ND Notebook: Irish ready for blue blood title bout

SOUTH BEND For the first time in the College Football Playoff-era, Notre Dame is headed to the National Championship game.

And in the battle between two blue-bloods, the Fighting Irish are in an unlikely position as the pesky and resilient underdog.

From laughed-at to lovable, No.

7-seed Notre Dame (14-1) has taken an uncommon path, and an unusual role as they remain just one of two teams left playing in the sports longest-ever season.

While their opponent, No.

8-seed Ohio State (13-2) maintains their role as near double-digit favorites, its the Irishs adaptability, resolve, and blind faith that has created few detractors, and limitless believers in South Bend.

Marcus Freeman, Notre Dames third-year head coach, is the source of the teams remarkable run to the final.

Turning 39 just hours after the Fighting Irishs Orange Bowl victory over Penn State last week, the youthful belief in his team has been directed top-down.

Following after Gerry Faust (1981-95), Bob Davie (1997-2001) and Charlie Weis (2005-2009), Freeman is just the fourth person to begin his head coaching career with the Irish.

Early on and as late as this season, Freemans path was looking similar to theirs: short-lived.

He was the coach behind losses at home to Marshall and Stanford in his first season.

His second-year stain of having 10 players on the field relent the winning score against Ohio State was only topped by a humiliating loss to Northern Illinois this season just a week after earning what was his biggest win of his career at Texas A&M.

Faust, Davie and Weis only lasted five seasons.

None won more than 35 games.

Freeman, now leading the Irish against his alma mater, will be playing for win No.

34 in just his third season.

Just like the program had to do when Notre Dames winningest head coach suddenly departed for LSU, the Fighting Irish have fought back.

Back against the idea that the 1988 championship will remain the programs last.

Back against the idea that a loss to a team that finished seventh in the Mid-American Conference should be the first, and fatal knife in the teams playoff hopes.

Back against the idea that the Irish would lose too big a step without [enter injured Irish starter here].

Through a steady dose of mantras from Freeman, the Irish have navigated a season unlike any other.

Following the loss to the Huskies, Notre Dame found its identity through trial-and-error.

The Irish plowed over in-state rival Purdue with nearly 600-yards and over 360 yards rushing but needed two late second-quarter scores to take a 14-3 halftime lead, and eventually earn a 28-3 win over Miami-Ohio.

Defensively, Notre Dame was stout.

Coordinator Al Golden knew it, even when the Irish lost vyper Jordan Botelho and his replacement Boubacar Traore following Week 5s win over Louisville.

Then, after the bye week, Benjamin Morrison was lost.

The freshman All-American and second-teamer All-American last season was out for the season at the cornerback position against Stanford.

At 6-1, Notre Dame certainly looked like a team that wouldnt survive its remaining schedule, much less a longer-than-usual postseason.

The Irish would knock off ranked service academies Navy and Army, and a trio of Atlantic Coast Conference teams in Georgia Tech, Virginia and a woeful Florida State team.

Then, when Southern Cal threatened late, Christian Gray and Xavier Watts ran back two interceptions for touchdowns to seal a 11-1 season that many predicted the Irish would have.

But few saw it happening this way.

The topsy-turvy, injury-plagued, make you lose some faith in Touchdown Jesus-way.

In terms of this season, yeah, from where we started with the start of A&M and the loss to Northern Illinois to now, you're saying we're getting ready to play for the national championship, yeah, it's full circle, Freeman said Sunday.

This has nothing to do with the past and where I went to school.

This is about this opportunity that lies right ahead of us.

Through the unorthodox path, Notre Dame has grown stronger, while growing weaker on paper.

The Irish may be without several pass rushers and defensemen, and the offensive line continues to be a game of mix-and-match with whatever pieces are available, but theres been one constant that gives the Irish an edge against what appears to be a superior Buckeyes squad.

That constant is Freeman and his staff, who have divvied out belief to a team that continues to be told to choose hard.

That mentality has got us to this point, Freeman said about having a focus on team success rather than individual.

It's every person in this program putting this football program in front of itself.

That's what we continue to do and we demand of each other is that everybody outside of this football program will find ways to give individual glory or individual praise or whatever it is, but we know inside this building that every person has a vital role for us achieving the results that we have.

Through the countless injuries and endless mantras from Freeman, the Irish are in arguably a better spot than they were more than a decade ago in their most recent title game appearance..

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