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Notre Dame and Penn State treated fans to a fantastic showdown in the Orange Bowl matchup where the Fighting Irish punched their ticket to the national championship game. Marcus Freeman didn’t really need any additional motivation to win, but he apparently got some after James Franklin rubbed him the wrong way at a press conference ahead of the contest.
On Thursday, Notre Dame and Penn State reignited a largely forgotten rivalry after meeting for the first time since 2007 in a College Football Playoff semifinal game that definitely lived up to the hype.
The Nittany Lions pulled out to a 10-0 lead before the Fighting Irish narrowed their deficit to seven points with a field goal at the end of the second quarter. They subsequently tied things up after the half to usher in a back-and-forth contest where they walked away with the 27-24 victory after capitalizing on the disastrous interception Drew Allar threw with less than a minute to go.
There’s usually plenty of talk about bulletin board material heading into games that boast some major stakes, and while it didn’t seem like there was a ton of bad blood between the two teams heading into the contest, it would appear Penn State coach James Franklin managed to rile up Notre Dame skipper Marcus Freeman during the press conference where the two men shared the stage on Wednesday.
During the media session, the 52-year-old Franklin made what seemed to be a fairly innocuous comment about Freeman’s age before complimenting the 38-year-old’s hairline, although a number of Notre Dame fans interpreted it as a condescending jab.
“I mean look at the hairline on this guy” 🤣@PennStateFball‘s @coachjfranklin says he’s ‘envious’ of Marcus Freeman’s hairline 😂 pic.twitter.com/88fxOz8GMi
— FOX College Football (@CFBONFOX) January 8, 2025
Franklin also asserted every college football team should belong to a conference (Notre Dame has famously remained independent despite its alliance with the ACC), and while it’s unclear which of those comments got under Freeman’s skin, The Athletic reports he headed back to the team’s hotel with some extra fire in his belly after the press conference wrapped up.
After the win, Notre Dame safety Xavier Watts alluded to some of Franklin’s comments being a catalyst for a change in Freeman’s demeanor, saying:
“He was angry. He was angry with the press conference thing, whatever was going on between that. He was mad about that. All the anger went toward us and that anger went onto the field.”
RB Jeremiyah Love echoed a similar sentiment, adding, “I’m not gonna speak on their head coach, but we felt like their team didn’t really respect us. We wanted to come into this game and make a statement.”
It’s hard to imagine Penn State is going to part ways with Franklin after a stellar season where he led them to the semifinal, but it’s getting increasingly difficult to ignore the fact that he’s now 1-15 against teams ranked in the Top 5 during his time at the school.
It’s also hard to imagine the press conference ended up being the deciding factor, but he may want to choose his words a bit more carefully going forward.