There was plenty of blame to go around in the Notre Dame Fighting Irish losing to Northern Illinois – at home, as 28-point favorites, against a team that had never beaten a top 10 team. For one former Notre Dame quarterback, the blame goes to more than just the head coach.
Former Notre Dame quarterback Malik Zaire was posting throughout the 16-14 loss to Northern Illinois and at one point in the loss, Zaire mused that Notre Dame Stadium just isn’t an intimidating atmosphere for opposing teams. He asserted that the stadium has “no intimidation factor” and believes that road teams might even find trips to South Bend “the the most comfortable, safest, and pleasant road game places to play.”
“ND must rank last place in toughest places to play in college football. We give no intimidation factor to teams just all the motivation they need to play amazing vs us lol,” Zaire wrote.
“In fact, we might rank 1st in college football for the most comfortable, safest, and pleasant road game places to play,” he wrote in a follow-up.
Northern Illinois certainly didn’t seem intimidated or rattled throughout the game even after giving up an opening drive touchdown. They settled down, matched the Fighting Irish blow for blow, took a late lead and did just enough to get the win.
You don’t have to look far to see Notre Dame fans blaming head coach Marcus Freeman and calling for his firing already.
But Notre Dame was struggling to win the big games (and the occasional small one) before Freeman arrived.
Maybe the atmosphere at Notre Dame Stadium is a contributing factor…
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