SOUTH BEND, Ind. — First-year head coach Marcus Freeman’s decision to pass on a quarterback addition from the transfer portal this past offseason hinged on two assertions from his trusted offensive coordinator, Tommy Rees.
First, that Notre Dame sophomore Tyler Buchner would eventually be, if not already, better than any portal prospect interested, available and able to pass through ND admissions. Second, that junior Drew Pyne was capable of “playing at a championship level.”
The latter part of that two-part projection was put in motion at a Sunday night practice, after Buchner was diagnosed with a severe AC sprain of his non-throwing (left) shoulder. Surgery is scheduled for Tuesday with a projected recovery timeline of mid-January, per Freeman.
Buchner suffered the injury in Saturday’s 26-21 upset loss to Marshall at Notre Dame Stadium, late in the fourth quarter and on his team-high 13th rushing attempt.
Pyne threw a cosmetic TD pass and an interception during his 11 plays in relief, his first action of the season and sixth career relief appearance spread over three seasons. His film grade from Pro Football Focus was 26.7, the lowest of any of the 45 players who took at least one offensive or defensive snap for the Irish (0-2) in the game.
His first career start comes Saturday against Cal (2-0), with the Irish wearing green jerseys for the 16th time since 1983 and riding a four-game winning streak in that color.
Superstition aside, Pyne’s success against the Bears and beyond is as dependent on how good of a fixer-upper Freeman proves to be around him as it is for Rees to find the pages in the Notre Dame playbook that fit Pyne’s skill set and personality the best.
A common thread all around is the part leadership can and must play.
“The true culture of your program shows itself when things are hard,” Freeman said. “That’s what I've challenged those guys. I challenged them in the locker room. We talk about our culture. We talk about what type of program we have. We’ll really see it right now when things are hard.
“Everybody probably outside that locker room is beating different things to you. I said, ‘That's where we have to be strong, because probably one or two things are being said to you’:
“Either, ‘Hey, you're doing your job; the rest of your team and your coaches stink,’ or ‘You stink, you all stink.’
“So neither of those things really are going to help us win. For us, to really stay locked in to that football facility, lead each other, lean on each other, that's what we need the most right now. When things are tough, we need our leaders to really, really keep the culture going."
Here are the key facets from a personnel/scheme standpoint that need to complement the team chemistry to enhance the new direction at the QB position.
OFFENSIVE LINE
Jarrett Patterson’s return from a mid-August right foot sprain not only strengthened the left guard position but lifted the entire offensive line’s blocking grades, particularly in the run game. And yet, it’s still not good enough.
Their biggest remaining tests in that regard still figure to be Syracuse and Clemson back to back on Oct. 29 and Nov. 5.
The good news is even reprising offensive line coach Harry Hiestand’s Joe Moore Award-winning group in 2017 didn’t hit its stride until around game 5. So growing pains in September aren’t necessarily terminal.
Given that Freeman is open to questioning everything when something’s broken in order to fix it, it was a fair question to wonder whether moving Patterson back to center, where he started and starred for three seasons, made sense with perhaps plugging in a new option at guard.
“I'm sure they'll make progress from week two to week three,” Freeman said during his weekly Monday press conference. “We want to expedite that process, but you’ve got to look at the big picture. What's the best five?
“And that's something that we looked (at) and we talked about, and we feel very strongly about the five we have out there.”
That doesn’t mean it can’t be revisited. And if a change is going to be made in O-line personnel, the best time to do it to get the chemistry and continuity right would be the bye week after a Sept. 24 road game at North Carolina.
WIDE RECEIVERS
Notre Dame on Saturday expanded its wide receiver rotation from four (vs. Ohio State) to five as grad senior Joe Wilkins Jr. got his first six game reps of the season coming back from spring foot surgery.
Albeit quiet reps.
Grad senior Braden Lenzy led the position group with 66 plays, followed closely by sophomore Lorenzo Styles (65) and Jayden Thomas (58). Former walk-on Matt Salerno garnered 10.
Freeman was pressed Monday about whether the lack of depth at wide receiver was limiting the offense, and he pointed instead to inexperience.
“You got the guys who you've got, and you've got to play,” Freeman said. “And so, the expectations are to go out there and execute and win.
“We have to do a better job as coaches of pulling those guys along faster and getting them to the point to be able to perform to obviously the level we need them to perform at."
Wilkins, when he shakes off the rust and builds up his stamina, could make a difference. But so too perhaps could 6-5 freshman Tobias Merriweather. At the very least the coaching staff needs to get to the bottom of whether he’s ready to help or not, because the only player on the roster with similar traits is recovering (knee) sophomore Deion Colzie.
DEFENSE
Two games into Freeman’s first (and only) season as Notre Dame’s defensive coordinator, the Irish stood at No. 88 in total defense, No. 101 against the run, No. 66 in pass-efficiency defense and No. 111 in scoring defense. Facing Florida State and Toledo.
They finished 43rd, 37th, 23rd and 15th respectively and with no All-America safety Kyle Hamilton for the last half of the season.
Heading into the Cal game, the Irish are 79th in total defense, 113th in run defense, 102nd in pass-efficiency defense and 70th in scoring defense.
The cure last season was simplifying the scheme and the calls. And perhaps that, along with a tighter rotation of players could mean the start of some positive momentum for this group.
“When you talk about execution and talk about really doing a self-evaluation, we have to look and say, ‘OK, why aren’t we executing?’” Freeman said. “Part of that might be what we’re asking our guys to do. If they’re confused, then we have to ask them to do things they’re not confused about.
“That’s been a challenge for both sides of the ball and special teams. Really evaluate what we’re asking our guys to do. Is it too much? I don’t think it’s too little. If anything, it’s too much. How do we consolidate that and get it to where our guys know exactly what they’re doing and now they just have to physically go do it.”
COACHING
During his four seasons as a Purdue assistant coach (2013-16) under Darrell Hazell, Freeman was part of four Boilermaker teams that went 9-39 overall and 3-30 in Big Ten play. The first three he served as linebackers coach, the fourth adding co-defensive coordinator to his title.
Hazell’s eventual replacement, Jeff Brohm, didn’t retain Freeman, and he moved on to become defensive coordinator of the Cincinnati Bearcats.
In 2017, his first season at UC, the Bearcats were 94th in total defense. In 2018, they were 11th.
Lessons learned?
“I think it forces you to continue to always evaluate and to really take a deep dive into what we’re doing and why we’re doing it and where’s the miscommunication,” Freeman said of the past parallels at play now. “Where are the errors? And how do we get it fixed? That’s reality. Win or lose, you’ve got to be able to do that.
“Is it an understanding of what is expected? Is it a personnel issue? Is it a physical or mental issue? Those are the questions we have to ask as coaches and we have to look ourselves first and say, ‘Where is the misconnection, the miscommunication from us — the vision we have as coaches to the execution of iit as players — and really find a way to make sure by consolidating things or by teaching them in a better way.
“But at some point we have to get the result that we’re looking for.”
---------------------------------------------------------------
• Talk with Notre Dame fans on The Insider Lounge.
• Subscribe to the Inside ND Sports podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, SoundCloud, Podbean or Pocket Casts.
• Subscribe to the Inside ND Sports channel on YouTube.
• Follow us on Twitter: @insideNDsports, @EHansenND, @TJamesND and @ByKyleKelly.
• Like us on Facebook: Inside ND Sports
• Follow us on Instagram: @insideNDsports
