MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. (AP) 鈥� Notre Dame coach Marcus Freeman has a simple mantra for his team going into 2026: Leave no doubt.
Freeman鈥檚 season started with a loss to Miami at Hard Rock Stadium. And Freeman was back in that stadium on Monday, for the Miami-Indiana final in . He was brought in to appear on ESPN programming.
He said in a pregame appearance on ESPN that, after a day or so, about missing the CFP field had to subside and the team had to move on.
鈥淢y message was, 鈥業t鈥檚 up to us to leave no doubt.鈥� We left doubt,鈥� Freeman said. 鈥淲e lost by four, five points the first two games. We left doubt.鈥�
Notre Dame started 0-2, with losses to Miami and Texas A&M. They didn鈥檛 lose again, going 10-0 but ended up as the first team out of the playoff.
Miami passed Notre Dame in the final ranking, largely because of the Hurricanes鈥� Week 1 win.
鈥淎t first, when you find out, you鈥檙e disappointed. You get in front of your team and you don鈥檛 have the answers for why,鈥� Freeman said. 鈥淎nd this was never a situation where we deserved to be in the playoffs in front of Miami or Alabama or anything like that. This was, 鈥極K, the rankings have shown if we continue to win on the path that we were winning, it looks like we鈥檙e going to make the playoffs.鈥� And we didn鈥檛.鈥�
The Irish will see Miami again next season, playing host to the Hurricanes on Nov. 7.
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