Recently, it was revealed that the Notre Dame football program had moved up to number five in the latest college football playoff rankings. The shift comes as a result of the Fighting Irish's recent narrow home win over the shorthanded Miami Hurricanes, which was aided by a controversial incomplete pass call on what would have been a late touchdown for the Hurricanes.

Now, ESPN sports media personality Pat McAfee has revealed his candid admission about the pressure on Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman going into the Miami game.

“If Notre Dame loses [the Miami] game, I think I’m never am able to believe in Marcus Freeman ever again,” he said, per ESPN College Football on X, formerly Twitter.

Indeed, Freeman and the Fighting Irish had a lot of pressure on them to get the job done in this one in front of their home fans, especially after the news that star Miami wide receiver Malachi Toney would be out of the lineup due to an injury.

Notre Dame controlled things for most of the way in this game but had to hold on for dear life late, and Freeman and the rest of his staff will certainly want to clean up some late-game mistakes this week in practice.

Article Continues Below

Still, the Fighting Irish were able to get the job done and avoid the unimaginable fate that is a lack of belief from McAfee, now sitting pretty at number five in the country with the toughest part of their regular season schedule behind them.

Notre Dame will next hit the field on Saturday for a home game against Boston College at 3:30 pm ET.