ATLANTA — Riley Leonard didn’t want to take his glimmering gold helmet off just yet. As the scarlet confetti fell from the sky and Ohio State celebrated its seventh national title Monday night after beating the Irish 34-23, Leonard stood on the other end of the field, shaking hands and hugging every Notre Dame player who walked off.
Once Leonard finally left the celebratory confines, what he found inside the tunnel was a crowd of Notre Dame fans giving him and the rest of the team what amounted to a silent standing ovation through a soundproof window. Though plenty of Irish fans displayed disappointment on their faces, there was a palpable appreciation, too.
“Thanks for getting us here!” one fan shouted.
As Marcus Freeman stood outside Notre Dame’s locker room, he couldn’t yet leave for his press conference. Inside the Mercedes-Benz Stadium tunnel, his gaze fixated on the TV in the corner where Ryan Day was basking in victory and lifting a trophy Freeman had come so close to grasping.
Inside the Notre Dame locker room, pride and disappointment collided as players tried to grapple with the fact that they were not the best team on the field Monday night, while knowing that what they had accomplished this season was worth acknowledging.
“We’ve been on a three game playoff streak and before this year, it was unfathomable for us to even win a playoff game,” defensive lineman Howard Cross III said. “We beat three straight great teams. We couldn’t finish but we’ve changed the narrative of who we are as a program.”
In one corner, offensive lineman Pat Coogan waxed poetic about how Notre Dame had fought its way here, to a national championship, despite injuries and plenty of adversity. In the other corner, safety Jordan Clark could barely get through his words as tears rolled down his face and his voice quivered.
“It’s just the love in this room, man,” Clark said. “We never fold.”
Despite being on the cusp of Notre Dame’s first national title since 1988 and coming up short, this season was a proof of concept for Freeman and what he’s been tasked with building in South Bend. The Irish suffered one of the program’s worst losses when they fell to Northern Illinois at home in September and it could have easily been the beginning of a long, mediocre campaign. Instead, it was the start of a legendary run.
“After the [NIU] loss, it was like screw everybody,” Cross said. “Let’s just keep rolling.”
Their ability to bounce back from that game and finish the regular season on a 10-game winning streak exhibited the way that players and coaches had bought into Freeman’s vision of a resilient team and moreover an emboldened program that wanted to once again take its place near the top of the sport. Monday night’s game was yet another testament to that very notion.
While down 31-7 in the third quarter, the Irish could have let their hope evaporate. But this was a team that had seen the worst version of itself early in the season. They had become familiar with rock bottom, had seen glimpses of it again when they were tied at halftime with USC in their final game of the season and responded. Weeks later, they had responded to that feeling once again while down 10-3 at halftime of the Orange Bowl against Penn State, coming out of the half and ensuring their dream season would continue.
And so it should have been no surprise that despite being outmatched in the talent department and down what felt like an insurmountable lead, the Irish kept fighting. They forced a turnover and cut the game to two possessions with plenty of time left.
“We didn’t give up. We didn’t stop,” Cross said. “And no matter how bleak or bad it may look, we still pushed. We still kept fighting until the very end.”
Even after hope had fully vanished on Monday following a dagger catch by Jeremiah Smith, the hunger remained. The Irish had tasted greatness again; in this new era of the sport, they had proven they were good enough to compete for the sport’s ultimate prize.
“The reality is we all had a little bit of doubt, but we all chose to work, and we all chose to trust each other,” Freeman said. “We did it every week and you still had to trust beyond knowing if your work was going to get you the result that you wanted, and they continued to do it. They put this program in a position to play for a national championship.”
The silver linings are both in the numbers and in the moments. The Irish boasted defensive and offensive units that ranked in the top six of the entire country, per ESPN SP+. Northern Illinois aside, they dominated teams they were better than and took every opportunity on the biggest stage to show this was a program with a fresh look and forward momentum. Even a national brand like Notre Dame can benefit from the exposure this team has created for themselves.
The culture‘s changed. I don’t know how to describe it, but people are confident,” Cross, who has been in South Bend since 2019, said. “With these games, prior to this year, it was like, whoa, I don’t know about that. Now, not a single person is thinking we’re going to lose.”
The climb up the mountain of modern college football is as steep and long as ever. Playing 15 or 16 games in a season — and winning four straight to win it all at the end — is a difficult task but the Irish seem better positioned to make it happen.
“I told these guys, they’ve left this program better — I don’t care if you were here for one year or you’ve been here for six years,” Freeman said. “The outlook of Notre Dame football is extremely high. As long as the people in that locker room that come back understand what it takes, the work these guys have put in, there’s a lot of success in our future.”
For Freeman and Co., the pain of the loss can only last so long. The work to construct an encore begins immediately and channeling the momentum of this run into recruiting and portal additions will be crucial. Notre Dame will have to replace Leonard, Cross, Jack Kiser and several others while the teams they beat on their way here will reload as well, including Ohio State. There’s excitement about freshman CJ Carr at the quarterback position while the breakouts of running back Jeremiyah Love and wideout Jaden Greathouse are promising.
As difficult as it was on Monday night, the pain of the present was somewhat soothed by the optimism of the future, which went beyond the confines of the Irish’s locker room.
“We’ll win more than one in the next 10 years. I am convinced of that,” said the 88-year-old Lou Holtz, against whom all his successors have been measured. “We have a culture where we believe, and you play for your teammates, and that is what Notre Dame is all about.”
Tony Rice, who quarterbacked the last Notre Dame team to win a title in 1988, may have summed it up best: “I thought in my lifetime I would never see it, but it’s time to pass the torch to someone else.”
“This is uncharted territory for us, but it was not a one off thing,” Cross said. “Prior to this year, it’s what Notre Dame can’t do now. Now, It’s what Notre Dame can do.’
Andrea Adelson contributed to this story.
