SOUTH BEND — Before riding north out of El Paso with a Sun Bowl victory in his saddle bag, Notre Dame football coach Marcus Freeman smiled at a questioner’s premise.

Thirteen years earlier, in the only other Irish appearance at the Sun Bowl, a 2010 win over Miami launched Brian Kelly’s rebooted program to an eventual national title appearance in the 2012 BCS Championship.

Could life repeat itself?

“Sounds good to me,” Freeman said.

Then, just as quickly, he pivoted.

“I don’t want to just hear about ‘appearance,’ “ Freeman said. “We want to win it.”

If Notre Dame’s national title drought is to end after 35 years and counting, the stars couldn’t be aligning much better than they have over the past month or so.

Here’s a look back at four developments that could bring Notre Dame not just into the newly expanded 12-team College Football Playoff but give the Irish a legitimate chance to survive what would be a four-game gauntlet to the trophy:

Signed, sealed, delivered: Mike Denbrock officially named as Notre Dame football offensive coordinator

Program momentum heading into Year 3 for Marcus Freeman

While Kelly’s teams have reached the 10-win plateau 12 times in the past 17 years, including stops at Cincinnati and LSU, 2023 marked Freeman’s first foray into that round-number club.

“Ten looks better than nine,” Freeman said after the Sun Bowl. “To me it’s a reflection of the direction of this program. Nine wins last year and 10 wins this year. We just want to continue to improve.”

With the destruction of the Pac-12 Conference, the 2024 CFP is expected to include seven at-large berths along with five automatic qualifiers. That additional pathway only adds to the optimism in the Gug.

Taking Ohio State off a 2024 schedule that should include a pair of MAC opponents (Northern Illinois and Miami of Ohio) and two service academies (Navy and Army) makes that late August trip to Texas A&M for the opener a bit easier to process.

“I’m extremely pleased with our program,” Freeman said, “where we’re at now and the direction of us in the future.”

Jack Kiser: Set to return for Year No. 6 with Notre Dame football, 'Uncle Jack' Kiser stays forever young

Valuable lessons from painful losses

Notre Dame’s three losses this season came by a combined 24 points, but in two of those the Irish led in the second half. In fact, of Freeman’s 19-8 career mark at the helm, six of the losses have seen Notre Dame squander a second-half lead.

Of those second-half fades, only this year’s Louisville loss saw the Irish surrender the leader sooner than the fourth quarter or very late in the third.

Painful as those losses were, the payoff lies ahead for Freeman and his coaching staff.

“We have to find a way, as you look back at the season, to win those close games that we didn’t end up winning,” Freeman said. “That’s the challenge of college football: How do you progress? How do you continue to take this group of football players and coaches and get us to a place where we can win those close ones and win the ones we’re supposed to?”

Al Golden's dominant defense

Of the four teams to make this year’s playoff, only Washington did so without a top-16 scoring defense. The high-powered Huskies are tied for 53^rd with one game remaining.

In addition to Michigan’s top-ranked scoring defense (10.2 points per game), Texas (18.9) and Alabama (19.0) rode stingy defenses to the semifinals.

Coordinator Al Golden’s second Irish edition finished in a tie for seventh in scoring defense (15.9), and its 24 takeaways (16 interceptions, eight fumble recoveries) stood just four off the national lead.

With All-America safety Xavier Watts returning for another season along with linebacker Jack Kiser and the run-stuffing tackle combo of Howard Cross III and Rylie Mills, Notre Dame is set up to stymie opposing offenses again next fall.

After extracting maximum value from portal additions Javontae Jean-Baptiste and Thomas Harper in 2023, Notre Dame will bring in nickel safety Jordan Clark (Arizona State) and defensive end R.J. Oben (Duke) as this year’s plug-and-play experience.

The key now will be keeping NFL teams away from Golden, whose pro connections run deep after six years as an assistant on both sides of the ball.

Dream pairing of Mike Denbrock and Riley Leonard

Heisman Trophy winner Jayden Daniels wasn’t Jayden Daniels until he got to Baton Rouge and hooked up with LSU offensive coordinator Mike Denbrock.

That’s why the reaction was overwhelmingly positive when Denbrock, set to turn 60 in late January, agreed last month to return for a third tour of duty in South Bend.

Not only will Denbrock have an athletic dual-threat quarterback in Duke transfer Riley Leonard, but the portal-depleted receiving corps was bolstered significantly by incoming transfers Kris Mitchell (Florida International) and Beaux Collins (Clemson).

Facing the Aggies and former Duke coach Mike Elko in the season opener should be fascinating, but if Leonard can get past that hurdle and stay healthy all year, the scoreboard operator should get a workout.

Unlike the erratic output of the Gerad Parker-Sam Hartman combo last fall, LSU’s offensive production was far more balanced between wins and losses under Denbrock. That’s how the Tigers led the nation in scoring offense at 45.5 points per game.

Notre Dame was seventh at 39.2, but that average dropped to 19.5 in marquee matchups against Ohio State at home and on the road against Duke, Louisville and Clemson.

Mike Berardino covers Notre Dame football for NDInsider.com and is on social media @MikeBerardino.

This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: Four reasons for optimism in 2024 as Notre Dame football looks ahead