MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. — Before Mitch Jeter’s 41-yard field goal sent Notre Dame to the national championship game, before Christian Gray’s diving interception set it up or before Jeremiyah Love’s mutant performance on a braced right knee, Marcus Freeman stood before his team inside the Diplomat Hotel on Hollywood Beach on Wednesday afternoon.

Notre Dame’s head coach had just returned from a final news conference before kickoff, the kind of throwaway media gathering usually forgotten before the last bowl trophy photo can be snapped. This wasn’t one of those times. Not for Freeman, Notre Dame’s head coach whose youth had cut against the grain of what it takes to succeed in this sport of old guards and vintage attitudes. A head coach panned for not winning enough big games decided to make a point about his counterpart.

Penn State head coach James Franklin playfully asked Freeman how old he was. He complimented his hairline. He might as well have patted the 38-year-old on the head and told him what a good job he was doing. Because that’s how Freeman heard it, gritting his teeth throughout. And now Freeman was going to give that energy to a new source.

His players could hardly believe it.

“He was angry. He was angry with the press conference thing, whatever was going on between that,” safety Xavier Watts said. “He was mad about that. All the anger went toward us and that anger went onto the field.”

In a game where Notre Dame needed everything, from its backup quarterback to two backup offensive linemen, Franklin managed to give the Irish just a little bit more. There was more to this spectacular College Football Playoff semifinal than Franklin’s self-inflicted verbal wounds — the confetti littering Hard Rock Stadium told that story. Notre Dame didn’t win because of something said from the other sideline. It won because this program knows how to catalyze every advantage and how to tackle every challenge.

Franklin just offered a bonus one.

“I’m not gonna speak on their head coach, but we felt like their team didn’t really respect us,” Love said. “We wanted to come into this game and make a statement. Be the aggressors. Dominate them physically. That’s the message. Be physical and play violent. The whole game.”

In the end, Notre Dame’s 27-24 victory over Penn State was all of that and more. The Fighting Irish lost three offensive starters in the first half, with two offensive linemen going down for the game and quarterback Riley Leonard suffering a head injury, which Notre Dame cleared as something other than a concussion. In his absence, backup Steve Angeli saved the first half, if not the day, leading Notre Dame on a field goal drive after the Irish fell behind 10-0, their first double-digit deficit of the season.

There was more fire at the half, Freeman demanding Notre Dame follow its greatest bowl win in a generation against Georgia at the Sugar Bowl with something bigger here. The Irish had been gashed on the ground by Kaytron Allen and Nicholas Singleton in the first half, never mind tight end Tyler Warren. They didn’t set the edges, didn’t make their drops, didn’t get the details right that they’d nailed all year.

And Notre Dame’s offense, a disaster class in the first half, needed Love to play the hero when so few others could. Left tackle Anthonie Knapp had already been lost, replaced by career backup Tosh Baker to face a future top-five pick in Abdul Carter. When guard Rocco Spindler went down, redshirt freshman Charles Jagusah stepped in, a tackle who hadn’t played all season asked to make it work at guard. And inexplicably he did, as Notre Dame built a 17-10 early in the fourth quarter when Love’s 2-yard run through four Penn State tacklers somehow outshined his 98-yard score against Indiana to open the College Football Playoff.

This view of Jeremiyah Love’s touchdown 😳 pic.twitter.com/oSdhKereqU

— ESPN College Football (@ESPNCFB) January 10, 2025

Love aggravated his MCL injury against Georgia, enough that his availability seemed to be in question before Notre Dame arrived in Florida. And even during the week, Love didn’t know if he’d be able to do more than just take snaps, which wouldn’t have been enough for Notre Dame. Not in a game like this.

“I kind of just kind of came out here and said f— it and went out there and played,” Love said. “Whatever happens happens, I trust in God. I trust in his plan for me.”

After two Singleton touchdowns pushed Penn State ahead 24-17, making it seem like Notre Dame might not have a response to these latest questions being asked, Leonard shook off a brutal interception to find Jaden Greathouse for a 54-yard touchdown with 4:38 to play. It was part of Greathouse’s seven-catch, 105-yard night, the first 100-yard performance of his college career.

“This team has battled adversity all year, challenges and struggles, we’ve been able to face them all,” Greathouse said. “That’s the feeling tonight.”

And then Notre Dame closed the door on Penn State the way it best knows how, baiting Drew Allar into an interception it believed had been coming all night. One by Gray in the first half got wiped off by penalty. Another in the second half by linebacker Jack Kiser got taken off the board by pass interference. Gray made sure the third would stand, playing a coverage that defensive coordinator Al Golden said he hadn’t called all night.

“He’s gonna throw us one, he’s gonna throw us one,” Watts said. “We knew it was coming at some point and it came at the biggest moment.”

Linebacker Jaylen Sneed got just enough pressure on Allar to leave the quarterback a little less time to throw, which was all Gray needed. Again, fine margins. Some earned in the film room. Some taken on the field. Some gifted, if you know where to listen when the microphones are rolling.

Notre Dame turned Gray’s pick into a seven-play, 19-yard procession into field goal range. By then, Franklin had burned through his timeouts, not even able to ice Jeter’s game-winning try. And maybe it wouldn’t have mattered anyway. The transfer kicker drilled his second 41-yarder of the night to send Notre Dame to Atlanta, hunting its first national championship since 1988.

Inside the Notre Dame locker room, Kiser tried to make sense of all this, his six-year journey to becoming an Irish captain under this up-and-coming head coach, hired to take the program where some felt it might not go again. Kiser didn’t want to get into too much detail about the fire and brimstone Freeman spewed the day before kickoff when the 38-year-old head coach showed that this program has a weapon leading it.

And yet, as Kiser turned back to the locker room, a red digital clock flashed 12:17 a.m. Midnight had passed. It was no longer game night. It just happened to be Marcus Freeman’s birthday, now the early morning minutes of Jan. 10.

“Let’s just say that 17 minutes ago coach Freeman turned 39,” Kiser said. “So he’s not that young guy that a lot of people treat him as. Guys want to play for coach Freeman, and when you put gas on that fire, it can get really explosive in this locker room.”

GO DEEPER

Drew Allar’s late interception in Orange Bowl loss leaves Penn State with familiar gut punch

(Photo: Kevin C. Cox / Getty Images)