I’m not sure if Rittenberg will reexamine the grades at the end of the year, but plenty of college football analysts will. How does Freeman go from his D-plus, which I honestly feel may be a bit generous, to something a good amount better?
Here are the ways for Freeman to get this grade to the C-plus or B-minus range before the calendar flips to 2023:
- Suffer no more massive upsets. UNLV, Navy and Boston College should all be fairly easy victories. Beat all three and become bowl eligible at the bare minimum.
- Close in recruiting. Notre Dame has one of the best recruiting classes in the land for 2023 (second at Rivals, third at both 247Sports and On3). However, being there in mid-October does you no good if you don’t finish. Five-star defensive lineman [autotag]Keon Keeley[/autotag] has already left the class and there are fears that others join him. Can Freeman close the recruiting process with Notre Dame’s top commits and finish at worst in the top five?
- Beat someone you’re not supposed to. Go to Syracuse and knock off the unbeaten (or one-loss depending on what happens vs. Clemson) Orange. Ruin Clemson’s potentially perfect season. End any hope of USC going to the playoff in Lincoln Riley’s first season. Winning any of the three would be a solid step in rebuilding the first-year grade.
Those are just three ways to right this grade and get it back to respectable for 2022. Despite the woeful start to the season, Freeman has a chance to enhance this significantly and leave the Notre Dame faithful feeling a lot better heading into the offseason.
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