Notre Dame coach Marcus Freeman attends title game, says Irish have to ‘leave no doubt’ in 2026
Advertisement
Read this article for free:
or
Already have an account? Log in here »
To continue reading, please subscribe:
Monthly Digital Subscription
$1 per week for 24 weeks*
- Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
- Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
- Access News Break, our award-winning app
- Play interactive puzzles
*Billed as $4.00 plus GST every four weeks. After 24 weeks, price increases to the regular rate of $19.95 plus GST every four weeks. Offer available to new and qualified returning subscribers only. Cancel any time.
Monthly Digital Subscription
$4.99/week*
- Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
- Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
- Access News Break, our award-winning app
- Play interactive puzzles
*Billed as $19.95 plus GST every four weeks. Cancel any time.
To continue reading, please subscribe:
Add Free Press access to your Brandon Sun subscription for only an additional
$1 for the first 4 weeks*
*Your next subscription payment will increase by $1.00 and you will be charged $16.99 plus GST for four weeks. After four weeks, your payment will increase to $23.99 plus GST every four weeks.
Read unlimited articles for free today:
or
Already have an account? Log in here »
MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. (AP) — Notre Dame coach Marcus Freeman has a simple mantra for his team going into 2026: Leave no doubt.
Freeman’s season started with a loss to Miami at Hard Rock Stadium. And Freeman was back in that stadium on Monday, for the Miami-Indiana final in the College Football Playoff national championship game. He was brought in to appear on ESPN programming.
He said in a pregame appearance on ESPN that, after a day or so, Notre Dame’s disappointment about missing the CFP field had to subside and the team had to move on.
“My message was, ‘It’s up to us to leave no doubt.’ We left doubt,” Freeman said. “We lost by four, five points the first two games. We left doubt.”
Notre Dame started 0-2, with losses to Miami and Texas A&M. They didn’t lose again, going 10-0 but ended up as the first team out of the playoff.
Miami passed Notre Dame in the final ranking, largely because of the Hurricanes’ Week 1 win.
“At first, when you find out, you’re disappointed. You get in front of your team and you don’t have the answers for why,” Freeman said. “And this was never a situation where we deserved to be in the playoffs in front of Miami or Alabama or anything like that. This was, ‘OK, the rankings have shown if we continue to win on the path that we were winning, it looks like we’re going to make the playoffs.’ And we didn’t.”
The Irish will see Miami again next season, playing host to the Hurricanes on Nov. 7.
___
Get poll alerts and updates on the AP Top 25 throughout the season. Sign up here. AP college football: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-football-poll and https://apnews.com/hub/college-football