Marcus Freeman, Notre Dame 'find a way' to get past Penn State, advance to title game

With seven seconds left to play, Notre Dame coach Marcus Freeman sent Mitch Jeter onto the field to do what no kicker has ever done: make a go-ahead field goal in the fourth quarter of a College Football Playoff game.

That means the odds of Jeter making the kick were slim, as kickers were 0-4 in CFP history in that situation. That means that everyone would be watching Jeter. That means that the senior place kicker would either be heralded as a hero or blamed for his shortcomings. 

Chances are Freeman knew exactly how Jeter felt.

Freeman, who turns 39 on Friday, is one of just 16 coaches in the sport who is Black. He is just the second Black head coach in the history of Notre Dame football, and, while Jeter attempted to be the first kicker to accomplish his own feat, Freeman was attempting to become the first Black head coach to succeed in leading his team to the national title game.

Jeter stared down the goal posts at Hard Rock Stadium, stepped up and nailed his 41-yard attempt to send the Fighting Irish to the national title game with a 27-24 win over Penn State on Thursday night in the Orange Bowl. And with it, history was made.

Freeman will now look to become the first Black head coach to win a national championship, and he will get that chance in just 11 days. But getting to this point required quite a fight from Freeman and the Fighting Irish against James Franklin's Penn State team.

Penn State's defense made its presence known from the opening kickoff. With an injured Abdul Carter on the field — lining up against right tackle Aamil Wagner — the Nittany Lion defense punished a Notre Dame offense that had yet to demonstrate it could win a CFP game on quarterback Riley Leonard's arm.

After Leonard threw for just 90