In the immediate aftermath of Notre Dame’s road win over USC in its regular-season finale, a single number was referenced numerous times in press conferences by several Irish coaches and players — 84.
It had been exactly 84 days since Notre Dame was stunned by Northern Illinois in a shocking upset loss at home, 84 days since it had hit rock bottom and 84 days since it had been effectively ruled out of consideration by fans and media alike at having any legitimate opportunity to reach the College Football Playoff, much less to earn a top-eight seed that would give it the right to host a first-round matchup.
“It’s disappointing. You go from the highest of highs to the lowest of lows in a tale of two weeks, but we've got to own this thing. As coaches and players, we’ve got to own it, and we’ve got to fix it,” Irish head coach Marcus Freeman said after the Northern Illinois defeat. “We’ve got to get it fixed and get back to playing football the way we know how to play, [the way] we’ve played before, and we can, and we will.”
And they did.
Over the ensuing 84 days, the Irish turned that disappointment into fuel and went on a rampage, rattling off 10 consecutive wins — most coming in dominant fashion — that culminated with an emphatic victory against rival USC that meant that Notre Dame could finally put that fateful loss in the rearview mirror. Against all odds, the Irish earned the No. 7 seed in the Playoff and the right to host postseason football in South Bend as well as to make history as the first team ever to play a CFP game on their home field.
20 days later, and 104 days after falling to Northern Illinois, the Irish made good on that opportunity, playing in front of a jubilant Notre Dame Stadium on Friday night. They earned a wire-to-wire 27-17 victory over in-state opponent Indiana in a game that was more lopsided than that final margin would suggest. The Irish led 27-3 with less than two minutes in the game before the Hoosiers tacked on a pair of scores in the final seconds. Taking down a top-10 opponent in no-doubt fashion on college football’s biggest stage in front of their home crowd, at the same venue where they had nearly seen their season fall apart just three months prior, felt like a culmination of all the hard work and toughness that had allowed the Irish to bounce back from that loss.
But while 84 was the number that motivated and inspired the Irish’s redemption tour this season — one that will continue on — there’s another number that has hung over Notre Dame’s head and provided the fuel for any and all criticism of the program for decades, a number that has increased by one with each turn of the calendar. And most importantly, a number that the Irish, thanks to their 11-game win streak, now have the chance to erase and replace with a zero.
That number is 31. It’s now been 31 years since Notre Dame last won a major or New Year’s Six bowl, a feat it last accomplished at the conclusion of the 1993 season when the Irish, coached at the time by Lou Holtz, took down Texas A&M in the Cotton Bowl on Jan. 1, 1994.
And exactly 31 years later, to the day, Notre Dame will look to end that drought when it travels to New Orleans on New Year’s Day to take on Georgia in the Sugar Bowl for the CFP quarterfinal.
A stretch that long without a major bowl win seems somewhat difficult to imagine for a program that produces teams as consistently strong as Notre Dame has over the past three decades. Indeed, the Irish have earned the right to compete in those high-level bowls on a regular basis, with 10 major bowl appearances during that period. The problem for the Irish is that they haven’t been able to deliver on those opportunities, with an 0-10 record in those games since that Cotton Bowl victory.
This has led to the widespread narrative that Notre Dame is a team that can be relied on to take care of business against weaker opponents in the regular season, but one that can’t win the big games when it matters most. You’ll frequently hear that the Irish don’t have the talent or athleticism to match up with top teams from the SEC or the Big Ten, haven’t been relevant since the ‘80s or are just generally “overrated” and undeserving of being invited to those top bowls. There is the built-in assumption that they’ll be on the losing end of things regardless of how they performed during the regular season.
And at times, some of those opinions have seemed to have merit. Notre Dame was mostly uncompetitive in its two previous trips to the CFP, losing 30-3 to Clemson in the 2018 Cotton Bowl and 31-14 to Alabama in the Rose Bowl at the conclusion of the 2020 season. It’s worth noting that those two opponents were head and shoulders above any team in the nation in those respective seasons, as both would go on to win the national championship game by 28 points, a margin greater than they posted in their wins against the Irish.
But while Notre Dame appeared relatively outmatched heading into both of those games, things feel different this time around as the Irish look ahead to their quarterfinal matchup with Georgia, and many experts have tabbed Notre Dame to defeat the Bulldogs and advance to the semifinals.
This Irish team is confident and highly motivated, as shown by their taking note of the 84 days between the loss to Northern Illinois and the win against USC. They’re battled-tested and have consistently proven themselves against high-level competition, with a 5-0 record against top-25 teams this season, most recently handily defeating 10th-seeded Indiana on Friday. And they’re at their best under pressure, having essentially closed out the regular season with 10 consecutive “playoff” games in which a single loss would have almost certainly eliminated them from CFP contention.
They’re well-coached, with Freeman more confident and comfortable than ever in his third season at the helm and having fully instilled an identity of toughness, physicality and aggressiveness in his Irish team. He’s been supported by two of college football’s top coordinators — Mike Denbrock on offense and Al Golden on defense. Notre Dame has excelled on both sides of the ball, ranking inside of the top four nationally in points scored and allowed per game. The Irish boast a bevy of talent all around the field despite having dealt with several key injuries, are tied for first in the country in forced turnovers and have arguably more momentum and positive energy on their side than any team in college football.
Long story short, Notre Dame is ready to finally take that next step and get over the hump in a way that it hasn't in more than three decades by knocking off Georgia and continuing its magical run this season, and it’s time for it to do so. For the first time in recent memory, it doesn’t feel like there’s a team in the country that the Irish can’t compete with or beat, and it’s not a stretch to consider them true national title contenders.
Just to add one more number to the mix, the Sugar Bowl matchup will take place three years to the day after the Irish’s most recent major bowl appearance — the Fiesta Bowl that followed the 2021 season — which also happened to be Freeman’s first game as Notre Dame’s head coach. Freeman was forced to go into that game somewhat unprepared, having suddenly been thrown into the fire as head coach for the bowl game after Brian Kelly’s surprising departure to LSU at the conclusion of the regular season. The Irish started out strong against Oklahoma State — taking a 28-7 lead in the first half — before ultimately faltering down the stretch in a 37-35 defeat that only furthered the idea of Notre Dame being a team that just can’t get the job done in key moments.
Three years later, Freeman’s a more experienced, more confident and overall better head coach, and his team has grown in those same ways right along with him, as well as the Irish program as a whole. Now, he and Notre Dame have a chance at a bit of a full-circle moment as they look to elevate the program to heights it hasn’t reached in more than 30 years after narrowly failing to do so in their last time out.
Notre Dame has an outstanding coaching staff, headed by Freeman, who appears set to lead the Irish for the long haul after agreeing to a contract extension through 2030 earlier in the week. The Irish roster has more depth and talent across the board than ever before and continues to improve every year through success on the recruiting trail. The University has invested in key facilities upgrades that are consistent with those of some of the sport’s foremost programs.
All in all, Notre Dame looks in every way, shape and form like a program ready to reassert itself among college football’s elite and put their major-bowl demons to rest.
And whichever number you choose to use — 116 days since the Northern Illinois game when they face Georgia, 31 years since the last major bowl win, three years since Freeman’s head coaching debut and the Irish’s most recent New Year’s Six appearance — all that matters is that next Wednesday night in New Orleans, the Irish will have 60 minutes on the field to prove that the ranks of the elite are exactly where they belong both now and in the future, to claim a long-awaited victory in a major bowl and to continue their CFP march into the semifinals.
They’ve shown all year long that they’re ready to do just that.
