After evaluating his team’s shocking 16-14 home loss to Northern Illinois on Saturday, Notre Dame coach Marcus Freeman said on Monday that in addition to the mistakes the Irish made on the field, it was also clear his team needs to learn how to handle success.
One week after earning a statement season-opening win at Texas A&M and looking like legitimate contenders for the 12-team College Football Playoff, the Irish suffered one of the program’s biggest upsets in decades, losing a game they were favored to win by 28.5 points.
“This is the first time in my three years as a head coach that we have won the big game early in the season,” Freeman said. “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.
“There is a physical approach to preparing for a game, and I think physically we prepared the right way,” he said, “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.”