Ohio State’s Ryan Day and Notre Dame’s Marcus Freeman faced questions about their capabilities to lead prominent teams just over a year ago.

The Notre Dame offensive lineman -- then a freshman -- and his teammates had just finished an 11-1 season only to be hit with the news that their head coach, Brian Kelly, was leaving for LSU while they still had an outside shot at making the College Football Playoff.

Notre Dame football coach Marcus Freeman did his best to tamp down expectations about the pregame talk he will give ahead of the CFP national championship.