Marcus Freeman Sounds Off on Officiating After Notre Dame Beats Boise State

Notre Dame earned a hard-fought victory over Boise State on Saturday, beating the Broncos 28-7. Just how impressive Notre Dame's win was is up for discussion, but the fact of the matter is the Irish are 3-2 and after a wild Saturday, very much have their College Football Playoff hopes alive.

One thing that stuck out on Saturday for Notre Dame was its problems with penalties. It totaled 11 penalties for 112 yards, which is certainly unacceptable.

However, at least a few of those calls were questionable at best, with Jason Onye's roughing the passer call that negated an interception being the worst. Marcus Freeman was about as angry at the officiating as we've ever seen during his time at Notre Dame, and spoke about it afterwards.

Marcus Freeman on Notre Dame vs Boise State Officials:

"I know Justin. He did our Virginia game last year. He's a good guy. Works hard. They've called throughout the season, they're going to protect the quarterback. And I talked to them before the game. I said, 'you protect our quarterback.'

But I've got some questions about some of the penalties you called. And he went
through them and was great. I'm sure he's right. Like I'll go back and look, but in the heat of the moment you want to defend your guys. I don't know what Jason (Onye) can do. That was the one. The other one I saw, the hand hit the head. They told me, if the guy's hand hits the helmet, (indiscernible) they're going to call it.

But it's probably the -- it's hard, he's 300-some pounds. They try to get to the side and not land on it. That's a difficult thing to do. I have a lot of respect for those guys, I do. It was heat of the moment. They know. I'll never disrespect them. I appreciate how they work."

Nick Shepkowski's Quick Takeaway:

Props to Marcus Freeman for biting his tongue and not making a bigger issue out of things postgame than he certainly could have.

I'm not one to look at a game and openly blame officials for a loss, but I am one to critique them. To me, officiating across sports has become worse and worse in recent years and I have a few reasons to think that's happening.

The addition to replay has made the need for officials to get a call right less important, as they have replay to fall back on. However, in cases like Saturday's roughing the passer call on Onye, replay isn't available. A flag that took away a turnover in Notre Dame's favor can't be looked at again. Instead, it's simply just a turnover although I have no clue what else Onye is supposed to do on it.

That's perhaps a long way of saying this: I don't think that because they're from the Mountain West, these officials were trying to have it out for Notre Dame in any way. I think they were bad both ways, but that speaks to the unfortunate state of officiating across college football more than it does this one particular game.