Even In Victory, Fighting Irish Often Perform Like Strangers At Notre Dame Stadium

After shocking losses at home to Marshall and to Stanford (and almost to Cal, which had somebody drop the game-winning Hail Mary catch in the end zone), the Fighting Irish actually beat UNLV Saturday at Notre Dame Stadium.

That’s news.

It’s always news these days whenever Notre Dame doesn’t collapse against a college football lightweight.

Which brings us to this: On a gorgeous afternoon around northern Indiana, with the Golden Dome shining its approval courtesy of brilliant sunshine, the Irish did a lot of good things during their 44-21 victory over UNLV. They also flashed enough bad for the 73,165 folks in attendance to realize Notre Dame isn’t close to bringing a home-field advantage back to South Bend, Indiana.

Not that Marcus Freeman isn’t trying.

After this first-year head coach for any college football team walked into his post-game press conference to mention the UNLV victory was significant since it came at home, I said, “OK. So, are you ordering your players and coaches to stop embarrassing themselves inside Notre Dame Stadium?”

I actually was kinder, gentler with my question.

“Yeah, this place is special, Notre Dame Stadium, and you know, the history and the tradition of this place is something we all respect, and we haven’t had the greatest of showings in our home games,” Freeman said, seeking to change the situation before the UNLV game by doing such things as taking the mic in front of Touchdown Jesus during the team’s pregame walk to the stadium. He urged the crowd to cheer louder than loud at the game, which they mostly did.

Freeman added, “There’s a (pause), you can list reasons why (we’ve struggled at home), but I don’t know. We needed to make sure our players understood the importance of performing well at home, and this is an advantage for us. This has to be an advantage for us, so that’s why I made the comment that it’s great to get a win in Notre Dame Stadium.”

Sounds good, but the Irish already have dropped two homes games this season under Freeman, and that’s how many times they lost at Notre Dame Stadium during their previous five seasons overall before Brian Kelly bolted for LSU.

Kelly left the Irish to Freeman, his 36-year-old defensive coordinator who you’d easily want after meeting him as your son, grandson, son-in-law, brother, brother-in-law, nephew, best friend, next-door neighbor or (fill in the blank).

Given Freeman’s ability to speak plainly with charisma to all ages, those who study such things have Notre Dame acquiring top three recruiting classes from now through infinity.

There is the meantime, though.

It’s been rough for Freeman’s 4-3 (which should be at least 6-1) Irish, particularly at home. This is a campus noted for Touchdown Jesus, and for those legendary Notre Dame ghosts — from The Four Horsemen to The Gipper to Ara Parseghian — and for thousands of fans lighting miracle candles like crazy every week on campus at The Grotto of Our Lady of Lourdes.

Little has worked to solve the Irish’s Notre Dame blues, even when they win.

They were 25 1/2-point favorites against UNLV, and they fell short of that projection after winning by 23 points.

They still gave up too many huge plays on defense out of nowhere. They still were shaky in the Red Zone (three field goals that easily could have been touchdown drives). They still struggled with turnovers (two). They still had super tight end Michael Mayer and virtually noting else in the pass-catching department.

Is Notre Dame the only Power 5 team without any wide receivers, or does it just seem that way? Along those lines, the Irish offense has struggled all season under former Notre Dame quarterback Tommy Rees as coordinator and mostly average Drew Pyne as the signal caller.

Nevertheless, the Irish nearly upset Ohio State on the road during the season opener for both teams, and they also defeated nationally ranked teams in North Carolina and BYU away from South Bend.

Then came those home defeats in which Notre Dame was favored to win each of them by more than three touchdowns. It gets worse. While Marshall lost three of its next four games after leaving Notre Dame Stadium (and the Thundering Herd’s only victory during that stretch was against Gardner-Webb), Stanford had beaten only Colgate before traveling to the Irish’s campus.

This whole thing is spitting on Notre Dame history, but only if you’ve heard of Knute Rockne. He had Notre Dame Stadium built for $750,000 before his 1930 season as the Irish’s head coach and eternal saint, not only for dominance by Notre Dame, but for consistent dominance.

There was a $50 million expansion to the stadium before the 1997 season that added 21,0000 seats to bring its capacity slightly above 80,000. The university invested another $400 million into Notre Dame Stadium for work that was completed in 2017. It involved adding three new buildings to the existing structure for a total of 750,000 square feet for academic use and student activities.

Even so, Notre Dame Stadium is about football — winning football, the sustained kind of Rockne and later of Kelly.

“To get that feeling back, we have to keep winning at home, and we cannot lose at home, because we’ll never get that feeling back,” Mayer said, with his Irish slated to play at No. 14 Syracuse this Saturday before returning to Notre Dame Stadium the following week for No. 5 Clemson. “It’s been a point of emphasis all season long, and now we can’t lose at home. Obviously, that’s not the way it’s been.

“Nobody likes losing at home. Nobody in that locker room. We’re trying our best. We’re pouring are hearts out on the field. We don’t want to let these fans down, and we don’t want to let this community down by losing at home.”

Too late for that.

Unless the Irish beat Clemson.

You know, for starters.