NIU "Pain" Never Far Away From Notre Dame Minds
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. - Notre Dame’s loss to Northern Illinois back in early-September remains the only blemish on the Irish’s record this season following their 51-14 destruction of Navy here on Saturday afternoon.
It’s easy to wonder, ‘What if Notre Dame had managed to eke out an ugly 14-13 win over NIU instead suffering an embarrassing 16-14 loss?’
Everybody within the program would love to have a mulligan on that one, but there are no mulligans in college football.
There’s no shaking that loss.
It isn’t going anywhere.
So, Marcus Freeman is attempting to make the most of his only real option; finding a way to use that loss to his advantage.
“We’re going to be grateful for it if we utilize it and learn from the lessons it taught us,” Freeman said after his team’s sixth straight victory and its third consecutive win in blowout fashion.
The Notre Dame head coach hasn’t been shy about pulling out clips from the NIU game to show his players.
“The most important thing is we can’t lose the pain,” Freeman said. “That’s what I want to make sure our guys understand. You can’t lose the pain.”
There hasn’t been much pain of late.
For the fifth time in six games, the Irish won going away with the only close matchup coming in a 31-24 win over then #15 Louisville.
Still, Freeman doesn’t want anybody forgetting what happened against NIU.
“I don’t want to lose the pain from that game because, at times, we are motivated by fear; at times, we are motivated by we don’t want this to repeat itself,” Freeman said. “There are times I’ve got to remind them of that pain so that we can make sure we don’t forget it.”
Freeman seems confident that he both understands the lesson and what changes needed to be made.
“I go back and look at that week of preparation and I believe the physical part was efficient, but there’s a mental preparation, a mindset that you have to have going into every week,” Freeman said. “To me, that’s what I’ve learned as a head coach, our program has learned and there’s a mental approach - you better understand if you don’t prepare the right way, you can lose to anybody you play.
“I don’t ever want to forget about that.”
The idea of running the table was almost laughable in the immediate aftermath of the NIU loss. Yet, the Irish now head into their bye week having won six straight with four absolutely winnable games left.
Notre Dame hosts Florida State in two weeks in what was supposed to be the year’s showcase game coming into season. But after failing to make a case that they should have been included in last season’s College Football Playoff, the only case the Seminoles have made this year is to be recognized as the country’s most disappointing team and at 1-6, they’ve made that case convincingly.
A trip to Virginia a week later certainly is no gimme. The Cavaliers are 4-4 with wins over Wake Forest and Boston College, but are in the midst of a three-game losing streak to Louisville, Clemson and North Carolina.
Unbeaten Army may be the most difficult game left on the slate and the Black Knights are trying to put themselves in position to snatch the Group of Five’s guaranteed Playoff berth in the first year of the 12-team expanded postseason. Of course, that was the exact storyline coming into Saturday’s game against a military academy and look how that went.
USC always looms large at the end of even-numbered years and heading out to the West Coast to play the Trojans two days after Thanksgiving is never easy. USC put its talents on display in wins over LSU, Wisconsin and Rutgers, but three-straight losses to Minnesota, Penn State and Maryland earlier this month had some looking up Lincoln Riley’s buyout number.
Notre Dame shouldn’t need to be told that they cannot afford to overlook any of its remaining opponents, but Freeman won’t take that for granted. He’ll be reminding them about the loss to NIU…maybe not every chance he gets, but whenever he feels the need.
“We've got to use that,” he said on Saturday. “When you have success, sometimes you forget about that pain of what NIU left in all of our hearts and our guts.
“There are moments I want to reflect on that and I don’t want them to lose it. That’s when I use it as motivation.”
Want the latest scoop on the Fighting Irish? Sign up for our newsletter and become an ISD Premium Subscriber: Sign Up for ISD
Notre Dame Fighting Irish OHT Military Appreciation Defender Quarter-Zip Jacket
