Notre Dame head football coach Marcus Freeman met with the media shortly after his 10th-ranked Irish defeated NC State, 45-24, Saturday at Carter-Finley Stadium in Raleigh, N.C. The game was delayed for one hour and 45 minutes because of lightning strikes near the stadium, just after the second quarter started.
Answers are largely verbatim. Questions are edited for brevity and clarity.
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OPENING STATEMENT
“I just got done telling the team it’s great to be able to have some of those bumps that we talked about last year that cost us wins, victories. And we had some today, and we were still able to come out with the victory. You can see what type of team we have.
“I think there are a lot of different elements today that really occurred with the rain to start the game, and then the [one-hour-and-45-minute] delay. And then we go back out there, and it’s still raining. Good things and bad things are happening. But the guys just continued to stay in the moment.
“That’s been our message all week — just stay in the moment, man. Do not worry about outcomes. Do not worry about last week. Do not worry about what happened in the first quarter. Just stay in the moment, and it was really good to see.
“We’ve obviously got to do a better job of taking care of the football. Can’t put the football on the ground. But defensively, to be able to respond. The turning point, to me, in the game was when we fumbled in our own territory. The defense forced a missed field goal. But then, I think, we go three-and-out. And then the defense has an interception. And then that’s kind of when we scored and the game kind of got out of hand.
“To see a resilient bunch of guys continue to battle for four quarters was really good to see. Really proud of this team. We’re going to enjoy this victory and move forward, starting tomorrow. I’ll open it up for questions.”
Q: The unbalanced line when you came out after the delay, was it something you had planned on using all along or was that an adjustment during the lightning delay?
MF: “No, we planned on using it coming into the game, just to give them [NC State] something they hadn’t seen and see how they adjust to it. And at first, they didn’t adjust the way we thought they were going to, and then they did. So, it was just a different wrinkle we had for the game.”
Q: Audric Estimé’s TD coming out after the delay certainly changed things, but 42 points after that delay — what was your message during it?
MF: “Just come out and go and do your job. Like, who cares how the game started? Who cares about the delay? Let’s go out there and play ball and be aggressive as heck. And that’s one thing I wanted our team to be, was aggressive. All week we talked about how aggressive [the Wolfpack] are and those things, and rightfully so. I mean, that was a good football team we faced. But I wanted our guys’ mentality to be, ‘We’re not going to play passive. We're going to be just as aggressive as any team we face.’”
Q: What do you see from this team when they got stressed that allowed them to find another level?
MF: “I think it’s a sign of a mature football team. There was no panic — from coaches or players, myself included. In those moments, it’s easy to panic, start yelling and screaming, and creating chaos amongst the team. But to be able to get to the sideline and say, ‘OK, what went wrong on that last series? What do we need to do to get adjusted? And then go out and go play.’
“I think when you have a team that’s been through some of that adversity, and then you’ve got guys coming in, like Sam [Hartman], who’s been through adversity, to stay in the moment, to not be so focused on what happened in the past. Right now is all that matters. That’s to me what the mindset was during those times.”
Q: What was the key to containing Brennan Armstrong?
MF: “It’s a constant battle, because you don’t want to keep them [ND’s defenders] on leashes. You don’t want them to be so non-aggressive that there’s no pass rush. But you have to be somewhat aggressive. I thought we created different rush lanes to confuse him, so he couldn’t just step up. We kept talking about those B-gaps, especially to his left — our right B-gap. We had to keep him out of there. So, there were different things we were trying to do to truly keep him from escaping vertically through that B-gap. But he still did a great job of keeping plays alive.
“He’s a competitor. He’s a tough guy. Obviously, if he ran the ball, try to hit him like a running back. He kept bouncing up and competing, so I have a lot of respect for him.”
Q: They tried to hit you up the middle with the run, but rarely did you guys bend?
MF: “That’s still got to be the mentality — stop the run. And we knew they were going to take some shots. We knew that coming in. And early in the game, we weren’t winning those shots, but later in the game, our guys were able to not just defend the ball, but take it away. It all starts with stopping the run up the middle, and we did a good job.”
Q: You said coming in that you'd have a plan for rain. But a long rain delay? What did that look like for you guys when we were in that moment? How did you prepare during it?
MF: “To start off with it was [supposed to be] a 30-minute delay. And then we kind of said, ‘Hey guys, settle down. Let's just wait to hear back.’ And then it got pushed back. Once we knew it was going to be over an hour, we said, ‘Take off your pads, sit down.’ And then the plan was to be able to talk about different adjustments. So, coaches were able to come down and let's talk about things we saw the first two or three drives. And then we're going to get with our players and say, ‘OK, here are the things we're seeing that we hadn't planned for.’ And then next thing was, with a two hour delay, what is our plan as we go out there? And so we went out and warmed up as a team for five minutes and did our normal position-group stuff.”
Q: This was the Holden Staes coming out party. How different does he make this offense look when he's that much of a threat?
MF: “He adds a big element to the pass game. We've known Holden’s been a tremendous pass threat. We’ve got to continuously get him better in the run game, and he's committed to that. Today he showed the threat he could be in the pass game. But my challenge to Holden is: How can he continue to become a complete tight end? That's in the run game and the pass game, but it was great to see him put two touchdowns together today.”
Q: What were your interactions like with Sam Hartman on the sideline and what did you see from him?
MF: “I've said this before, but he's just so steady. Like, man, I know he gets excited when he makes a good play or scores, but he's never too high or too low. It's the same thing you see in practice. Not every practice is perfect for him. But the ability for him to just continuously be steady and be positive and say, ‘Coach we’re good. We’ll get it fixed. Trust me. Go out there and do our job.’ And so early in the game, he got hit a couple of times, and put one ball on the ground that we recovered. He's a competitor. He wants to get it fixed. And he did, and so there was no panic. He's a leader and experienced.”
Q: This is the first time offensive coordinator Gerad Parker has had to counterpunch a little bit strategically. How would you evaluate the job he did today?
MF: “I thought he did a great job. I thought our offensive staff, they were communicating big time during the break. And then later in the game, as you know, we were trying to run the ball a little bit and run the ball out. [They had] the ability to look and say, ‘OK, let's do a naked [bootleg] here and take a shot.’ He did a great job, I think, with changing up the calls and really executing at a high level .”
Q: Any update on JD Bertrand, who had to leave the game?
MF: “Yeah, he’s out with a head injury. I haven't talked to him yet, but they told me they put him out for the second half with a head injury.”
Q: Jaylen Sneed stepped in there in the second half. How would you evaluate him?
MF: “I’ve got to watch film a little bit, but he didn't do a bad job or I would have noticed that. But Sneed’s a good player. I know the running backs have one guy on the field at a time, but that [linebacker] room is similar, where there's three, four, five guys that can truly help us when they're in there. And we have to continuously get them on the field. Between JD, Marist [Liufau], [Jack] Kiser and Sneed, those four guys, we have to keep them on the field and find different ways to get them reps.”
Q: Marist Liufau was not his best last year coming off the injury. What did you see in 2021 that has led to the kind of player he's showing himself to be now?
MF: “When I came in here in 2021, he was an aggressive, physical football player who, at times, could have been out of control. And I think last year, he was continuously learning the defense. And when you're thinking, you don't play as fast. And so, what you're seeing this year is a guy that truly understands the defense, understands the detail. So now, he has the velocity. Clarity equals velocity, and he is extremely clear on his assignments.”
Q: How much better of an idea do you have now about how high this team’s ceiling is?
MF: “To be determined. I don’t want to put a ceiling on them. I think we're a good team. I don't know what the ceiling is for this team. I think it's high. And our job is to develop these guys over the week, and so when we get these opportunities on Saturday, we're performing at the highest level we can. And so, it's to be determined how high that ceiling is.
“Today, you saw them facing adversity and be able to respond. That's a part of a championship team. It is never going to be perfect. The first two games, there really wasn't that much adversity, but this game there was. And so, the ability to respond during tough times shows leadership, and it shows truly the heart of this team.”
Q: There was a report that there were brats and hot dogs brought in for the players from the concession stands during the delay? Is that a real thing?
MF: “You have a plan halftime, where it's going to be 20 minutes and different types of food, but we wanted to kind of get them some meat, you know. When it's a two-hour delay, the big boys get hungry. But I think the coaches might have gotten a little bit more hungry than the players. I saw some coaches having hot dogs. So, just keeping those guys fed, because we're going to work them. We’re going to work the coaches and work the players, so we had to keep them well fed.”
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