SOUTH BEND, Ind. — Marcus Freeman watched the national championship game from an ESPN set in an upper corner of Hard Rock Stadium while wearing a tailored suit, a long way from standing on the sidelines with a headset and a call sheet.

That was the hand dealt to Notre Dame’s head coach after the Irish were bounced from the College Football Playoff before it began, leapfrogged by Miami for the final at-large spot on Selection Sunday in a public spectacle. A team many thought had the potential to win it all never got the chance.

Freeman has already turned the page on that moment, which will either haunt a generation of Notre Dame fans or one day fade in the glow of Freeman accomplishing what Indiana did on Monday night in Hard Rock Stadium. The Irish aren’t among the schools newly wondering, if the Hoosiers can win it all for a first time, why they can’t do the same. Notre Dame was just there a year ago Tuesday, playing for a championship, only for a mad comeback against Ohio State to come up short.

To take the final step in ending a title wait that has now stretched to 38 years, Notre Dame will need to use what happened this season as fuel. And for all of the polish Freeman showed breaking down film next to Nick Saban, that was the message he came to deliver on “College GameDay”. Freeman arrived willing to spread the gospel of responsibility on a network that loves a faux debate.

“This was never a situation where we deserved to be in the playoffs in front of Miami or Alabama or anything like that,” Freeman said. “This was, OK, the rankings have shown if we continue to win in the fashion we’re winning, it looks like we’re gonna make the Playoff, and we didn’t.

“The day we found out, the response was one thing. But after 24 hours, the ability to get in front of your team and say, you know what, we have to move forward. I remember our first team meeting we just had for 2026, my message was, it’s up to us to leave no doubt. We left doubt. We lost by four or five points the first two games. We left doubt.”

Freeman had already delivered that message inside the locker room and hinted at it last week while speaking to reporters inside Notre Dame Stadium, but Monday night was a chance to preach it far and wide. Notre Dame may have closed the book on 2025 weeks ago, but Freeman slammed it shut for anyone else interested in still reading.

Freeman took blame for Notre Dame missing the College Football Playoff instead of giving it out. Then ESPN’s Kirk Herbstreit stood up on set and walked over to shake Freeman’s hand. A generous reading of the interaction might have been that the Irish head coach was making peace with a network that seemed invested in its partnership with the ACC as it fixated on “Notre Dame or Miami” for nearly half the season. A more accurate interpretation is probably that Herbstreit appreciated Freeman for owning the games Notre Dame lost.

“It’s up to us to leave no doubt.”

Marcus Freeman shared his team’s mindset after being left out of this year’s CFP. pic.twitter.com/dmV7cdZexv

— College GameDay (@CollegeGameDay) January 19, 2026

In a sport where some coaches look for excuses with as much vigor as they devour game tape, Freeman’s response cut against the grain. Nothing about what he said was a surprise for anyone that has followed his four-year career at Notre Dame. Yet the way he said it, sticking his chin out for the offensive game plans that did not work against Miami and the defense that needed three games to understand the playbook, explains why Freeman feels so likely to be back at the national title game, probably on the sidelines next time.

For a Notre Dame fan base that now may be feeling surrounded by recent national champions in Bloomington, Columbus and Ann Arbor, the easy way to process is to complain about the CFP selection committee or the blown holding call against Texas A&M or the what-if of Leonard Moore and Adon Shuler playing Carson Beck’s floating pass to CJ Daniels better. There are a thousand things Notre Dame could have done better in those season-opening losses. Some were in Notre Dame’s control. Some were not. Either way, the Irish failed, and it opened a trap door few saw coming during their 10-game winning streak to close the season.

When Freeman talks about leaving no doubt for Notre Dame next season, he’s not setting up a revenge tour through next season’s schedule. No one will be impressed by blowing out Wisconsin, Rice, Boston College or Syracuse, anyway.

The doubt Freeman has to eliminate is the fine margins to be found in winter workouts, spring practices and summer conditioning. The doubt can’t be eliminated in September and October. Freeman’s job is to wipe it out in January, February and March. That’s why it was critical for Notre Dame’s head coach to turn the page on last season, internally, then locally and finally on Monday night, nationally.

Every day Notre Dame sulks about last season is a wasted one.

In the process, Freeman took potentially the longest offseason in school history and turned it into one of the most urgent ones. Notre Dame has the kind of roster to win the whole thing and is already installed among the betting favorites with Ohio State, Texas and Oregon.

The 2025 season’s final glimpse of Notre Dame football, garbage time in the middle of the night at Stanford with almost no one watching, was a cruel finale for a team that could have been playing on Monday night. But wasting the lessons Notre Dame learned since selection Sunday would be worse.

If Notre Dame can weaponize the pain of missing the CFP this season, a year from now Freeman may have a better view of college football’s season finale. Maybe he can go on ESPN again, only after the game.