Tag: Marshall

Best photos from Marshall’s massive upset at Notre Dame

Where does it rank on the worst home losses since 2000?

For the first time in almost 20 years and just the second time in program history, Marshall knocked off a top-10 team Saturday, stunning No. 8 Notre Dame, 26-21.

The loss sent shock waves around college football. Notre Dame was thinking a potential 11-1 season and a College Football Playoff run before the game. Now, fans are left wondering if a bowl game will even be an option for the 2022 squad.

It was supposed to be a memorable day for different reasons for Notre Dame as Marcus Freeman coached his first game as Notre Dame’s head coach at Notre Dame Stadium. Instead, he and the Irish walked out with a loss despite being nearly a three touchdown favorite.

And Freeman still awaits his first career head coaching win.

Here are the best photos from the memorable Marshall upset on Saturday.

See it: Michigan legend roasts Notre Dame football

Yikes!

Things went as horribly as they seemingly could Saturday when No. 8 Notre Dame fell at home to Marshall despite entering the game as a 20.5-point favorite. The loss puts the Irish at 0-2, eliminates any hopes of the College Football Playoff, and, in all likelihood, knocks them out of a New Year’s Six bowl game.

Related – Pat Forde’s new college football top 10 rankings

Some would say there is nothing left to play for this season. Although I think that’s a bit strong, there are certainly concerns for the present as well as the rest of the year.  If the Irish were in a conference they’d still have a conference championship to play for, but since they’re independent they obviously don’t (something backers of remaining independent accept).

With that in mind, legendary Michigan wide receiver Braylon Edwards roasted Notre Dame football pretty hard in regards to the Big Ten after the Marshall upset.

Not a lot to say here as Notre Dame has been the biggest disappointment of any team just two games into the 2022 college football season. I suppose it’s a good thing Michigan has never been upset by a Group of Five or Football Championship Subdivision team at home in September.

If anything, even Tyrone Willingham went 2-1 against Michigan in the three games Edwards played against the Irish?

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How Twitter reacted to Notre Dame-Marshall: Thundering Herd side

Be happy for these people at least.

Take away the plane crash and Randy Moss, and you’ll find that Marshall actually has a pretty nice history of team success. It’s won 13 conference championships and a couple of national titles at the Football Championship Subdivision level. Now, you can add an upset win over Notre Dame in South Bend to that history. The folks in Huntington will be celebrating this until the wee hours of the morning.

Go to Twitter, and you’ll find more than a few tweets ripping on the Irish, talking about how overrated they are and wishing they would just go away altogether for the common good. If you sift through all of those though, you’ll find people who care about the Herd all the time and not only when they have a win of this magnitude. Those are the people you should be happy for, not those who would wish the Irish out of existence if they could.

Here are a few of them on Twitter:

How Twitter reacted to Notre Dame-Marshall: Irish side

You can’t be feeling good right now, can you?

There’s no other way to say it besides that stunk. Notre Dame lost to Marshall, 26-21, at home in one of the biggest letdowns in recent memory. What began as a day of high expectations ended in bitter disappointment. The result is no more hope for the College Football Playoff and questions of whether this program even belongs in the Top 25.

Maybe even worse for Irish fans is that they’ll be subject to mockery and abuse from every other corner of the college football landscape, especially those who profess a diehard hatred of the program. That’s a pretty empty feeling. Not only are they left to question everything they thought they knew about the program, but the Irish have such a prominent brand that ridicule during times like this comes without mercy. Irrelevance sounds like a much better option right now.

Here are some Irish fans who lamented this tragedy on Twitter:

The five plays that loomed large in Notre Dame’s 26-21 loss to Marshall

These five were big

It’s not just scoring plays and turnovers (although the final play in this article is one) that make or break a football game. There are hidden plays that ultimately make a big difference in the outcome. For Notre Dame, there were plenty of plays that kept them in the game, but ultimately couldn’t defeat Marshall in Notre Dame Stadium. Here are the five hidden plays from the Irish’s 26-21 loss to the Thundering Herd that helped decide the outcome.

Contact/Follow us @IrishWireND on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Notre Dame news, notes, and opinions.

Follow Mike on Twitter: @MikeFChen

Opinion: Marcus Freeman’s honeymoon over at Notre Dame

It’s not the fact that Notre Dame just lost, but how it lost. Good grief.

Could Notre Dame run the table and finish 11-1, potentially having a chance to crash the College Football Playoff party?

Even if not, an appearance in the Orange Bowl or another New Year’s Six game would be a great way to start the Marcus Freeman era.

How about starting the year 0-2 with an admirable battle at Ohio State before one of the worst losses the Fighting Irish have suffered in the long history of Notre Dame Stadium.

Marshall, a team that Notre Dame wrote a check for $1.25 million dollars to come play at Notre Dame Stadium, walked into the historic venue, punched Notre Dame in the face, did it again, again and again before walking out with a 26-21 victory.

Why?

Where do we start?

An anemic offense that struggles to do the littlest of things right. You can question play-calling, but when presented an opportunity the Irish suffered through a case of the drops, overthrown receivers and entirely missed open receivers.

It was one thing a week ago when Ohio State’s offensive line gassed Notre Dame’s defense and was able to run at will in the fourth quarter.  It was an entirely different thing when Marshall did the same on Saturday.

Consider this:

Tyler Buchner, who had a pair of interceptions, a number of overthrows and a pair of rushing touchdowns, finished with 44 rushing yards on 13 attempts.  The rest of the Notre Dame backfield? Twenty-four rushes for 86 yards.

Next: Marshall punched Notre Dame in the face

Pages: Page 1, Page 2

5 stars: The best and worst of Notre Dame’s loss to Marshall

Devastating

There was not much to like about the Irish’s performance today. In a game they should have handily won, they got upset at home, preventing Marcus Freeman from getting what is turning out to be a very elusive first win. Honestly, this was mostly bad, as you will find out below, the best, 5-stars, and worst, 1-star, performances of Notre Dame’s loss to Marshall.

Contact/Follow us @IrishWireND on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Notre Dame news, notes, and opinions.

Follow Mike on Twitter: @MikeFChen

Twitter reacts to Tyler Buchner’s second touchdown for Notre Dame

The game between Notre Dame and Marshall won’t be the romp many expected it to be.

The game between Notre Dame and Marshall won’t be the romp many expected it to be. All that matters to Irish fans now is that their team escape with a win. The Herd have refused to simply roll over inside Notre Dame Stadium, and it’s an effort no one thought would pay off like it has. The Irish have been playing from behind almost the whole way.

The Irish finally put together another decent offensive drive late in the third quarter. [autotag]Tyler Buchner[/autotag] completed a couple of long passes to [autotag]Michael Mayer[/autotag] and [autotag]Kevin Bauman[/autotag], respectively. At the start of the fourth quarter, Buchner put the Irish back in front:

Buchner then ran for a two-point conversion to put the Irish up, 15-12. Irish fans have been waiting patiently to tweet happiness about their team again, and the opportunity finally came. Here a few of the folks talking about Buchner:

Twitter reacts to Tyler Buchner scoring Notre Dame’s first touchdown

Finally a score.

To say the least, it was a trying first half for Notre Dame. It shouldn’t have taken so long for the Irish to get their first touchdown. In fact, Marshall leading almost the entire second quarter was just wrong. Finally, [autotag]Tyler Buchner[/autotag] put together a drive on a short field combined with runs and completed passes to [autotag]Michael Mayer[/autotag] before he did this:

The 1-yard touchdown run gave the Irish a 7-6 lead, and Irish fans took to Twitter to talk about it before the Herd responded with a chip-shot field goal to take the lead back right before halftime:

Mobile ticketing problems plague Notre Dame, other programs

This system is flawed.

I’ve never liked mobile ticketing. Sure, it’s more technologically efficient and environmentally friendly, but I’ve never liked it. Taking paper tickets away robbed fans of physical memories of being at games, and that just doesn’t sit well with me. Teams already were moving away from it before COVID-19 hit, but that ensured that it was going away and never coming back.

I’ve always worried that something would happen that would cause the whole idea of mobile ticketing to backfire. For instance, someone’s battery might drain right before they reach the gate. If nothing else, someone having to restart their phone for whatever at the front of the gate would cause a long line of people waiting to get in.

Well, it happened ahead of Notre Dame’s home opener against Marshall:

While the Irish did come up with a solution before the system eventually was restored before kickoff, I only can imagine the lines this caused:

If this doesn’t convince teams that mobile ticketing without a backup system ready to go immediately doesn’t work, nothing will. I hate that so many fans are being inconvenienced in a way that is entirely avoidable. And it’s not only the fans at Notre Dame Stadium. Look where else it happened: