The tears flowed. Marty Biagi couldn’t stop them. He tried, of course. At times, we all try to hold back our emotions but they usually get the best of us.
On Thursday night, as his Notre Dame Fighting Irish won a 12th straight game by beating Georgia to advance to the playoff semifinals, emotions got to Biagi.
And that’s perfectly fine and understandable considering the circumstances.
Biagi, Notre Dame’s special teams coordinator, has endured an inexplicable last 14 days. He became a father to a set of twins a day before the Irish’s first-round playoff win two weeks ago, lost his father the morning after that victory over Indiana, and then had a wife in the hospital until just two days ago.
Then came Thursday in the New Orleans Superdome, when Biagi’s unit accounted for three field goals, a touchdown and pulled off one of the biggest plays in the game — a fourth-quarter trickeration that duped the Georgia Bulldogs into a drive-extending penalty.
“It’s been a roller coaster,” he said through tears, pointing toward the dome’s roof and then gesturing to the legion of fans before him. “I know dad is up there watching down from heaven.”
If so, Stephen Biagi watched his son lead his alma mater — Stephen is a 1973 Notre Dame graduate — to its biggest victory in more than three decades.
This win cannot be overstated.
In a 23-10 knuckle fight of a game, Notre Dame, college football’s only remaining blue-blood independent and perhaps its most polarizing program, beat the SEC champion to win its first major bowl game in 31 years, advance to the Orange Bowl semifinal against coach James Franklin’s Penn State team next Thursday and assure that a Black head coach will compete in the national championship game.
In his third year leading the Irish, Marcus Freeman, as mild-mannered and humble as any in his profession, shoved aside the praise. “Your color shouldn’t matter. Your evidence of your work should,” he said, before later adding, “This isn’t about me. I want to make sure that’s clear.”
But shouldn’t it be? Freeman has managed to steer a Notre Dame team that lost to Northern Illinois in Week 2 to college football’s Final Four. Despite significant defensive injuries, the Irish’s defense — Freeman’s baby — suffocated the Bulldogs after doing the same to the Hoosiers.
And he delicately handled this week’s tragic events in New Orleans. In a somewhat unusual move on Wednesday — day before a playoff game — he permitted his players three hours to meet with their family members here in the city. In times of tragedy, Freeman said he wanted to bring comfort to his players and their parents.
Some didn’t listen, like Biagi who attributes his special teams to the freedom that Freeman gives him.
“We’ve got a head coach who is bought in to making the third phase very important,” he said. “Our staff and players are bought into special teams.”
It certainly looked like it.
Mitch Jeter made field goals of 44, 47 and 48 yards, Jayden Harrison returned a kickoff 98 yards to begin the second half and the Irish picked up a key third down after a bit of trickery.
Let’s talk about that play. Leading by 13 points with seven minutes left, the Irish faced a fourth-and-1 at their own 18-yard line. The punt team lined up. And then, suddenly, in a quick burst, all 11 players raced off the field to be replaced by the Notre Dame offense. As per substitution rules, Georgia was allowed to replace its punt coverage team with its defense, hurriedly exchanging most of their players in such a frantic effort that a couple of linemen fell into the neutral zone as quarterback Riley Leonard received the snap of the ball.
The offside penalty gave Notre Dame a first down to extend a drive that, in many ways, secured the victory. The Irish ran five more minutes off the clock.
“Been working on that s*** for weeks,” said Biagi with a laugh. “We had to really, really be attentive to detail. It was great execution. It takes so much practice.”
Afterward, Freeman brushed off any credit for the punt-swapping play. His quarterback, however, interrupted the coach’s answer, telling media members that it was Freeman’s idea to first insert the punt team and then the offense instead of the other way around.
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