Marcus Freeman had the lamest possible excuse for Notre Dame’s loss to NIU

I am so disappointed in the Notre Dame Fighting Irish... At the start of the season, I had the Golden Domers going 12-0, earning the No. 5 seed in the expanded College Football Playoff, and winning multiple playoff games, only to lose to the Georgia Bulldogs in the national semifinals in the Orange Bowl. This team was a College Football Playoff lock, but after the Northern Illinois loss, I don't know...

Give Northern Illinois for showing up to play in addition to collecting the Huskies' seven-figure check from the Irish. Thomas Hammock just gave his alma mater's program the best win in school history. However, I am not entirely sure that Marcus Freeman and his team are going to learn the lesson they need to after yet another unspeakable letdown loss under his guidance. He needs to figure this out.

Freeman offered the following during his Monday press conference ahead of the Purdue game.

"This is the first time in my three years as a head coach that we have won the big game early in the season. Two losses to Ohio State and then all of a sudden, we win and everybody says, 'Hey, you're going to the playoff. You've got an easy schedule.' We all hear it, and I think we started to believe that."

Equating beating Texas A&M to beating Ohio State is not what winning football programs ever do...

"There is a physical approach to preparing for a game, and I think physically we prepared the right way, but there's also a mental approach and a mindset that you have to have every single week, and I think that's where we failed."

This is the third massive letdown game for Freeman at Notre Dame, following Marshall and Stanford.

Marcus Freeman seems to be learning the wrong lesson after NIU loss

Saying his team bought into the hype is kind of insane because that just comes with the territory of playing and coaching at a massive college football brand like Notre Dame. Claiming you have fallen victim to the proverbial hype train is not going to land at places like Notre Dame in college, as well as with the Dallas Cowboys, Los Angeles Lakers and New York Yankees when it comes to pro sports.

The biggest lesson Freeman needs to learn is how to get his team mentally prepared when facing the college football equivalent of David on a fall Saturday. Believe it or not, Notre Dame is Goliath in many team's eyes. After all, this has arguably been a top-six program in the country throughout the College Football Playoff era. Only Alabama, Clemson, Georgia, Michigan and Ohio State have been better.

As far as the biggest issue plaguing Notre Dame, the Irish must stop dipping their toes into the quarterback transfer portal window. I get that Ian Books don't grow on trees. There's nothing wrong with Tyler Bucher and Drew Pyne not working out. However, when you pay a premium for a discounted player in the portal like Sam Hartman and now with Riley Leonard, you reap what you sew.

Ultimately, you have to give your offense a chance to be consistently successful by aligning coordinator with quarterback. Leonard transferred over from Duke to play for Gerad Parker, just like Hartman did. The only problem is Parker left to take over at Troy, and in came Mike Denbrock. He was the guy in Jayden Daniels' ear at LSU the last two years, so why can Notre Dame not throw for points?

Falling victim to the hype is one thing, but not being mentally locked in as an entire team is another.