Marcus Freeman calls Notre Dame loss to Northern Illinois, 'the greatest thing'

When people found out that Notre Dame football head coach Marcus Freeman enlisted the help of Northern Illinois head coach Thomas Hammock to figure out what went wrong in the Irish’s Week 2 game, plenty of fans saw that as a weakness. As it turns out, it looks as though Freeman demonstrated an amazing amount of self awareness and displayed a humility that helped his team only get better as the season went on.

Now, after the Irish finished the regular season with 10 straight wins, an 11-1 record and most likely a home game in the first round of the playoffs, Freeman is crediting that loss to NIU as the turning point. A blessing in disguise, if you will.

The Notre Dame football coach was asked after his team’s win over USC what he told his team following the NIU game. He made it clear that he didn’t let them hang their heads and sulk. Or give in to the talk their season and playoff hopes were already over.

Notre Dame football coach sees NIU loss as a blessing

"This will be the greatest thing that's ever happened to this football team if we use it and continue to learn from it,” Freeman said he told his team back in September. “It taught us what it takes to handle success."

The Notre Dame football team hasn’t always looked pretty doing it, but no one can argue they don’t know how to handle success. Since that loss, the Irish have routinely looked like one of the best teams in the country. Now they’ll get a chance to prove it.