Notre Dame football did not achieve a College Football Playoff berth without some difficulty. Fighting Irish quarterback Riley Leonard, head coach Marcus Freeman, and ND suffered a costly loss. Northern Illinois shattered any unbeaten dreams on September 7. The Irish’s playoff hopes were further hampered by their early loss to NIU. The Huskies’ victory left many fans wondering if the Irish would recover. It turns out that a heartfelt speech from Freeman was all it took to overcome the difficult defeat in South Bend.
Leonard remembered the head coach’s angry but memorable statements to Nicole Auerbach of NBC Sports on Wednesday. The starting quarterback acknowledged to being “thankful” for the crushing 16-14 home loss. But so was Freeman.
“It’s hard for me to even say I’m thankful for it, but I am,” Leonard told Auerbach. “(Coach) stated that he was grateful for similar losses in the previous years because they had helped him grow as a person.” And I just sat there going, ‘Dude, there’s no way. I’m never going to say that. “But here we are.”
The NIU setback turned out to be the finest thing that happened to the playoff-bound Irish. Leonard then revealed the final inspirational letter he had sent to him and Notre Dame.
“It drove us for the remainder of the year. (Freeman) always told me to ‘keep the agony’ before every game. “He said, ‘Keep that pain, because you don’t want to have that feeling again,'” Leonard explained.
Riley Leonard explains how big Notre Dame vs. Indiana actually is. Leonard now leads Notre Dame into the inaugural College Football Playoffs as the seventh seed. The Indiana Hoosiers, one of the CFB season’s biggest surprises, are standing in their way. However, as Irish quarterback Leonard put it, this is more than just a football game. He recognizes the importance of the postseason pairing for the entire state of Indiana.
“It’s huge for the state of Indiana — we’ve been talking about it becoming a football state,” according to Leonard. “It’s notorious for basketball, for obvious reasons.”
Now, the state’s two largest institutions face off, with both teams vying for the College Football National Championship. The new tournament concept gives fresh meaning to survival and advancement on the football pitch. Leonard, Freeman, and the Irish understand that a loss will end their title campaign.
The Irish face the Hoosiers in South Bend on Friday. On New Year’s Day, the winner of the Notre Dame-Indiana game will face Georgia, the No. 2 seed.
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