Coming off a national championship final in 2024, Notre Dame looked like it would take it a step further last year. Marcus Freeman’s team started the season 0-2 but went on to register 10 straight wins. The Irish looked poised to enter the playoffs. However, at the end of the regular season, the CFP committee chose Miami over the Irish. In retrospect, head coach Marcus Freeman is not shifting blame; he has chosen to own up to the fact that they put themselves in that position.

“There are two options, right?” Freeman told Seth Rollins on the July 18 episode of Good Morning Football. “You can blame somebody else for failures and shortcomings of your life, or you can own it. And the only way to get better is to own it. And that was what I remembered telling the team in our meeting [after] not making the playoffs is that we left doubt. Like we can complain about it, we can say it’s somebody else’s fault, or ultimately, we can own it and say we left doubt. “Leave no doubt” is a reminder to leave no doubt today, right?

“It’s a reminder to take advantage of the opportunities you have today to be the best version of yourself, and at the end of the day, we’ll see if we left no doubt at the end of the season. But it’s a reminder that we all need at times to take advantage of what we’re guaranteed, and that’s today.”

In the aftermath of Notre Dame’s disqualification from the CFP, the program erupted against the committee. Notre Dame held a top-10 ranking until the final week, when Miami leapfrogged them due to their head-to-head win.

Athletic director Pete Bevacqua called it a farce and an action that caused permanent damage between the program and the ACC. The problem Notre Dame had with the conference stemmed from its seeming support of Miami at Notre Dame’s expense while the playoff spot was still in contention. The team then took their fury a step further by deciding not to participate in any bowl game.

The snub has fueled Notre Dame’s offseason narrative, but Freeman refuses to let it define 2026. It is not the first time Freeman has stated this point. He made an appearance at Hard Rock Stadium, the same stadium he lost the Week 1 game to Miami, for the College Football Playoff national championship game. The theme of his remarks was similar. ‘Leave no doubt.’

The 2026 Notre Dame roster is capable of repeating the heroics of its 2024 campaign, even though Jeremiyah Love has gone to the NFL. CJ Carr, who was ranked fifth on Fox Sports’ Joel Klatt’s list of CFB’s best quarterbacks in 2026, is in his second year as Freeman’s signal-caller. Unlike in 2025, when they opened against Miami and Texas A&M, Notre Dame faces Wisconsin, Rice, and Michigan State in its first three games.