WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — Marcus Freeman didn’t make it easy to figure out on Saturday evening under Ross-Ade Stadium. Did Notre Dame turn an early corner with its 66-7 thrashing of Purdue? Or did the Irish simply remind their head coach that the face plant against Northern Illinois a week earlier was the kind of loss that a head coach never lives down?
To listen to Freeman’s words, Notre Dame learned a lot from making Purdue look like less than a MAC program despite playing in the Big Ten. To hear Freeman speak, though, was less convincing, with every compliment about Notre Dame’s performance a reminder of the program’s inability to handle success.
There were no telltale signs midweek that Notre Dame was about to notch its most lopsided win since 1996 and score its most points against a power conference program since 1977. There were reasons to suspect the Irish might not, though, with quarterback Riley Leonard playing through a reported labrum tear in his non-throwing shoulder and the defense coming off one of its most limp performances in three seasons under Al Golden. So no, Freeman can’t point back to Tuesday and Wednesday as harbingers of a blowout win any more than he can reference Tuesday and Wednesday a week earlier as omens.
“I don’t know if it’s something that you can see, because if I saw it the week before, I would have done something about it,” Freeman said. “I think it’s a choice that we all have to make as individuals. It’s my job to make sure we have a culture that doesn’t accept anything less than that.”
All Notre Dame can hope is that Freeman learns from the experience, that he can start to see the trees through the dense forest of getting college football players to pull in one direction. That’s no easy thing. Human nature has a lethal passing attack. Yet it’s on Freeman to push back against all that, to figure out a way to pull the right levers when the moment or the matchup doesn’t pull them for him.
It’s easy to get Notre Dame ready for USC or Texas A&M or Clemson. It’s much harder to lead Notre Dame to water for Purdue, Northern Illinois, Stanford or Marshall and then drink.
“The thing that I took away from last week is every individual has to handle success, respect their opponent and make sure your mind is the right way,” Freeman said. “You’re going to have mistakes in practice. That’s what practice is for. It wasn’t that we made more mistakes last week than we did this week. It’s the sense of urgency to correct them and mindset, and ultimately you gotta go do it on game day.”
Notre Dame is hardly a perfect team, as if the Northern Illinois game didn’t enter that into the permanent record.
No Irish wide receiver has caught a touchdown pass. Notre Dame’s starting quarterback has yet to throw a touchdown, either. The offensive line is suddenly down two starters in Billy Schrauth and Pat Coogan. The feel-good story of the defense, rush end Jordan Botelho, could be lost for the year. Punter James Rendell largely remains more hype than production. These are all issues for Notre Dame to fix.
But the Irish also found out what they can be on Saturday, thanks in part to Leonard getting on the same page with offensive coordinator Mike Denbrock in a way the two were not last week. There was no second-and-1 host pass from midfield that got picked off. Instead, there were three rushing touchdowns and as many third-down conversions in the first half (five) as Notre Dame had posted in the first two games combined.
This looked like Denbrock calling the plays Leonard liked and Leonard running those plays the way Denbrock wanted. That might have felt like a safe bet going into the season for a veteran quarterback and a coordinator who’s been around the block. Then Northern Illinois burned that assumption to the ground as Notre Dame tried to win a game with Leonard’s arm. That is no way to go through life.
All week, Denbrock told Leonard that he trusted him. On game day, the coordinator sent the quarterback a Bible verse, which might as well be Leonard’s language of love.
“Those little things can go a long way in a player-coach relationship,” Leonard said. “I think that we sat down multiple times and I was open with him. What plays do I love? What plays, they gotta go? If you call that, I’m running it or something. Just being honest with each other, being vulnerable and having open conversations is something that every offensive coordinator and quarterback have to have. And this week we nailed it.
“He called the game perfectly, in my opinion, and that’s what gives me and the guys all the confidence in the world.”
Leonard finished the game with 100 yards rushing and three touchdowns. He made Purdue look like it had never defended quarterback power before. He didn’t throw a touchdown, but he didn’t flirt with an interception either. Leonard looked like a one-year quarterback who missed spring practice, but he also looked like a quarterback who was backed by his play-caller. It didn’t feel that way last week, not before the game and certainly not during.
“More than anything, I think we helped (Leonard),” Freeman said. “We’ve got to make sure as coaches that we call things that we believe our players can succeed at. And that’s what a big learning lesson I think from last week to this week is we’ve got to spend more time together and make sure, ‘Hey, just because you do something right in practice doesn’t mean it’s always going to translate to the game.’ We’ve got to make sure we’re calling things that our players know in and out. And it takes time.
“The growth of our offense from Week 2 to Week 3 was tremendous.”
There’s got to be more for this season to go where Notre Dame needs it to go. Blowing out Purdue doesn’t course correct last week’s loss to Northern Illinois — one that doesn’t need to keep Notre Dame out of the College Football Playoff but might make it impossible for the Irish to host a game. Such is the weight of a loss at home as a four-touchdown favorite that it will take weeks, if not months, for Notre Dame to get over it.
And when Notre Dame does get there, assuming it does, it’ll have to show it knows how to navigate the other side. Freeman talked about Notre Dame winning the second half of a game it led 42-0 at intermission as handling success. But that’s not it. Handling success requires more than blowing out Purdue. It means stringing together a half-dozen wins, enough that Notre Dame re-establishes some of the credit it earned on opening night at Texas A&M.
Only then can the Irish talk about handling success for real because they have to create that success first. And maybe that’s why Freeman’s disposition Saturday wasn’t one of a coach who’d just won a road game by eight-plus touchdowns. Freeman knows days like this can both make the loss to Northern Illinois more unforgivable and douse the rest of the season in sunlight.
Notre Dame isn’t just the team that blew out Purdue. But it’s not just the team that lost to Northern Illinois, either. It’s both. And it’s going to be both the rest of this season. It’s on Freeman to manage that, even if that means beating human nature.
“I’m happy man,” Freeman said, barely smiling. “I’m happy we went out and performed the way we did. So as I told the players, we have to celebrate and enjoy the victory and get back to work tomorrow and make sure we’re handling success the right way.”
(Top photo of Marcus Freeman and Riley Leonard: Justin Casterline / Getty Images)
