sudden, we win, and everybody says, ‘Hey, you’re going to the playoff. You’ve got an easy schedule.’ We all hear it, and I think we started to believe that,” Freeman admitted via ESPN.com. “There is a physical approach to preparing for a game, and I think physically we prepared the right way.
“But there’s also a mental approach and a mindset that you have to have every single week, and I think that’s where we failed,” he said.
The Irish will have a chance to rebound, but this loss won’t leave anyone’s thoughts anytime soon. Expect it to follow the team throughout the season. Freeman and the Irish will resume play this coming weekend against the Purdue Boilermakers in West Lafayette. It’s the latest in Notre Dame and Purdue’s long-running rivalry.
[ESPN]
