Notre Dame Begins Season-Defining Three-game Stretch at No. 17 Duke

Marcus Freeman stood at the podium, looked down at his shoes and sighed.

He had just learned that Notre Dame’s Week 6 matchup will kick off at 7:30 p.m. ET. 

“Louisville’s a night game?” he asked.

For the first time in program history, the Fighting Irish will play four straight games that kickoff at 7:30 p.m. ET, which includes last weekend’s 17-14 heartbreaking loss to No. 4 Ohio State.

“The pain of defeat, it’s tough. It hurts,” Freeman said. “You’re physically sick when you lose. In the midst of your pain, you have to own it. 

“You have to face it and attack it. You have to go back to work and pick your head up.”

Notre Dame must do so because there’s still plenty for the Irish to play for. 

Season-Defining Three-Game Stretch

On Sunday, the Irish dropped just two spots in the AP Poll to No. 11, making them the top-ranked one-loss team, ahead of No. 12 Alabama and No. 13 LSU.

Notre Dame has several resume-building opportunities over the next three weeks to pick up three quality wins before the College Football Playoff selection committee releases its first rankings on Tuesday, Oct. 31.

First, Notre Dame travels to Durham, N.C., to take on No. 17 Duke (4-0) with the football version of ESPN College Gameday on the Blue Devil’s campus for the first time ever. 

The Irish stay on the road to face Louisville (4-0). The Cardinals are currently the 29th-rated team in ESPN’s SP+ and remain unranked in the AP Poll, receiving 32 votes in Week 4 following a 56-28 victory over Boston College. 

They play at N.C. State (3-1) on Friday at 7 p.m. With a win, Louisville might just crack the top-25 for the first time since 2020 and give Notre Dame a fourth-straight ranked contest. Currently, ESPN’s Matchup Predictor has the Cardinals favored by 67.6%.

This make-it-or-break-it portion of the season concludes back under the lights of Notre Dame Stadium against No. 8 USC (4-0), which owns the most prolific offense in college football. 

Reigning Heisman-winner Caleb Williams has the Trojans scoring 55.0 points per game (1st out of 133 FBS programs). He possesses the nation’s top passer rating, completing 74.3% of passes for 1,200 yards and 15 touchdowns and has yet to throw an interception. 

USC should remain unbeaten until its trip to South Bend. The Trojans are 23-point favorites at Colorado (3-1) this Saturday and have a 92.2% chance of defeating Arizona (3-1) at home on Oct. 7.

From then on, the Irish may need to focus on earning style points. Their final four opponents currently produce a combined record of 7-9, but there’s a chance Clemson (2-2) could bounce back into the top 25 with four quality opponents between now and a Nov. 4 matchup with Notre Dame. 

Night-Game Hangover Cure?

Notre Dame’s four straight night games present Freeman with a monumental prove-it moment in year two. 

In 2022, the Irish struggled against inferior opponents in the weeks immediately following night games last fall, especially those away from Notre Dame Stadium. 

Notre Dame went 2-2 in games played the weekend immediately following a 7:30 p.m. ET kickoff, with losses to Marshall (26-21) and Stanford (16-14) coming following night games at Ohio Stadium and Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas. 

A slow start on offense hurt the Irish in both contests. Notre Dame scored seven combined points in the first halves, sustaining one drive longer than 28 yards.

As for the two victories, Notre Dame easily defeated UNLV 44-21 the weekend after the loss to the Cardinal but barely squeaked out a 35-32 win over Navy in the wake of upsetting No. 4 Clemson. 

In 2023, Freeman has shown a willingness to adjust his preferred practice schedule to help his team enter the week more rested following late returns to South Bend. 

He changed Sunday from a practice day to a rest day for the season due to Notre Dame’s cross-Altantic return from Dublin, Ireland, in the season opener against Navy.

“That’s one of those things we talked about last year that I’ve learned,” Freeman said. “Every week truly isn’t the same.”

Freeman hates looking ahead, but he’ll have for next week’s preparation for Louisville. 

“We’ll get home from Duke around 3:30 in the morning, so as I think to the following week for Louisville, we have to take that into consideration,” Freeman said. “I haven’t put together the itinerary yet, the practice schedule and all those things, but we have to take that into consideration.”

Then he’ll have to do it again before USC week. Only Freeman may have even less flexibility with fall break around the corner and mid-term grades due on Oct. 16.

“You’re not changing much with academics here,” Freeman said. 

Of course, Notre Dame’s biggest challenge this week may be rebounding from an emotional loss to Ohio State, especially after outplaying the supremely talented Buckeyes for the major of the game. 

“It builds character. It builds resiliency,” Freeman said. “You can put everything you have into your preparation for a game and still lose. That’s what they did last week. They put everything they had, coaches and players. We still lost.”

The Irish are more than capable of beating Duke by double-digit this Saturday if they can bring the same energy and focus to a week of preparation. 

If they can’t, Notre Dame could get knocked out of the College Football Playoffs in September for the season year in a row.