We're back with IRIS Illustrated Insider. It's Monday, September 5th,

Notre Dame coming off of 16 to 14 loss to northern Illinois. I'm Tim Priester with Tim O'Malley

from Ivers Illustrated, John Bryce from the Football Scoop. And we just spent some time with

Marcus Freeman. They kind of fired some time with Marcus Freeman.

They kind of fired up and determined Marcus Freeman.

You would hope that he would be.

But, you know, what happened on Saturday in the loss of Northern Illinois is, well, in his words,

they are still learning how to deal with success. You don't have to worry about this week

as they go to Purdue to take on the one and O boilermakers who had the weekend off. But I don't

know. You know, whenever you're in situations like this, it's all just words. He said what he had

to say. And obviously, you know, Nordame's going to be in a much better space when they take

on Purdue this weekend. But, but that's a little bit late. What's interesting is those words

appeared in Monday musings in January that Marcus Freeman's teams don't handle success. They respond

from failure. They responded from every failure he's had.

They have not responded well to success.

John and I went through this at the very beginning of Irish Illustrated overtime.

I'd give the litany of responses to failure and failing to do so with after successes.

It is the mark of a successful long tenured coach to deal with success because you're supposed to be dealing

with success every week is how this thing goes, not just bouncing back from failure.

I would fully expect them to bounce back from this loss and play well at Purdue, except I'm

concerned about the offensive line, the quarterback situation and a defense that will stack

the box. I know we're going to talk about that Thursday, but my greatest concern is I think the team will be ready to play.

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