Marcus Freeman

USC Trojans quarterback Caleb Williams may have had a rough outing in Saturday's 48-20 loss to Notre Dame, but Fighting Irish head coach Marcus Freeman still believes the rising star is one of the best players to ever step onto the field.

"He is one of the best college football players that I've ever seen," Freeman told reporters after the game. "All I kept telling our guys is we have a plan and you have to attack. You can't let him go out and be the Heisman Trophy winner that he is."

Williams put together arguably the worst game of his USC career on Saturday night as he completed just 23 of 37 passes for 199 yards and one touchdown against three interceptions.

The 21-year-old entered Saturday's game having thrown 22 touchdowns against just one interception in six games, so it was shocking to see him throw three picks in a single game for the first time in his career.

Williams hadn't thrown more than one interception in a game since his freshman season at Oklahoma.

"I told Coach [Al Washington], when you see those guys sub, roll guys. We have to have relentless rushers against Caleb Williams," Freeman added of Notre Dame's game plan against the reigning Heisman Trophy winner.

Prior to Saturday's loss, Williams looked like one of the top candidates to win the Heisman, but now fans and pundits are questioning his candidacy for the award, especially with players like Washington's Michael Penix Jr. putting together impeccable seasons.

Luckily for Williams, there's still plenty of time for him to re-establish himself among the top contenders for the Heisman. After winning the award last year, he's looking to become the first player—and second ever—since former Ohio State running back Archie Griffin in 1974-75 to earn the honor in back-to-back seasons.

The Trojans (6-1) will look to get back on track next weekend against the Utah Utes. Notre Dame (6-2), meanwhile, will look to keep the momentum going against Pitt on Oct. 28 after their bye week.

Former Notre Dame head coach Lou Holtz apparently believes he was a motivating factor for Ohio State in Saturday's 17-14 loss for the Fighting Irish.

Appearing on Don't @ Me with Dan Dakich (starts at 69:00 mark), Holtz said he called Marcus Freeman to apologize for putting Notre Dame in a "bad position" going into the team's marquee showdown with the Buckeyes.

"I called Coach Freeman yesterday and apologized because I put him in a bad position, maybe," Holtz said. "I don't feel bad about saying it because I believe it, and Notre Dame was the better football team."

Appearing on the Sept. 22 episode of The Pat McAfee Show (h/t Christopher Breiler of SI.com), Holtz was critical of Day's track record against elite-level competition.

"He has lost to Alabama, Georgia, Clemson, Michigan twice, and everybody that beats him does so because they're more physical than Ohio State. I think Notre Dame will take that same approach," Holtz said.

After Ohio State escaped South Bend with a victory, Day specifically called out the 86-year-old College Football Hall of Famer during his postgame interview on NBC.

"I'd like to know where Lou Holtz is right now," Day said (h/t 10TV in Columbus). "What he said about our team, I cannot believe. This is a tough team right here. We're proud to be from Ohio. It's always been Ohio against the world, and it'll continue to be Ohio against the world. But I'll tell you what: I love those kids. We've got a tough team."

Holtz didn't say anything that Day could reasonably argue against. Closing has been a big problem for his teams in big games. The two losses against Michigan came because the Wolverines wore them down over the course of the game before dominating late.

The Buckeyes have been outscored by a combined score of 56-17 by their Big Ten rivals in the previous two games. Alabama dominated them in a 52-24 win in the 2021 College Football Playoff Championship Game.

In the 2019 College Football Playoff semifinal, Clemson finished the game on a 29-7 run after falling behind 16-0 in the second quarter. Georgia outscored Ohio State 18-3 in the fourth quarter of last year's playoff semifinal.

Granted, it's hard to fault Day too much for losing games to these teams. Three of the five losses were in the College Football Playoff and the two against Michigan determined the Big Ten East representative in the conference championship game.

Ohio State wasn't favored to beat Clemson, Georgia or Alabama. Day has only lost six games during his tenure as Buckeyes head coach, with five of them coming against teams that made the College Football Playoff.

Day's only loss to a non-playoff team was in Week 2 of the 2021 season against an Oregon team that won 10 games and was in the Pac-12 Championship Game.

Saturday's showdown was a defensive battle that saw just one field goal in the first half. Notre Dame took a 14-10 lead midway through the fourth quarter on an 11-play, 96-yard drive.

The Buckeyes stole a win almost at the buzzer on Chip Trayanum's touchdown run with one second remaining after Notre Dame's defense got stops on the first two plays from the one-yard line.

Ohio State moved up two spots to No. 4 in the Associated Press Top 25 poll as a result of the win. Notre Dame dropped two spots to No. 11.

Holtz had a 34-year coaching career from 1969 to 2004. He's best known for his 11-year stint with the Fighting Irish from 1986 to '96. He went 100-30-2 and won a national title during the 1988 season.

Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman is prepared to learn from his mistake.

The Fighting Irish lost 17-14 to Ohio State on a walk-off touchdown and the team only had 10 defenders on the field. Freeman said that the team will have a signal to take a penalty in a situation like that in the future.

"You win or you learn," Freeman said, per Heather Dinich of ESPN.com, "Hopefully it never happens again, but do we have a signal to tell somebody, when it's loud and crazy, jump offsides and touch somebody?"

Freeman continued by saying that the coaching staff can't get "caught watching" and "not do our jobs."

"I know people are like, take the penalty," Freeman said, per Dinich. "By the time we realized—it got communicated—you couldn't get a guy from the coaching box to touch somebody on offense. To stop the play, you have to touch somebody on offense. We would've gotten a penalty and they would have scored, so it really didn't matter because we figured it out too late. What we learned from that situation is that, (1), don't ever be in the situation where you've got 10 guys on the field, but (2), if something happens, we have to have a signal to tell somebody to jump offsides and touch somebody."

Freeman also said that the team will focus on execution going forward. The loss drops the Fighting Irish to 3-1 on the season but the team has several high-profile games on the schedule. Notre Dame has games against USC, Louisville, Clemson and Wake Forest—quarterback Sam Hartman's former team—further down the schedule.

Another huge one is coming this week as the Fighting Irish will travel to Durham to take on the 4-0 Duke Blue Devils.

The Notre Dame Fighting Irish made a huge mistake on Ohio State's game-winning touchdown on Saturday night in South Bend.

Notre Dame only had 10 defensive players on the field when Buckeyes running back DeaMonte "Chip" Trayanum crashed into the end zone to help Ohio State secure a 17-14 victory.

After the game, Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman told reporters that he was trying to substitute in a defensive lineman before the play but didn't want to risk a penalty.

"Didn't want to give them a freebie," Freeman said. "That's why I made the decision not to call timeout."

Had the Fighting Irish taken the penalty, the ball would've only been moved up inches. Wouldn't it have been better for Notre Dame to take the penalty and get their entire defense on the field instead of giving up the game-winner?

Even if Ohio State had scored after the penalty, at least Notre Dame would have gone down fighting with their entire defense on the field. And who knows, given how close Trayanum was to being outside the end zone, it's possible the Fighting Irish defense would've held on.

This is surely an ending Freeman will have nightmares about after Notre Dame seemingly gave it away.

Neither team's offense was particularly impressive on Saturday night as Ohio State quarterback Kyle McCord was held without a touchdown pass and Notre Dame signal-caller Sam Hartman was limited to 175 yards and one score.

The game ended up being more of a defensive battle, and it was one that Notre Dame ultimately lost on a crucial error.

Although they have played sparingly over the years, the Fighting Irish have now lost six straight to the Buckeyes dating back to 1936.

Notre Dame fell to 4-1 on the season while Ohio State improved to 4-0. The Fighting Irish are slated for a matchup against the Duke Blue Devils next weekend, and ESPN's College GameDay will be in Durham for the matchup for the first time ever.