Avoiding The Daunted Notre Dame Let-Down Game Is Top-Of-Mind For Marcus Freeman

There's a lot of parody in college football and sometimes history can repeat itself. Ideally, that isn't the case for Notre Dame this upcoming weekend when they host the Boston College Eagles. Let's paint the picture: In 1993, the Fighting Irish beat the then-ranked No. 1 team in the country, the Florida State Seminoles 31-24. Both teams were undefeated coming into the game and whoever won was likely going to go on to win the national title. 

The following week, the Irish hosted the Boston College Eagles, the then-ranked No. 17 team in the country. Unfortunately, due to some missed opportunities, Notre Dame lost 41-39 just a week after their major win over Florida State in November. Now, let's fast forward to 2026, where the Irish are fresh off a 31-24 win over the No. 1 rank team in the country from Florida in November and who do they have up next at home? The Boston College Eagles. 

Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman understands that 'let-down' games have been something that's plagued college football for quite some time. It's happened during his tenure in South Bend with a home loss to Northern Illinois. Boston College is not the team they were from 1993, but the memory to those who remember still haunts them to this day. Notre Dame can't afford a let-down game or else their playoff hopes begin to dwindle. 

"It's easy to say 'it's not going to be us'," Freeman shared. "But it's a real thing and if you do enough studying on it, there's an issue with after big wins, teams having letdowns the next week. I even did a little study on what the coaches say after the loss and it's a very common theme. It's 'we weren't disciplined' or 'we didn't have a great week of prep' or 'we're not mature'. It's our job as coaches to make sure we're prepared.

"You don't blame the players," Freeman continued. "You mandate that we prepare in a way that doesn't allow us to have a letdown. When I say 'letdown' I'm not talking about the outcome of a game. I'm talking about performance and the way you play. You'll see third downs as an issue, turnover margins an issue and penalties are an issue. It's a real thing and we have to make sure we remember that as we prepare for this next opponent. We got to get to work." 

Avoiding the daunted 'let-down' game is in the week of preparation. It's rarely just about the performance on Saturdays. Freeman and his staff has to ensure that they don't let a potential bad day turn into a bad week prior to Boston College coming to South Bend looking to play the spoiler role for Notre Dame's 2026 season. 

"It's the ‘whys’," Freeman explained. "When you can identify the ‘whys’, that gives you a chance to say, okay, now we can hopefully change that mindset into the next day... We can't use that excuse, but you challenge them to be better the next day. And every day, every play is its own masterpiece. You can't let something that happened yesterday or something that happened last play carry over to the next one. Let's make this one good, and that's how you make sure a bad Tuesday doesn't turn into a bad week."

This is a game where Freeman and the Irish have to be exceptionally focused on the process, not the outcome. We as Notre Dame fans have learned what can happen when you overlook an opponent to a future that's uncertain. This week, the Irish need to get back to work and follow up their massive win against the Hurricanes with a resounding encore performance and put to rest some of the demons from 1993. 

------ 

Become a premium Irish Breakdown member, which grants you access to all of our premium content and our premium message board! Click on the link below for more.

BECOME A MEMBER 

Be sure to stay locked into Irish Breakdown all the time!

Join the Irish Breakdown community!
Subscribe to the Irish Breakdown YouTube channel
Subscribe to the Irish Breakdown podcast on iTunes
Follow me on Twitter: @TTrow5
Like and follow Irish Breakdown on Facebook