Marcus Freeman responds to Jeremiyah Love accepting blame in loss to Texas A&M

Immediately following Saturday’s heartbreaking 41-40 home loss to then-No. 16 Texas A&M, Notre Dame running back Jeremiyah Love sent a clear message to his teammates: “don’t point no fingers.” The loss was the Fighting Irish’s second straight to open the 2024 season, the program’s first 0-2 start since 2022.

“Don’t point fingers at anyone else, point fingers at yourself and see what you could’ve done to help this team have a better chance at success,” Love said Saturday. “Like, I can point at myself, (after) I had a couple of plays where I could’ve converted on fourth down that I didn’t convert. So I can point the finger at myself and say: ‘Hey, what if I would’ve done this?’ Maybe that would’ve changed the outcome. So it’s really just evaluating yourself and staying together. And being brothers. … So don’t point no fingers.”

When asked about his star running back’s postgame comments on Monday, fourth-year Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman echoed Love’s sentiment and made it clear that’s the approach the entire team needs to take if the Fighting Irish have any chance of turning things around this season.

“I think that’s what great coaches do. Right? Great coaches don’t pass blame, they don’t say it’s the players’ fault. They look at themselves and say, ‘How can I find a way to fix this?’ And I think great players do the same thing,” Freeman said Monday. “They don’t look at if they would’ve done this or he would’ve done that, or if a coach would’ve done this. They say ‘What can I do to make this thing better? What can I do to help this team improve?’

Marcus Freeman: ‘Great teams look at themselves and hold themselves accountable’

“And great teams do that, they look at themselves, especially when you don’t get the results you want,” Freeman continued. “When you do get the results you want, you look at others. When you have failure, great coaches, great players, great teams look at themselves and hold themselves accountable.”

No. 24 Notre Dame (0-2) lost a shootout Saturday against Texas A&M after a botched snap on a late extra point attempt proved to be the difference in the back-and-forth scoring affair. And Love was a major contributor to the Irish’s scoring effort, accounting for two touchdowns and 147 yards of total offense. That included a season-high 23 carries for 94 rushing yards and a 12-yard touchdown run that put Notre Dame ahead 40-34 with 2:53 remaining in the game.

Of course, a missed extra point try and an 11-yard touchdown pass from Aggies QB Marcel Reed to Nate Boerkircher tied the game with 13 seconds remaining before an extra point from kicker Randy Bond clinched the road win for Texas A&M. Notre Dame will look to return to its winning ways in Saturday’s showdown with the Big Ten’s Purdue at 3:30 pm ET on NBC.