As the dog days of summer begin to die down, the Irish faithful are ramping up in terms of both anxiety and excitement. The schedule is challenging and all eyes locally and notionally are focused on Marcus Freeman in his second year at the helm.
Can the Irish improve on their 4-loss regular season? What happens in the marquee 3? Can Notre Dame avoid having losses to teams such as Marshall & Stanford this year? How might recruiting shift in the season based on the game results? How much better is Notre Dame with Sam Hartman under center? In 5 more weeks, some answers to these questions will start to unveil themselves.
Irish fans are in a tough spot right now. Anxious to be elite after decades of not being so but yet trying to also be understanding of Freeman’s learning curve and be patient with him. Let’s explore just how tough walking this tightrope will be.