SOUTH BEND, Ind. (AP) — Notre Dame coach Marcus Freeman sent a clear message to his team this week.
Win Saturday at Stanford and the playoff picture will sort itself out. Nothing else.
For the second straight year, the Fighting Irish find themselves not only playing a must-win regular season finale to make the 12-team field but also without another opportunity to impress the selection committee. Freeman wants his players thinking only about the rivalry game.
“You start thinking about the big picture and an uncertain future, that’s added pressure you don’t need,” he said. “ This game is the Super Bowl. It can’t be lip service. Your actions have to follow that. If our actions do follow that, I’m confident we’ll be prepared for the opportunity Saturday.”
The most immediate scenario for No. 9 Notre Dame (9-2, No. 9 CFP) is simple: Win and they are likely in for the second straight year, lose and they’ll almost certainly be left out. Beyond that, the scenarios are more complex.
The Fighting Irish have won nine straight since opening the season with two straight losses by a total of four points against two potential playoff teams but have been locked into the No. 9 seed for weeks. If they remain there, they’ll open the postseason on the road. If the Irish win again, they could host a game for the second straight year.
There’s even a potential scenario in which Alabama wins the SEC title, BYU wins the Big 12 and Miami joins the fray, perhaps knocking out the Irish. But Freeman doesn’t want his players watching scoreboards or thinking about the what-ifs.
“Coach (Freeman) does a good job of just preaching to us to allow us to elevate each and every week, and not thinking too much about the playoffs,” said cornerback DeVonta Smith, who spent his first four seasons at Alabama. “Practice is about what can we do to be able to elevate, to be able to give it all and reach that team glory on Saturday. The team is truly locked in and focused on what’s ahead of us at Stanford.”
Freeman didn’t have to look far to find warning signs, even though the Irish are riding high after back-to-back blowouts of Pittsburgh and Syracuse.
Stanford (4-7) has won four of its five home games, will celebrate Senior Night and interim coach Frank Reich’s finale. Notre Dame also will be missing two more players — linebacker Kyngstonn Viliamu-Asa and cornerback Chance Tucker — who suffered season-ending injuries last week. And the prime-time start in California will feel like 10:30 p.m. in South Bend.
Freeman is trying to make some adjustments.
“It starts with the mental approach,” he said. “We have to make 7:30 Pacific Time, Notre Dame Time.”
For some, like Smith, hearing playoff banter this time of year has become an annual tradition.
For others, such as receiver Will Pauling who played for Cincinnati and Wisconsin before transferring to Notre Dame this year, it’s a new experience and they are heeding Freeman’s advice.
“Obviously, you hear a lot of the noise from all the outside sources. Coach Freeman’s done a good job of telling us to block all that out and that’s exactly what we’re going to do,” Pauling said. “I think that’s just natural human instinct for everybody to lock in. We’re all competitors, we’re all winners. We want to win every single game. So it doesn’t matter if it’s Stanford or if it’s Syracuse lining up, we want to win every single time.”
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By CURT RALLO
Associated Press
