Football
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The Notre Dame Fighting Irish have no intention of stepping back from the top tier of the college football landscape.
Notre Dame advanced to the College Football Playoff National Championship and fell to Ohio State 34-23. Despite the disappointing end, it was a productive season that saw the program go 14-2 and claim notable victories over Indiana, Georgia and Penn State.
As they move to the offseason, athletic director Pete Bevacqua said the 2024 season will be something the Fighting Irish build off of and will be the standard for the program.
“This is not a one and done,” Bevacqua said, per Pete Sampson of The Athletic. “This has to be the new normal for us.”
Bevacqua elaborated by saying that the University has full faith in head coach Marcus Freeman and that the University is “all-in.”
“We’re going to keep our foot on the gas and hopefully be here a lot more often,” Bevacqua said, per Sampson. “I believe we have the perfect coach for Notre Dame. What Marcus does on the field and off the field, he’s accepting everything that Notre Dame is. You don’t want to play Notre Dame football to do just ‘ok’ or be respected. We want to win national championships. So I really do think we’re all in, provided it’s still a student-athlete experience.”
Notre Dame reached the National Championship for the first time since 2012 and the program has still not won it all since 1988. However, the Fighting Irish have been in the mix over throughout the playoff era and the step forward in 2024 was promising for the team in the new landscape of college sports.
Freeman signed a six-year extension with the University and has compiled a 33-10 overall record since taking over in 2022. The Fighting Irish also have the No. 12 recruiting class in the nation for 2025, per 247 Sports.
While the 2024 team was a special group for Notre Dame, Bevacqua, Freeman and the University appear poised to make Playoff and National Championship appearances more frequent in the expanded playoff era.
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