Chaos brings excitement; clarity brings boredom! That’s how it is in college football. As things were about to become clearer in Week 13, everything went for a toss. Big teams losing, turmoil in the SEC, and an upheaval in the rankings. Amid all this, Notre Dame and Penn State have been in contention for a spot in the top 4 teams. Currently, the 4th position belongs to Penn State, while Notre Dame is in the 5th position. Just one week to go in the regular season, can Marcus Freeman’s team flip that? Well, one analyst thinks so.

On November 28, Nicole Auerbach, the lead college football and college basketball insider, revealed that Marcus Freeman and his squad have a high chance of gaining an edge over Penn State. “To me, the string of wins that Notre Dame has had again, some of these teams have fallen out of the rankings. Army was ranked last week. Now they’re not, but Notre Dame has been the most dominant team in the country for the last two months. The most consistent team in the country.” 

Moving further, she backed her statement with stats and added, “For the last two months, they lead FBS. Importance differential and in ESPN’s own game control metric, which just shows like in the middle of a game.” 

If we look at Notre Dame’s schedule, they have dominated their opponents by huge margins, and the game they lost was a narrow defeat (14-16 to Northern Illinois), and since then, they have not looked back. The back-to-back nine victories show their strength on both sides. But this season, many raised questions over the committee’s decision; even Auerbach also took a dig at their decision and concluded with, “To me, what they do for the run game and the defense. They are elite. And I could see the committee saying, we believe in that.” 

Well, we still have a week to go. It’s the rivalry Saturday, and a lot of upheaval may still happen. Marcus Freeman would want to avoid anything unexpected.

Marcus Freeman eyes playoff spot as rivalry week begins

After defeating the Army this week, Notre Dame improved its position, and now, it is all set to enter the rivalry week. Fighting Irish will play against USC Trojans. Well, this season is a rollercoaster ride for many head coaches, and Lincoln Riley is one of them. Now, two days before the game, Marcus Freeman has shared his thoughts on the matchup.

The Trojans are 6-5, and Riley looks forward to ending the season with a victory. But Fighting Irish has the bigger vision, which is to enter the playoffs, and Marcus is not underestimating their opponents: “It’s a very competitive, talented football team. It will truly be our biggest challenge to date.” He added, “The noise and the things outside of this game that have nothing to do with this game, that’s going to be a reason why it’s a challenge. But because of how good this team is, in terms of, in relation to its record.”

Like we mentioned earlier, Marcus highlighted that the 6-5 record really does not define the Trojans, and they can play better than this, especially at the home ground. “They have a 6-5 record; they’re 3-1 in the last four games. They’ve had one loss at home, and it was the overtime loss to Penn State,” Freeman said.

“They’ve led in the fourth quarter in every game this year. And so, you know, I think four to five losses, they were leading within three minutes of the end of the game. So, it’s gonna be a challenge versus a really good team, and we have to prepare in a way that gives us an opportunity to get the outcome that we want,” he added.

When the last time both teams faced each other, Notre Dame won the game with 48-20. Will they continue to dominate them this Saturday and get one step closer to the national championship?

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