For the first time in decades, Notre Dame football lives up to its standard

Before this season, when was the last time Notre Dame dominated a postseason game that mattered?

Can you remember thinking, “Wow, the Fighting Irish look like the more talented and better-coached team” within a national title conversation? Can you remember a pass rush succeeding from equal parts physicality and scheme while wearing gold helmets? At least since the Reagan administration?

There was no parade scheduled in South Bend, Indiana, after the Irish’s 23-10 Sugar Bowl victory over SEC champion Georgia in a College Football Playoff quarterfinal last week. Even when your most recent national title came in 1988, the standard for any 11-time consensus champion is trophy or bust, especially at a school self-defined as larger than a state or a conference. And if Ohio State continues its wanton pace through the playoff, there probably won’t be a 12th title to brag about, at least this calendar year.

So consider this reductive due diligence in anticipation of the Fighting Irish fan base’s newly rediscovered self-importance: Simply beating Georgia wasn’t the end goal for Irish Coach Marcus Freeman, and the win’s relevance will suffer significantly from a loss to Penn State on Thursday night in a College Football Playoff semifinal at the Orange Bowl.

With that out of the way … that was more than a single playoff win. Hardcore Notre Dame fans might be loath to admit it in mixed company, but the actual waking of the echoes sounds a lot like a collective, existential exhale.

Against a two-time recent national title-winning program from the South, the Irish didn’t look slow or outschemed. Consequently, the concept of “Notre Dame, Relevant National Football Power” doesn’t feel hilariously outdated for the first time in an actual lifetime. If you’re not a Notre Dame fan and don’t automatically qualify for a colonoscopy, the bluster and scrutiny around this program have never made sense. (This is when I remind you the Irish lost to Northern Illinois in September.)

That’s why, even if it turns out to be their last win this season, the Irish beating Georgia in a playoff game is a sum greater than its stats. The Sugar Bowl delivered proof of concept for Freeman and his staff, forever locked in comparison with previous coach Brian Kelly after the latter absconded South Bend for the SEC, dropping backhanded jabs at Notre Dame’s capacity for recruiting and developing football talent in the process.

Neither Kelly nor Notre Dame can boast a national title to disprove the other, at least not yet. But the core of the Kelly vs. Notre Dame debate centers on talent, and Freeman’s personnel against the SEC champion outshined any of Kelly’s rosters on similar stages.

There are caveats here. Georgia was without starting quarterback Carson Beck because of an injury, a fact worth noting but not enough to change perspective. Georgia’s offense under backup Gunner Stockton looked and performed almost identical to how it looked and performed under Beck in the Bulldogs’ loss at Mississippi in November. Mississippi sacked Beck five times; Notre Dame sacked Stockton four times. In both games, Georgia turned the ball over more than its opponent and ran for less than half as many yards. The Rebels held Georgia to 59 yards on the ground; Notre Dame allowed only 62.

For the first time since the Irish were humiliated by Nick Saban’s Alabama in the 2012 national championship game, Notre Dame was able to comport itself like a dominant SEC program, winning individual physical matchups at the line of scrimmage thanks to comparable talent placed into a schematic advantage.

No, this year’s Georgia team is not the Alabama machine that Georgia Coach Kirby Smart helped pilot as defensive coordinator. And it’s true the scope and impact of the transfer portal and name, image and likeness (NIL) money make college football results from even a decade ago feel incompatible for comparison.

But Freeman can’t control the caliber or context of the opponent in front of him. He can, however, determine the value of his personnel, and the Irish boast that rare blend. It’s a base of highly rated talent recruited from high schools complemented - but never corrupted - by key transfer portal additions. Transfer quarterback Riley Leonard’s workmanlike efforts are as crucial as the (semi) homegrown pass rush from program lifers such as linebacker Jack Kiser.

That Freeman can recruit and develop from both talent pools at an SEC level is important because Notre Dame was left at the altar (by Kelly) for an SEC program for the first time in its existence. That he can do this while walking the tightrope of the cultural expectations and dogmatic identity standards the Irish demand is a political achievement more than a sports accolade but no less impressive.

The next great measure of this new era will come Thursday night against Penn State, a team no less imposing than Georgia at the moment. This next test can certify the results and rebut any offseason whataboutism regarding Beck’s health and Georgia’s turnover woes. And for all the focus on Freeman’s recruiting, he is well aware that repeating the process of systematically imposing will and disassembling an opponent is what defined the SEC dynasties that helped push Notre Dame into title obscurity these past 30-odd years.

It has always been title or bust for the game’s largest and most talked-about brand, even when that paradigm bordered on parody. To move those goal posts and simply declare 2024 a success because Notre Dame finally felled the SEC when it mattered would only serve to inflate the narrative Irish fans have reckoned with for more than a generation.

But two things can be true: There is no lasting prestige in a playoff semifinal participation trophy, and a mighty dragon has been slain. After a single game, Notre Dame finally boasts the head-to-head victory that was missing long enough for its previous leader to claim the program was no longer capable of achieving it. Freeman is suddenly winning the argument that Irish fans have secretly feared they couldn’t.