Win Your Clunkers: Notre Dame’s Navy Victory Shows Progress Amidst Frustration
There’s a common saying on the popular college football podcast The Solid Verbal: “Win your Clunkers.”
It’s a phrase born out of the fact that every college football program, no matter how great, experiences a sluggish performance or two per season against an inferior opponent.
It just happens, especially when coaching 18- to 21-year-olds.
Former Irish coach Brian Kelly took the Irish to the College Football Playoffs. The Irish almost slipped up early in both seasons. In 2018, Notre Dame beat Ball State and Vanderbilt by one-score margins. In 2020, the Irish defeated a 4-7 Louisville team, 12-7.
Even last year, Notre Dame needed a late fourth-quarter touchdown drive to narrowly defeat Toledo. If they don’t win that game, they likely miss out on the Fiesta Bowl at the end of the season.
Like him or hate him, Kelly seemed to master the art of finding a way to win even when his team failed to show up.
Marcus Freeman, on the other hand, is still in the process of acquiring this skill.
Notre Dame lost to an inferior opponent twice in the first two months of the 2022 season, falling to Marshall and Stanford.
The Irish failed to win its clunkers.
Freeman, however, is figuring out how to win ugly.
The second half of Notre Dame’s 35-32 victory over Navy proved excruciating to watch. The Irish offense barely moved the ball and the Midshipmen outgained the Irish by 154 yards and outscored them 19-0.
“At halftime, I challenged them. The one thing about Navy is they never quit,” Freeman said. “We had to match their urgency throughout the entirety of the game. We did in the first half, but we didn't have the urgency or execution we needed to finish the game the way we wanted to.”
Yet Notre Dame never panicked. At some point, the coaching staff realized that had enough of a lead to hold and win as long as they didn’t give up any big plays. Sure, that enabled Navy to sustain a long touchdown drive and cut the lead to three points late.
But at the end of the game, Drew Pyne was the quarterback taking a knee to run out the clock for a Fighting Irish victory.
“There were games earlier in the season, where if we were in the same position, we didn't pull through and win,” Pyne said. “We found a way to win today. That's important, and we're going to keep building off of it.”
That’s not to say the coaching staff or players were satisfied with the three-point victory. They know that such a terrible second-half performance could have cost them against a better opponent and that stings.
All they can do is regroup and prepare to avoid the second clunker in a row by handily beating an inferior opponent next weekend.
“They don't feel great,” Freeman said. “You can tell, but you've got to learn from it. I'm excited. It's going to be a hungry group as we get ready for this last home game."
Two games remain this season: Boston College and USC. The Eagles are 3-7 but just upset No. 16 North Carolina State. If the Irish can win out, they’ll have an outside shot at a major bowl berth.
Of course, Notre Dame’s prospective bowl options likely would look even better their record is 9-1 or 8-2 right now. What if Audric Estime doesn’t fumble against Stanford at the Cardinal 21-yard line? Do the Irish beat Marshall if Pyne and Tyler Buchner don’t each throw fourth-quarter interceptions?
That’s why winning your clunkers is so important, and it requires avoiding costly mistakes with the game on the line.
Still, the Irish have had far too many clunkers in Freeman’s first full season. Notre Dame needs to learn how to obliterate double-digit underdogs on a regular basis, but there’s something to be said for managing to win close games.
“There have been a couple of games this year that have come down to a couple of points in the fourth quarter, and we didn't win,” Freeman said. “We've gotten to a point now we can win those close games, and we're going to be better because of it.”