Reporter labels Notre Dame’s locker room as “Amateur hour” following heartbreaking CFP national championship loss against Ohio State

The Notre Dame Fighting Irish suffered a loss to Ohio State in the National Championship game on Monday. Despite showing off some offensive power on their opening drive and a few other occasions, the Fighting Irish were unable to keep up with the Buckeyes and cruised to a 34-23 win.

This was not a good showing from a Notre Dame program that has generally been strong all season long.

However, what is now being talked about is what happened in the Notre Dame locker room after the game. This came from Dan Wolken, an experienced and reliable reporter. After the game, he was in the Fighting Irish's locker room, where he witnessed a unique and negative atmosphere.

"Bizarre scenes from the Notre Dame locker room, players yelling at reporters, coaches warning people not to ask certain questions. Amateur hour."

Wolken went into further detail about what was happening in the locker room in a later post.

“I think that if the locker room is open, which it is for the CFP, reporters should be able to go in there and respectfully ask questions without being sworn at ... If a player doesn’t want to talk, that’s fine.”

The atmosphere was very much different from what the usual postgame locker room would be like for Notre Dame. However, this is generally to be expected.

Notre Dame coach Marcus Freeman takes responsibility for the loss

After the defeat, Notre Dame coach Marcus Freeman took responsibility for the errors in communication that cost his team the win. Freeman said in the postgame press conference:

"You're always making mistakes, but those type of detrimental mistakes when you play a really, really good football team cost you points. I think that's probably the biggest thing that has stuck out to me even in between series, the communication. 'Hey, we're good, we got it.'

"Well, we can't make mistakes. It falls on my shoulders. And as the head coach, we have to prepare and be better prepared for this moment. These guys gave everything they got."

This was a game that was not full of penalties and turnovers. But the Fighting Irish defense did make some simple errors in the game. These errors led to the stronger Ohio State offense scoring points, which ultimately doomed Notre Dame to defeat.