Notre Dame paid Marshall $1.25M to play in game Irish lost

The worst part about the Notre Dame Fighting Irish’s home loss to Marshall on Saturday is that they paid good money for the privilege of being beaten.

The Fighting Irish lost 26-21 at home against the Thundering Herd at Notre Dame Stadium. Schools like Notre Dame typically have to pay a lesser opponent good money to entice them to come play a tough road game that will likely result in a loss.

In this case, the Irish paid Marshall $1.25 million to come play the game. And then they got beat. That’s a big double whammy.

Notre Dame’s quarterback play was a big problem in the game.

Starting QB Tyler Buchner threw two interceptions. Backup Drew Pyne threw for a touchdown and an interception. The real backbreaker was Buchner’s second interception, which was a pick-six with just over four minutes left. Pyne followed with an interception on the ensuing series.

New head coach Marcus Freeman is now 0-3 at Notre Dame. By comparison, Brian Kelly had only lost three games total over his final two seasons before bolting for LSU.