Damning Video Resurfaces Foreshadowing Huge Notre Dame Mistake Vs Ohio State

Notre Dame and Ohio State played in what’s sure to be one of the best college football games of the 2023 season this past Saturday.

The Fighting Irish took a late lead on the visiting Buckeyes, only for Ohio State to march down the field and score the game-winning touchdown with one second remaining.

But what should be remembered as an epic college football classic will instead likely be remembers for a massive Notre Dame mistake.

Ohio State’s game-winning score came on a Chip Trayanum 1-yard touchdown run. As it turns out, the Fighitng Irish only had 10 players on the field during the play.

Notre Dame coach Marcus Freeman said that he knew his team was short a player during his postgame press conference.

“Yeah, we were trying to get a fourth d-lineman on the field and I told him just stay off because we can’t afford a penalty — I didn’t have any timeouts,” the second-year coach stated. “So we couldn’t afford a penalty there.

“It’s on us. We’ve got to be better.”

Freeman has since said that he’s working to ensure it doesn’t happen again.

“There’s a whole bunch of systems in place to make sure that doesn’t happen, but ultimately it falls on me and that’s the reality of it,” he stated in his weekly press conference on Monday. “I’m not going to get up here and say this person should’ve done that (or) that person. Ultimately, I have to do a better job as a head coach to make sure those systems we have in place are executed.”

Notre Dame implemented a new plan for the situation should it occur in the future.

“As we talked as a staff (Sunday), obviously we can’t let that happen,” Freeman said. “We know that. We can’t let 10 guys go on the field and not see it, but we came up with a call, a signal to be able to say, ‘Hey, you have to jump offsides and touch somebody on the offense so (the referee) can stop the play.’

But should the Fighting Irish have noted this problem sooner?

Old Video Shows Notre Dame Playing With 10 Men In Week 1 Victory

As it turns out, Notre Dame had similar problems earlier in the season.

Fighting Irish beat writer Tyler Hroka shared a video on Sept. 4 that shows Notre Dame with 10 men on the field against Tennessee State.

It didn’t come back to bite the Irish in that situation. Tennessee State threw an incomplete pass and ND went on to win 56-3.

But Horka states “that can’t happen against better teams,” in the original tweet.

As it turns out, it can happen against better teams. It’s just going to end up in a much, much worse result.