"I am still against it" - CFB analyst dismisses Marcus Freeman's explanation for controversial 4th down call

Notre Dame coach Marcus Freeman could not get over the hump and lead the Fighting Irish to their first national championship win since 1988. His team lost a thrilling national championship game 34-23 to coach Ryan Day's Ohio State Buckeyes on Sunday.

Wide receiver Jaden Greathouse scored a touchdown to haul the Fighting Irish back into the game at 31-15. The Buckeyes then fumbled a ball and Freeman elected to take a field goal when facing fourth and goal rather than take another stab at a touchdown with 9:27 remaining. Orange Bowl hero Mitch Jeter missed the resulting kick and despite scoring another Greathouse touchdown, the deficit was too big to overcome.

During Tuesday's segment of the "Gojo & Golic" show, analyst Mike Golic Sr. revealed his thoughts on Freeman's controversial 4th down call (2:15).

"I was completely against the decision in real time, hearing the explanation, I'm still against it, still think they should have gone for it but I understand a little more the thought process that the missed field goal was with 9:27 left so, there was time and Notre Dame had gotten a couple of stops in the defense," Golic Sr. said. "But overall, I still think they should have gone for it, they've been aggressive all year."

During his postgame news conference, the charismatic Marcus Freeman explained his controversial decision.

“I just thought instead of being down 16, let’s try and go down 13,” Marcus Freeman said. “I know it’s still a two-score game, but you have a better probability of getting 14 points than you do 16 points. If it was a shorter fourth-and-goal situation, I probably would have gone for it, but I just felt that fourth-and-9 was not a great chance for us to make that.”

Marcus Freeman explains Notre Dame's natty game collapse

The Notre Dame Fighting Irish under coach Marcus Freeman started by scoring with the first drive of the game. However, he then fell off defensively allowing the rampant Ohio State Buckeyes led by quarterback Will Howard to take over the game.

During his postgame news conference, Freeman explained what went wrong for his usually defensively stout team in the game.

“I think more than anything, it was two series after the first one we didn’t execute and we had some self-inflicted wounds that we had to clean up,” Freeman said. “Second half we drove the ball. I thought we did a good job with some tough situations. But we can’t run Riley every single play. That’s not what the formula for success is."

In the second quarter of the game, the Buckeyes scored 21 unanswered points taking the game out of reach for the Fighting Irish.

“There was some things on both sides of the ball that we don’t normally do and some communication mistakes, self-inflicted wounds that we haven’t been doing the past few weeks,” Freeman said. “You’re always making mistakes, but those type of detrimental mistakes when you play a really, really good football team cost you points.”

The Notre Dame Fighting Irish under Marcus Freeman defied the odds to get to the national championship game. They were the team to run the potent Ohio State Buckeyes the closest in the college football playoffs.