Notre Dame’s 17–14 last-second loss to Ohio State on Saturday was painful enough. But the defeat was even more embarrassing amid the revelation that the Fighting Irish had only 10 men on the field during their final two defensive plays of the game.
To avoid such a blunder in the future, Irish coach Marcus Freeman said Monday that the team will use a signal to draw a penalty and stop the game in such a situation, per ESPN’s Heather Dinich. Thus, coaches can then send an 11th player onto the field.
“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,” Freeman told Dinich. “But (2), if something happens, we have to have a signal to tell somebody to jump offsides and touch somebody.”
