I've said more than once that I'd rather ...

go 3-9 with Marcus Freeman as Notre Dame's head coach than win a national championship with Brian Kelly. I'll allow that at least part of the reason I'm so adamant about that is the absurdity of the possibility of Brian Kelly winning a national championship anyplace other than Grand Valley State.

I've argued that Notre Dame's great coaches were convinced that Notre Dame is special; that's it's not fungible with Michigan or USC or Ohio State or Alabama, as Kelly so clearly thinks. The greats embraced Notre Dame's uniqueness and capitalized on that uniqueness to "shop" with great success down the most exclusive aisles of Saks Fifth Avenue, not the sale bins of Sack O' Suds. That unquestionably held true for Ara Parseghian, who for instance, successfully recruited Thom Gatewood away from Ohio State precisely because he wouldn't guarantee Gatewood a starting position. It clearly held true for Lou Holtz.

Did you ever hear Brian Kelly say he was "honored" to be Notre Dame's head coach, as Marcus Freeman said numerous times Thursday night? Did you ever hear Brian Kelly say he "loved" Notre Dame, as Freeman also said Thursday night?

In light of all this, I'm particularly intrigued by some of Al Golden's post-game comments Thursday night:

“They’re incredible kids. They are the best of the best,” said defensive coordinator Al Golden. “I think they choose Notre Dame for all the right reasons. It’s not me, me, me. Any of those guys to come here and submit to the program and put your ego aside and go for team glory? That’s rare. Rare. Rare. Rare.”

As we all know, Golden has been around the block. A distinguished playing career at Penn State. Great success as a head coach at Temple. Utter failure as a head coach at Miami. A well-regarded NFL assistant.

But it's also the timing and context of Golden's comments. In the aftermath of what Rod Gilmore described on ESPN as a "bullying" of SEC champion Georgia. Golden wasn' waxing poetically on Senior Day about a group of Boy Scouts who managed to go 8-5 again. He was talking about a group of dogs who beat Georgia up and stole their lunch money on the biggest stage in the country.

We probably haven't seen the last head-scratcher from Marcus Freeman. I like one of his coordinators a hell of a lot more than the other. I'm skeptical that we can hang with Ohio State if the Buckeyes show up. And while I like the fact that Freeman has used NIU to propel his team to the national semi-finals, that certainly still serves as a reminder that we could lose to Penn State or damn near anyone else.

But Thursday night left no doubt that Marcus Freeman doesn't represent a choice between virtue and on-field excellence in Notre Dame football and in its head coach. Golden's comments, in conjunction with how Notre Dame won Thursday night's game, have me damn near certain that Freeman has "cracked the code."

And it starts with understanding how special Notre Dame is, combined with the ability to convince some very unselfish, very talented football players that he's not wrong about that.

Fuck Brian Kelly for devaluing Notre Dame and Notre Dame football at every turn. His enabler, too.