Notre Dame football season is a lost cause after Clemson loss

The rest of the Notre Dame football season will be tough to stomach because it’s already a failure.

Regardless of what happens the rest of the way for Notre Dame football, the 2023 season will go down as a failure after the loss to Clemson on Saturday.

For the second year in a row, Notre Dame football will be going to a second-class bowl game. The Irish won’t be anywhere near the playoff conversation and frankly, the Fighting Irish made themselves irrelevant for the remainder of the season with the 31-23 loss to the 4-4 Tigers.

If it wasn’t for the TV money, what’s the point of playing out the string? I guess trying to get more time to see if Marcus Freeman is worth retaining because, through two campaigns, he’s failed to meet expectations.

The quarterback was supposed to be the problem last year, which is why Freeman and Notre Dame football went to the transfer portal to land Sam Hartman.

Sam Hartman and Marcus Freeman have failed to meet expectations

There was talk of national title contention and a College Football Playoff appearance. At worst, a New Year’s Six Bowl game seemed like a distinct possibility.

That would have been the minimum expectation for this to be a success this season. Freeman, for all his recruiting prowess, hasn’t been that effective. Neither has Hartman, who has been so MID you wonder if they’ll ask him to return some of the NIL money?

The Wake Forest transfer has been good against bad competition. But against Ohio State, Duke, Louisville, USC, and Clemson, Hartman has five touchdown passes compared to five interceptions. He also threw for an average of just 184.6 yards per game in those contests in addition to completing 48 percent of his passes.

In the best-case scenario, Notre Dame can post a 10-3 record with a win in a bowl game that nobody cares about. That might not be enough to fire Freeman yet. But heading into the 2024 season, his seat is about to get really hot, especially if 2024 is like 2022 and 2023.