As the game wore on, Marcus Freeman stood taller and taller.

The 1st-year head coach, who at 36 still looks like he’s ready to take the field on any given snap, glared at his defense with every snap, urging the players to keep fighting and keep pouring the pressure on DJ Uiagalelei and the Clemson offense. Freeman’s defense glared back, and responded with vigor. For 4 quarters, Notre Dame hounded, harassed and harangued the then-No. 5 Tigers, depriving Clemson of the run game oxygen its offense needs to breathe and forcing mistakes by Uiagalelei in the passing game.

Then came a final big glare and a play later, exultant release. With Clemson trailing 21-0 but driving thanks to 2 touch-and-go, at-best pass-interference penalties, the Fighting Irish made yet another big play. Benjamin Morrison, the freshman corner who, like his coach, seems beyond his years, stepped in front of a Uiagalelei deep out and collected his 2nd interception of the night. Morrison then darted 96 yards the other direction for 6 points, a 27-0 Notre Dame lead and finally, the sense that victory was upon the Fighting Irish.

Morrison, who Saturday Road wrote during September appeared to have a bright future, was targeted early and often by Uiagalelei and Clemson. Not only did the freshman, who has started for Notre Dame since the BYU game Oct. 8, respond, he allowed only 2 completions against 7 targets, made 7 tackles, intercepted 2 passes, broke up 2 more, and scored a touchdown. No word yet from Notre Dame as to whether he did, in fact, ascend to heaven immediately after crossing the plane of the end zone during the 4th quarter.

Morrison is a fitting hero for a Notre Dame team written off by many who turned heads, and reignited the fire of future expectations under Freeman, all in one special South Bend November night.

In dominating then-No. 5 Clemson 35-14, Notre Dame didn’t just collect a signature win under Freeman in his 1st full season, though this, the 3rd win by the Fighting Irish against a ranked team during 2022 absolutely was that. In routing Clemson, Notre Dame exorcised old demons and resoundingly answered the lingering question as to whether this program could win huge games against opponents with elite talent. The win was Notre Dame’s 1st against an opponent ranked among the top 5 of the 247 Talent Composite since nipping Clemson in 2020; it was Notre Dame’s largest victory  over a team with top 5 247 Talent Composite talent since the service began compiling lists in 2015. More than that, it was a game that showed that despite all manner of adversity in Year 1 of the Freeman era, from losing the program’s starting quarterback for the season during Game 2 to a pair of disappointing home losses, the Fighting Irish are getting better, and forging an identity, under their new coach. For Notre Dame, it was the program’s biggest victory over a top-5 opponent since routing No. 5 Southern Cal 38-10 under Lou Holtz during 1995.

“Today was a day it all came together,” Freeman told the media after the win. “This is still a part of a new foundation. You can’t just change leaders and think it’s going to continue to be like (it was). We have to build this foundation the right way. And so we believe it becomes infallible. You got such a strong foundation, man, that no matter what happens, man, you’re going to be solid. Confidence and belief in what you’re doing, it reaffirms the process, the things that you teach.”

Notre Dame should have plenty of confidence. How could you not when your offensive line and running backs overwhelm a Clemson defensive front filled with blue-chip talent for 263 yards rushing? How could you not when your defensive line generates a season high 13 pressures on the quarterback? How could you not when your special teams continue to do something magical week after week? This time, it was Prince Kollie’s 17-yard return of Jordan Botehlo’s 1st-quarter blocked punt that got the Fighting Irish off and running, staking Notre Dame to a 7-0 lead and sending a sellout crowd into a frenzy.

Notre Dame now has blocked a staggering 6 punts this season, a sign of Freeman and his staff’s tremendous attention to detail and commitment to all 3 phases of football, more than anything else. For the Fighting Irish, that commitment finally paid off in a big way Saturday night, helping Notre Dame win a game that flips the script on the “more of the same” narrative that had circled Freeman’s 1st full season in South Bend.

The stench of home losses to Marshall and Stanford won’t go away any time soon, and when Notre Dame plays as well as it did Saturday night, it is difficult to understand how this team isn’t 8-1 and competing for a College Football Playoff spot. But at 6-3, the Fighting Irish are still in the New Year’s Six mix, with a win at Southern Cal this month all but certain to be a New Year’s Six play-in game, barring a disaster for the Fighting Irish against Navy or Boston College during the coming weeks.

And while just qualifying for the New Year’s Six isn’t where Notre Dame hopes to be under Freeman long-term, it is a start, and it is now one colored by Saturday night’s rout of Clemson, a game that showed the country that on its best day, Notre Dame belongs among the national elite.

Clemson coach Dabo Swinney certainly was convinced Notre Dame belongs.

“This was an ass-kicking, period. That’s what it is,” Swinney said after the loss. “Just flat-out got our tails handed to us.”

Clemson doesn’t lose games that thoroughly very often. In fact, Clemson’s 21-point defeat Saturday was just its 2nd defeat by 3 touchdowns or more since 2015, with the other being a 2020 CFP semifinal loss to Ohio State. The game marked Clemson’s worst regular-season loss since a 28-6 defeat at Orange Bowl-bound Georgia Tech during 2014.

Does any of that mean Notre Dame arrived? No. But when you can crush a program that rarely loses lopsided games, it is safe to say it’s a statement of intent, or perhaps, in the language of a Catholic school, a statement of intention.

Marcus Freeman, who is awaiting a top-5 recruiting class and who, after 9 games, is coaching a team capable of dominating both lines of scrimmage against perennial playoff program Clemson, is just getting started.

Saturday night, Notre Dame got a glorious preview of what the final product might look like.

None of it was lucky. All of it was a reason for Freeman to stand tall, as if to stare his doubters right in the eye and say, there are many more of these nights to come.