Marcus Freeman sure looks like he’s about to end Notre Dame’s unreal head coaching streak

Notre Dame is well known for its "play like a champion" motto but will that championship pedigree come to fruition by the end of 2024 season?

According to NBC Sports, every Fighting Irish head coach since 1943 has either won the national championship or appeared in the title game during their third year at the helm in South Bend, Indiana.

Current head coach Marcus Freeman is in his third year of leading the program and is in serious danger of ending that insane streak.

After falling to Northern Illinois 16-14 on Saturday, Notre Dame faces an uphill climb to reestablish itself as a lock for the expanded College Football Playoff. It was the first time the program had ever lost to a team from the Mid-Atlantic Conference.

As an independent with a relatively weaker schedule than most other conference contenders, it will need to go undefeated the rest of the way to convince the playoff committee it's worthy of an at-large berth.

That would include having to take out a seemingly resurgent USC team that is shooting its way back up the Top 25.

Notre Dame has to travel to Purdue on Sept. 14 and then two weeks later it hosts No. 22 Louisville. That's not an easy stretch by any means. The only get-right opportunity will be against Miami (OH) on Sept. 21 but even that's not a given now.

Northern Illinois win is the first time in program history that the Huskies have ever beaten a Top 10 team. The funniest fact to come out of all this? Notre Dame paid them $1.4 million to play.

Freeman has a tough job ahead of him and the added pressure of the indominable legacy of Notre Dame coaches past will weigh heavy on his shoulders for the rest of the season.