The Notre Dame football program enters the season with high hopes once again. In 2024, Notre Dame had a thrilling run to the College Football Playoff national title game before losing to Ohio State, 34-23. Although Riley Leonard is now in the NFL, Notre Dame is still ranked No. 6 in the preseason polls and is expected to be a College Football Playoff contender once again.
While Notre Dame made the title game, the Irish lost to Northern Illinois in South Bend in stunning fashion, 16-14. It was a shocking turn of events, although Notre Dame used that as motivation for the rest of the season.
In fact, Freeman wrote a long letter and read it to his team, even saying that it is one “he'll keep forever,” according to Sports Illustrated's Pat Forde.
Here is the letter Freeman wrote and read to his team:
“There is a reason we lost on Saturday. Our challenge is to figure out what the reason was. Yes, there are schematic things, but there is more to this lesson. We weren’t ready to handle success yet. Sometimes you have to lose to win. When a big win is on the horizon, usually a loss precedes it because there are lessons in losing that build the strength necessary to handle success. Delayed gratification equals patience plus strategy. Patience without strategy equals just waiting. We must do some things we haven’t done, personnel-wise and schematics, and do things better than we’ve ever done. We will be grateful for this loss. Right now, misery wants company. Some of this misery, we’re going to have to go through alone and take a hard look at ourselves, our units, our positions, and figure out where we fell short and how we can change it during that misery and eval. Just know that I believe we have the best coaches and players in the country to get it fixed. There is no reward without pain, no success without struggle. Not denied, just delayed.”
Whatever Freeman said to his team seemed to work. After the Northern Illinois loss, the Notre Dame football team won 13 in a row before losing in the title game, and this letter is one Freeman has said he will keep forever.
