Marcus Freeman reveals Notre Dame's approach to CFP snub, gets handshake from Kirk Herbstreit

When Notre Dame missed out on this year’s College Football Playoff, Marcus Freeman acknowledged the disappointment in the locker room. The Fighting Irish were in the projected bracket throughout the last part of the regular season before missing out entirely on selection day.

But after finding out his team’s fate, Freeman had a simple message. He broke it down on ESPN’s College GameDay Monday, and it prompted a handshake from Kirk Herbstreit.

Freeman’s approach to 2026 is a simple moniker. He wants Notre Dame to “leave no doubt,” which he said the Irish did by dropping its first two games of the season to Miami and Texas A&M by a combined four points. The Hurricanes made the CFP over Notre Dame and will play in Monday’s national championship vs. Alabama.

Marcus Freeman says he got over Notre Dame being left out of the College Football Playoff within 24 hours. He quickly turned his focus to 2026 and the Fighting Irish’s motto for this year — “leave no doubt.”

That earned a handshake from @KirkHerbstreit. pic.twitter.com/g1gJJuhY62

— Tyler Horka (@tbhorka) January 19, 2026

“At first, when you find out, you’re disappointed because you get in front of your team and you don’t have the answers for why,” Freeman said. “This was never a situation where we deserved to be in the playoffs in front of Miami or Alabama or anything like that. This was, okay, the rankings had shown if we continued to win in the fashion we were winning, it looked we were going to make the playoffs, and we didn’t. The day we found out, the response was one thing.

“But after 24 hours, the ability to get in front of your team and say, ‘You know what? We have to move forward.’ And I remember our first team meeting we just had for 2026. My message was, it’s up to us to leave no doubt. We left doubt. We lost by four or five points the first two games – we left doubt. It’s our job to make sure we leave no doubt.”

As Freeman wrapped up his answer, Herbstreit got up from his chair and walked over to shake his hand. While Pat McAfee joked the Notre Dame coach was still “campaigning,” Herbstreit didn’t see that as the case. He sees a coach motivated to get back in the bracket next season.

“I don’t think he’s campaigning,” Herbstreit said as he walked back to his seat. “That’s a great approach to getting left out.”

Marcus Freeman is serving as a guest analyst for College GameDay ahead of the national title game at Hard Rock Stadium. Notre Dame opted out of a bowl game after missing the CFP and will turn its attention to 2026.