On Jan. 10, the final USA TODAY Sports AFCA Coaches Poll was released; the Notre Dame Fighting Irish checked in at No. 18.
The Irish started the season 0-2 but won six of their final seven games, including a close one with South Carolina. Mitchell Evans hauled in the 18-yard touchdown pass from Tyler Buchner with 1:38 left to give Notre Dame the bowl victory against the Gamecocks.
Each week following the slate of games, the selected group of head coaches would submit their ballots for the top 25 coaches poll powered by USA TODAY Sports. Notre Dame head coach [autotag]Marcus Freeman[/autotag] was among those selected this season. Following the release of the final poll, USA TODAY Sports revealed how the coaches voted. Freeman’s submission was quite interesting.
For starters, he didn’t have TCU among the top four teams. My guess is the 65-7 loss to Georgia was too much for Freeman to include them. Instead, he went with Ohio State, Alabama and Michigan in that order behind the champions.
In a not-so-surprising move, the Irish were ranked at No. 15 in his poll, three spots higher than they ended up. He also ranked two of the teams that defeated Notre Dame this year in his top 10: Ohio State at No. 2 and USC at No. 10.
You can check out Freeman’s poll and more on this breakdown from the staff at USA TODAY Sports.
Marcus Freeman’s Final Poll
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