Brian Kelly is hated by the Fighting Irish fans. Despite all of that, he is still hoping his former team will win the first ever 12 team College Football Playoff.

The Orange Bowl was a huge win for that program. The fact that they made it all this way — against Penn State, no less — speaks to the job Freeman has done. To go from losing to Northern Illinois at the beginning of the season to playing for a national championship is unheard of.

This loss for Notre Dame to Ohio State in the national title game wasn't Alabama 2013 all over again, but there were similarites. The differences were huge, though.

Three years after Brian Kelly left for LSU, Notre Dame is in the national championship game. Here's why the players think Marcus Freeman got them this far.

The Fighting Irish were coming off their worst three-year stretch in some time when Kelly was hired. Through his 12 years in South Bend, Kelly compiled seven records of 10 or more wins and coached 55 NFL Draft picks, including 10 first-rounders.

Freeman — a surprise hire in December 2021 since he had never been a head coach when Notre Dame promoted the then-defensive coordinator after Kelly bolted for LSU — hasn’t had the same problems.

Jack Kiser walked up the tunnel toward Notre Dame ’s locker room beneath Mercedes-Benz Stadium, tears welling in his bloodshot eyes, as if the linebacker had anything else to pour out. Behind him, all the scarlet and white confetti had fallen as Ohio State ’s national championship party swayed,

Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman took ownership of Monday’s night 34-23 loss to Ohio State in the College Football Playoff National Championship Game. "You're always making mistakes, but those types of detrimental mistakes when you play a really,