For the 3rd time in just 6 games as Notre Dame’s football coach, Marcus Freeman will be facing a ranked opponent Saturday night when the Fighting Irish squares off with No. 16 Brigham Young at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas (7:30 p.m. ET, NBC). The Fighting Irish came up just short in their first 2 forays against ranked teams under Freeman. They lost a big lead in last season’s Fiesta Bowl, falling 37-35 to Oklahoma State. Then, to open Freeman’s 1st full season as head coach, then-No. 2 Ohio State outlasted the Fighting Irish 21-10 in a game Notre Dame led for most the evening. Saturday night, Freeman will get a 3rd crack at a victory over a ranked opponent. Will the Fighting Irish find fortune in Las Vegas?

This will be the 9th meeting between the schools, with Notre Dame holding a 6-2 all-time edge. This will be the 1st between the storied programs being played at a neutral site. For Freeman, it’s also a fresh chance at capturing a tone-setting win for his tenure.

Freeman isn’t alone among Notre Dame head coaches who had to wait a bit for a big victory. Since Lou Holtz’s departure from South Bend, Ind., after the 1996 season, the Fighting Irish have had 5 head coaches, excluding interim jobs.

Here’s a look at how long it took each of the new men to collect win No. 1 against a ranked opponent, along with the number of games (in parentheses) they lost to ranked opponents before grabbing that first win.

Bob Davie: 1997, Season 1, Game 10, 24-6 at No. 11 LSU (3 losses to ranked opponents prior to this win)

Tyrone Willingham: 2002, Season 1, Game 1, 22-0 vs. No. 21 Maryland at Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J.

Charlie Weis: 2005, Season 1, Game 1, 42-21 at No. 23 Pitt

Brian Kelly: 2010, Season 1, Game 10, 28-3 vs. No. 15 Utah (1)

The only common thread here is that each of Notre Dame’s four head coaches during the post-Holtz era prior to Freeman won a game against a ranked opponent in their 1st full season. Freeman will have plenty of chances to do that, but Saturday’s tilt against BYU might be his best opportunity.

That said, Kelly lost his 1st game to a ranked foe and failed to collect a win against a ranked team in his 2nd season, going 0-3 in 2011. None of that was a harbinger of doom, as Kelly became Notre Dame’s most successful coach since Holtz.

Meanwhile, Willingham and Weis, who both started their tenures fast, flamed out. Willingham and Weis actually won their first 2 games (3, in Weis’ case) against ranked opponents at Notre Dame, but in both cases, the tenure turned sour. Willingham won only 1 game against a ranked foe during his final 2 seasons in South Bend before being dismissed just prior to the Insight Bowl in 2004. As for Weis, he famously didn’t lose to a ranked team until the 34-31 Southern California “Bush Push” game in South Bend in 2005, widely considered among the greatest college football games ever played. After that heartbreaking loss, however, Weis dropped 12 of his final 13 games against ranked teams, leading to his being fired after the 2009 season.

Beating BYU is a huge opportunity for Freeman to unmoor himself from the disappointments of September and recapture the energy and momentum the program felt all summer as South Bend waited with baited breath for the charismatic young coach’s tenure to begin. It won’t be easy. The Cougars have 18 returning starters from last season’s 10-win team and while a 3-touchdown loss to Oregon in Eugene is an ugly blemish, BYU already boasts a win against a top-10 outfit, having defeated then-No. 9 Baylor early this past month. Like the Fighting Irish, BYU has extra rest — the Cougars played in-state rival Utah State on Thursday night, giving Kalani Sitake and his staff an extra weekend to prepare for Notre Dame.

BYU also likely will play desperate. A very good Arkansas team is to visit Provo, Utah, the following week, and a tricky trip to face Hugh Freeze and Liberty will follow in what is a very challenging October for the Cougars. On paper, it’s a terrific matchup for the Fighting Irish. The Cougars rank just 44th nationally in SP+ defensive effiiciency, 38th in total defense, and 93rd in rushing defense. Having found their run game over the previous 2 contests, Notre Dame should feel confident that it can get a push up front and run the ball Saturday night. Further, while BYU quarterback Jaren Hall is outstanding (20th in the nation in passing efficiency), the Fighting Irish have faced 2 quarterbacks better: Ohio State’s CJ Stroud and UNC’s Drake Maye, both among the top 10 nationally. Nothing Hall does will be anything Notre Dame hasn’t seen this season.

Still, there’s the mental hurdle of getting that 1st big win, and the lingering question on any Notre Dame fan’s mind of which Fighting Irish team will show up. Will it be the prideful unit that fought tooth and nail with national-title contender Ohio State at Ohio Stadium on opening night, or the group who laid an egg against Marshall in the home opener a week later? Will Drew Pyne continue to live out his dream of playing quarterback for Notre Dame with a performance like the one he delivered in Chapel Hill, N.C., on Sept. 24, or is he destined to come back to earth a bit as he readies for just his 3rd career start? There aren’t any great answers to these questions.

What is clear as a sunny autumn Saturday in South Bend is that Freeman needs this game. Notre Dame’s recruiting momentum hasn’t stalled, but the energy around the full-time Freeman hire might if the Fighting Irish fall to 2-3 with a slate that includes Clemson, Southern California and an unbeaten Syracuse still to come. Further, while a slip from the Fighting Irish to 5-7 seems unlikely, there’s a huge difference between a New Year’s Day or New Year’s Six bowl, which is very much in play for Notre Dame with a win Saturday, and a forgettable December bowl trip to Orlando, Fla., or El Paso, Texas, or places in between.

Optics matter. Momentum matters. Big wins matter. These are all reasons Saturday night matters so much for Marcus Freeman and Notre Dame.