Notre Dame coach Marcus Freeman discusses what went wrong vs. Ohio State with Joel Klatt

We all remember it all too well after the Ohio State football team went on a historic run through the inaugural 12-team College Football Playoff to win the national championship last season. It was one for the ages, one in which the Buckeyes beat No. 9 Tennessee, No. 1 Oregon, No. 5 Texas, and then No. 7 Notre Dame to unleash the confetti, trophies, and celebrations.

However, for every victor, there is a loser, and in the case of Notre Dame Fighting Irish head coach and former Ohio State linebacker Marcus Freeman, the loss to the Buckeyes still stings. Freeman sat down with Fox’s Joel Klatt for a wide-ranging interview, and it wouldn’t have been complete without re-visiting what happened in Atlanta between the Scarlet and Gray and “Golden Domers.”

Klatt asked Freeman to go back and think about what he learned from a game in which Ohio State jetted out to a big lead, saw the Irish battle back to within eight points in the fourth quarter, only to see the Buckeyes make plays down the stretch to win rather comfortably. For Freeman, he wishes his team could have played a little better, all while still giving credit to Ohio State.

“I think in those biggest games, those biggest moments, you’ve got to play your best. You can’t make mistakes — not against a team like Ohio State,” Freeman said. “You think about the first drive on offense, I think it was a 19-play drive, we execute, we’re physical, we go down, we score. Defensively, we didn’t play our best, and trust me, credit to Ohio State. They had some elite playmakers. They played really, really well.”

As an ultra competitor, you never want to believe a team is better than you, or created some of the mishaps and uncharacteristic play, and that’s exactly how Freeman felt.

“I wish we could go back and, dang it, we got to play our best, and the outcome might still be the same, but there were moments in that game I thought that’s not how we have played all year long,” Freeman said. “For me, I think about that game and I say, OK, listen, we fought to the very end, right? You’re down 21, I think, at half – or something like that, 14 or 21, and it was an eight-point game in the fourth quarter.”

As for what Freeman learned, he said that he began dissecting that almost immediately and has already made some changes and filed some things away that he would do differently if presented with the opportunity again.

“And it’s something I will always remember, we made some changes already after we debriefed from that game. And hey, if we’re in that situation, here are some different things we’ll do as we prepare for it,” Freeman said. “But at the end of the day, you’ve got to play your best when you’re playing the best.”

Look, there are good coaches and good guys in this game, and I’m not sure many are better than Freeman. He has the Irish on the upswing, and I for one won’t be surprised if he does indeed get another shot at the ultimate prize in college football, and he might just bring the thing home next time. I just hope it isn’t against his alma mater once again.

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