Here is the plain text result:
1. Marcus Freeman spent much of this season deflecting questions about expectations and goals and just how far this team could go.
2. Does Notre Dame win the Sugar Bowl without its masterful management of the transfer portal? Absolutely not.
3. But it’s not like Notre Dame’s transfer haul was some band of mercenaries. A football locker room doesn’t work that way.
4. So I guess that wasn’t a bridge too far. No Rylie Mills, Benjamin Morrison, Jordan Botelho, Boubacar Traore, Jason Onye, Ashton Craig. Then no Cooper Flanagan, Howard Cross III and Jeremiyah Love. And Notre Dame still came out the other side.
…ached team? And the tougher team. And the smarter team. I don’t remember, either.
6. The media doesn’t get into Notre Dame’s locker room often. And that’s fine. But the major bowl games allow locker room access, which pulls back the curtain (literally) on what a team is really like when no one is watching.
7. Turnover margin is a real thing. We track it. Coaches swear by it. And Notre Dame is one of the best in the country in that department, ranking third at plus-1.29 per game.
8. The ability to hold up at the line of scrimmage meant Denbrock could call the game he needed to call, no matter the aesthetics of the game plan.
9. Riley Leonard won Sugar Bowl MVP by passing for 90 yards. Ninety!
10. For how much criticism head strength coach Loren Landow took for the rash of season-ending injuries in September — enough that Freeman defended him publicly — it’s worth acknowledging the weight room work that helped Notre Dame be the more physical team and stage that 12-play, 41-yard drive that took 7 minutes, 36 seconds off the clock in the fourth quarter.
11. You already know (if you read The Athletic) that the special teams fire drill in the fourth quarter was called “Got ’Em,” per Denbrock. Kirby Smart complained about the call afterward but seemed to misinterpret what being set over the ball meant.
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