Freeman reveals big reason why Notre Dame was upset in Week 2

During his weekly news conference on Monday, Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman shared why he thinks the Fighting Irish suffered a massive upset in Week 2 to Northern Illinois.

“This is the first time in my three years as a head coach that we have won the big game early in the season,” Freeman said. “Two losses to Ohio State [in 2022 and 2023], and then all of a sudden we win [against Texas A&M], and everybody says, ‘Hey, you’re going to the playoff. You’ve got an easy schedule.’ We all hear it, and I think we started to believe that.

“There is a physical approach to preparing for a game, and I think physically, we prepared the right way. But there’s also a mental approach and a mindset that you have to have every single week, and I think that’s where we failed.

“So we’ve gotta challenge ourselves and make sure, no matter who our opponent is, that physically and mentally, our approach to the game is the same way.”

Freeman went on to emphasize that Notre Dame needs to stop looking ahead and thinking about what it needs to do to make this season’s College Football Playoff and do a better job at focusing all of its energy on the opponent the team is facing each week.

He knows that if the Fighting Irish look past another opponent, as they did this past weekend, then playing for a national championship probably isn’t going to be a possibility.

Notre Dame was clearly riding high after getting a big win on the road over a ranked Texas A&M team in Week 1. The Fighting Irish then had a matchup inside their home stadium against a Northern Illinois program that hadn’t defeated a ranked opponent since 2003, and everyone assumed Notre Dame was going to enter Week 3 with a 2-0 record.

But this is, of course, not what happened.

Instead, the Fighting Irish were on the losing end of a matchup in which they entered as heavy favorites, and the school’s chances of making this season’s 12-team College Football Playoff bracket took a big hit.

As a result of Notre Dame’s surprising loss in Week 2, it dropped 13 spots to No. 18 in the latest AP Top 25 poll, and it fell 12 spots in this week’s AFCA Coaches Poll, which currently has the program ranked as the No. 19 team in the nation.

In Week 3, the Fighting Irish will attempt to get their season back on track when they head out on the road to take on a 1-0 Purdue team that is coming off a 4-8 finish in 2023.

Will Notre Dame live up to the majority’s expectations this time and defeat a lesser-talented opponent, or will the school suffer a surprising loss for the second week in a row?