NFL News NFL News, Reports and Updates
SOUTH BEND – When last seen leaving his work environment where first downs and chunk plays mattered, Notre Dame football coach Marcus Freeman carried the distant gaze of someone who had seen a professional dream dissolve.
Up a drafty, concrete tunnel of Mercedes-Benz Stadium and a right turn into a solemn locker room. Down a hallway in the opposite direction to post-game interview obligations. Seated between two players, two captains, two cornerstones in veteran linebacker Jack Kiser and first-year quarterback Riley Leonard, who both fought through tears as the three talked of not completing the journey.
Back down that hallway went Freeman, into the locker room and pretty much out of the spotlight for the next few weeks as he dealt with being a play or two or three away from winning the school’s 12th national championship in what was the longest season (16 games over six months) in program history.
Fifty-eight days later, Freeman was back in his work environment. On the football field. At five minutes after 9 on Wednesday morning, he bounced between stretch lines in the first practice of spring. It was as if nothing had changed. For Freeman. For the Irish. For the program.
Those 58 days passed like 58 hours. Like that. Weren’t we all just in Atlanta, like, last month? Spring practice? Already? Sigh.
This is a different Notre Dame football March for myriad reasons while coming clear of a season that felt like it would never end and feels like it only just did. Key players will work through college football’s version of load management in the run-up to the annual Blue-Gold game on April 12. They may be available…
Source link : https://www.southbendtribune.com/story/sports/college/football/2025/03/19/after-coming-close-last-year-notre-dame-football-begins-its-2025-journey/81602409007/
Author :
Publish date : 2025-03-19 19:38:00
Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source.
