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Notre Dame’s Marcus Freeman Shares Inspiring Message to His Players After CFP Snub
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Notre Dame football coach Marcus Freeman joined College GameDay in the lead up to Monday night's national championship game and was asked about the program’s College Football Playoff snub and what his message was to his team to begin to move forward to 2026.
The Irish elected to not play in a bowl game after being left out of the CFP, and it’s been full speed ahead to begin preparing for the 2026 season. Freeman discussed what the initial message was to his team after narrowly missing the playoff, and how the program planned to move ahead.
“Well at first when you find out, you're disappointed,” Freeman began. “Because you get in front of your team and you don't have the answers for why. This was never a situation where we deserved to be in the playoff over Miami or Alabama or anything like that. This was, O.K. the rankings show if we continue to win in the fashion that we were winning, it looks like we are gonna make the playoffs, and we didn't. The day we found out, the response was one thing. But after 24 hours, the ability to get in front of your team and say, ‘We have to move forward.’ I remember our first team meeting we just had for 2026, my message was, ‘It’s up to us to leave no doubt.’ We left doubts. We lost by four or five points the first two games, we left doubt. It's our job to make sure we don't leave doubt.”
"It's up to us to leave no doubt."
— College GameDay (@CollegeGameDay) January 19, 2026
Marcus Freeman shared his team's mindset after being left out of this year's CFP. pic.twitter.com/dmV7cdZexv
Freeman locked in a contract extension with Notre Dame after a torrid start to his tenure in South Bend has led to multiple overtures from NFL franchises. In four full seasons as the program’s head coach, Freeman is 43–12, which included a national championship appearance last season.
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Mike McDaniel is a staff writer on the Breaking and Trending News team at Sports Illustrated, where he has worked since January 2022. His work has been featured at InsideTheACC.com, SB Nation, FanSided and more. McDaniel hosts the Hokie Hangover Podcast, covering Virginia Tech athletics, as well as Basketball Conference: The ACC Football Podcast. Outside of work, he is a husband and father, and an avid golfer.
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