As Notre Dame begins to hit the home stretch of their Spring practice sessions, it’s natural to let one’s mind wander into the future regarding the 2023 season. What are the expectations? How hard is the schedule? What players step up? What will the actual record be?
Year two is critical for Marcus Freeman for many reasons. Firstly, he will not have the leeway he had last year in terms of the “first-year head coach learning curve” understanding he was granted by most fans and media. Additionally, year three at Notre Dame has historically been a critical year for those head coaches who do accomplish great things at Notre Dame, set up by the “heavy lifting” done in year two. There is surely much work to accomplish.
Let’s take a look at how I would define a “successful” 2023 campaign that will lead Notre Dame into the expanded College Football Playoff era riding high.