Marcus Freeman issued a message to the College Football Playoff Selection Committee following his team’s 49-20 win at Stanford. Notre Dame has 10 straight wins since an 0-2 start, and he wants the Fighting Irish discussed among the nation’s best.
Ranked No. 9 entering rivalry weekend, Notre Dame’s in line to be the second-to-last at-large selection in front of Alabama if Tuesday night’s penultimate rankings remain unchanged.
“You talk about a team that is probably playing as well as anyone right now,” Freeman said. “We’ve won 10 straight games in a row. I think all of them by double-digit points maybe. And you want the 12 best teams. Now I know you have the conference champions and the Group of Five highest-ranked team, but you talk about who are the best teams now. Not week one. Now, and it’s hard to argue we aren’t one of those teams.”
Considering No. 8 Oklahoma, No. 10 Alabama, No. 11 BYU and No. 12 Miami all won on Saturday, the expectation is the Fighting Irish will be included in the playoff picture in Tuesday’s updated rankings.
However, if the Crimson Tide beat Georgia in the SEC Championship Game and BYU takes out Texas Tech, that could leave Notre Dame in the “first team out” realm with both of those teams moving ahead of the Fighting Irish in next weekend’s final poll.
As for Miami, the Hurricanes left a lasting impression on the committee with Saturday’s emphatic victory at No. 22 Pittsburgh. They were behind Notre Dame in every set of playoff rankings despite a head-to-head victory over the Fighting Irish in the opener.
Committee chair Hunter Yurachek said they took Miami’s win into consideration during the voting process now that both teams are considered on the same tier. That could pose another obstacle for Notre Dame if the committee pushes the Hurricanes ahead of the Fighting Irish this week or next Sunday.
Notre Dame’s star running back left the Stanford game in the first quarter with an upper-body injury. He returned to finish with 66 yards on 14 carries after intermission. He punctuated Notre Dame’s first possession of the contest with a 2-yard touchdown run, his 18th of the season.
“I told him, you know how you feel. I know you’re hurting, but you know how you feel and you have to make a decision about what’s best for team,” Freeman said. “If you feel like you can go, that’s what’s best for team. I know he wanted to go out there and put on a Heisman Trophy-worthy performance, and we owed it to him to say, ‘you feel like you can go, go.’
“And that tells you the type of competitor he is. I know he’s hurting, but he wanted to go, and it was safe for him. We wouldn’t put him in harm’s way and the doc said if he wants to go, he can go, and I left that up to him because he’s earned that right.”
Love has 1,372 rushing yards this season with 18 touchdowns, and is a likely finalist for the Heisman Trophy.
“I think it’s a rib injury and so we’re going to get it checked out and x-rayed,” Freeman said. “And they went and did that and came back and said, Hey, he’s going to try to give it a go. And he gave it a go and you could tell he was hurting and that was probably close to the end of the half. And again, I just had that conversation with him, just explained, Hey, if you can help us and that’s what’s best for the team, you make that decision.”
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