Notre Dame head football coach Marcus Freeman held a press conference Monday at Notre Dame Stadium, previewing Saturday night's 2023 home game between his ninth-ranked Irish (4-0) and No. 6 and 3-0 Ohio State (7:30 EDT; Peacock streaming). Here's everything he had to say. Answers are largely verbatim. Question are edited for brevity and clarity.
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OPENING STATEMENT
“The day started off pretty well, you know. It’s good. It’s good.
“I wrote down that it's always great to be able to win and learn. And as you look at Saturday, we were able to do that. We were able to win, and there were a lot of teaching plays that we'll be able to go over with our guys today. And, as I told them, it's not victory that you're chasing, it's continuously trying to reach your full potential. And that's what we have to continue to understand, like what do we have to do to continue to reach our full potential as a group?
“It wasn't perfect. We know that. You guys watched the game, but it was really good to see us come into the locker room with a seven-point lead and then have the ability to go out there and finish the game, 41-17. Gave up three points in the second half, and the second half wasn't perfect, but to finish the game to our standard and finish the way we did, I was extremely proud of those guys.
“Defensively, we did a really good job on third down. I think they were 3-of-13, and then, again, pass defense, they did a really good job. What we're able to do in our pass defense is totally [what we’re striving for]. We’ve got to improve tackling. We know that. Can't miss tackles, and any penalty can hurt our team. We’ve got to eliminate the penalties. Offensively [we ran] the ball really well, which opened up some things in the pass game. Took some shots and had some big, explosive plays. And so, that was really good to see.
“Again, you look at the, I think, three holding penalties on offense, and we know we can't do that. We know that's going to be drive-killers. So we have to play with better technique and make sure those things don't happen. And then, on special teams, we had the ability to have 45 [yards in] net [punting]. That’s huge. You’re talking about the battle of field position. And then 2-for-3 on field goals, and Spencer made another one from 50. So, again, those are all positives.
“The players of the game: On offense was Audric Estimé. Defense was Jack Kiser, and then special teams was Devyn Ford. Scout [team] players of the week: On offense was Joe Otting. And for the first time the same guy was defense and special teams player of the week, and that was Micah Bell. And I have to give a special shout out to Obi from Dunne Hall. I mean, he gets the fan of the game. That was pretty cool to see. At first, I didn't know what was going on. And the crowd’s cheering, and I look up on the video board and I see him. That was pretty cool.
“So, now turning the page, obviously we have a great opponent coming in. We're excited about the chance to go against a top-tier opponent, for sure. And we're excited about just the atmosphere, the experience that's going to be here with College Gameday and the Pat McAfee show and NB. And we get to finally wear the green uniforms. They talked me into wearing a green jacket today. And so, I said I'll wear It. We expect to see a lot of green in that stadium. And I think it's going to be a really cool opportunity, a great opportunity on Saturday night to play a great opponent in Notre Dame Stadium. So, we’ve got to continue to focus on what it will take to have success on Saturday, and that's having a great Monday and making sure that we really focus on improving today and really staying focused on the present.
“I'm looking forward to seeing Ryan Day again. He's done an unbelievable job within that program. And I've told him every time I talk to him that he's just done a tremendous job of really leading that program. So we know it's going to be a really good opponent with a great coaching staff, and we're looking forward to that. So, with that I’ll open it up for questions.”
Q: The last time you played Ohio State, it was your [regular-season] head-coaching debut and your return to the Horseshoe. Primetime. Entire offseason of hype. How much different is it for you this time around, considering you’ve had four games to focus on, before you even thought about Ohio State this season?
Marcus Freeman: “I think there's a lot of different factors that go into the differences, but experience. You have a year under your belt. It's not the first game of the year. You've been able to develop an identity as a program with these first four games, and so it's a lot different than what it was last year, being the first game of that season for me and the first week of the year.”
Q: And with the good news that you got. How did you find out?
ND SID Katy Lonergan: “He’s not allowed to answer that.”
Q: I do not have a “good news” question. I have a ‘bad news” question. The tackling and the penalties, what do you do this week to improve in those areas? What kinds of things do you do as a coaching staff to change that?
MF: “We've worked [a] tremendous [amount] on tackling, and there's an element of safety that you can't tackle live in practice. You can do drills, and we'll do drills. The reality is we missed three tackles on that one drive that they scored a touchdown. Really for the rest of the game, they did a good job. I think we had one or two missed tackles after that. But the three missed tackles on the one drive that leads to a touchdown is what you can't have. And they [Central Michigan’s offensive players] are good too. You're going to miss tackles. It’s part of the game of football, but you have to continue to show them how to improve it and really work on it in practice without going live.
“As far as the penalties, again, as I said after the game, is it a selfish penalty, or is it a fundamental penalty? Rylie's penalty can't happen. He's got to be smart. He is. He knew right after he did it. He was smart enough, but Josh Burnham, he turned and ran to the ball. He was like, ‘Coach, I was just turning to run to the ball, and I didn't know that was the quarterback. I just hit whoever I saw, running to the ball.’
“The holding on the offense, those are fundamentals that we’ve got to keep working. When you have bad technique, that can lead to a penalty. And so, we just have to continue to keep working on the fundamentals of playing with good technique, and that should eliminate some of those penalties.”
Q: With all of his experience, Sam Hartman has never played in the game with this kind of hype. How do you guide him through this week, since at least you've coached in a couple of these games?
MF: “You guys are going to spend some time with him, but I think in his mind he has played in games like this. He's played some big games at Wake Forest, and this moment won’t be too big, being in year six for him. I have a lot of confidence that he'll be well-prepared, and the moment won't be too big for him at all.”
Q: You spoke Saturday about the drift, and that's sort of a continuing theme for you over the course of this season. You talked about keeping the players locked in. What about for you personally and maybe the coaches, how do you guys embrace not falling to the drift?
MF: “It’s the same thing for you and for everybody else in this room. It's a human element to think about the future, think about the past, right? That's what's natural. But that doesn't help you do your job or help me do my job. It helps me prepare, as you look at the future and what we have upcoming. But in order to make sure you accomplish tasks, that you’re most prepared for whatever you have upcoming, you’ve got to stay in the moment. And you have to prepare and win these moments, because if you're not present, then you're wasting time.
“If you're mentally not here, you're physically not here. And so, that's a challenge for every individual in our program. I think that's a great challenge for everybody in life, to not think too far into the past, too far into the future, because you have to make sure you take care of what's going on right now.”
Q: Do you have any tactics that you lean on in that regard?
MF: “For me, the tactic is to catch yourself drifting. And when you're not in the present, if you can catch yourself not in a moment and get yourself refocused, that's the most important thing. And that's what I try to do.”
Q: Your commitment to special teams, you still have fifth- and sixth-year seniors starting on special teams. Just how important is that? What kind of message does it send a roster-wide?
MF: “As far as special teams, it’s so important. And I make sure our whole, entire program understands how important it is. We will put our best players on special teams, and I want every person in our program to understand that. That best player might not be a senior. They might not be a starter. You see Luke Talich out there and you see some other guys doing some really good things, but the best players on our team will be on special teams.’
Q: It seems that every time you play a home game, you're not exactly sure who you're going to get at quarterback. I would imagine Kyle McCord starts, but Devin Brown has played. What are you considering with those two styles of quarterbacks in addition to playing against the first-time offensive coordinator?
MF: “You've seen their offense kind of evolve over the first three games, and it's explosive. You see a lot of tempo. I think I've seen more tempo recently, but, listen, they have playmakers. They can run the ball. They’ve got a stable of running backs that truly can do some things in the run game. As far as the quarterback, we plan on seeing McCord. He's been named the starter, and that's what we plan on seeing, but you have to have a plan. You have to plan for anybody you might see. Same thing that happened last Saturday. So, I still think their offense is very similar no matter who's at quarterback. And so, we'll have a plan for both guys, but it's really not going to change based off who's in the game.”
Q: Is it similar no matter who the coordinator is?
MF: “Yeah, I'm sure coach Day is extremely involved with their offense, and [Brian] Hartline has done a great job. Again, they find ways to be innovative. You can look at as far back since Ryan Day has been at Ohio State until now, it's a very innovative offense that will find different ways to get their playmakers the ball. And to me, it all starts with the run game. They want to run the ball, and a very similar mindset that I have. It's the ability to run the ball that will create openings in the pass game, and that's what I've seen on the field.”
Q: Everybody hears a lot of great things about their defensive end No. 44, JT Tuimoloau. Could you describe him and just the defensive line in general at Ohio State on a yearly basis?
MF: “It's impressive. They’ve got guys, and it's deep and they rotate a lot of guys in there. And so 44 is an impressive football player. He's big. He's powerful, explosive, all those big words that you'd like to say about your D-line. And he's got a lot of those traits, but they got a bunch of guys that are really disruptive, so we have to be good up front and we’ve got to make sure that we're good at the line of scrimmage.”
Q: I want to ask you about some injury/status questions, and I'll go through them one at a time. JD Bertrand?
MF: “He’ll be back.”
Q: Mitchell Evans?
MF: “He's a little behind JD, but I expect him back by Saturday.”
Q: DJ Brown?
MF: “He’ll be back.”
Q: Eli Raridon?
MF: “No, not yet.”
Q: Gabe Rubio?
MF: “He will start practicing Tuesday. So expect him, if all goes well this week, to be able to go on Saturday.”
Q: I wanted to look back at last year’s Ohio State game from the standpoint of your cornerbacks. What do you think they took from that experience and how have they developed, to present day? And I also wondered if there's room on the D-line rotation for Obi?
MF: “Shoot, there might be a place for him. He provides a lot of energy, for sure. But you know, you look back to that game and the playmakers Ohio State had at wideout. A lot of them are back, and so that was a way for our guys in the first game of the year to measure themselves versus some of the best in the country. To where they are now, they've continued to grow and get better and better because of experience, because of the opportunity to continue to practice, continue to build skill. And that's something that we have to continue to do, and it will never stop.”
Q: What makes Marvin Harrison Jr. and Emeka Egbuka so hard to defend?
MF: “They’re good players, man. Harrison's body type, skill set. He’s fast. He can go up and get the ball. Great route-runner. Great hands, well-coached. Hartline has done a great job of developing them and that wideout room. Year after year, they’ve got first-rounders and first-rounders. Egbuka is the same way. He's, again, a playmaker, more utilized in the slot. Dangerous returner. I could go on and on. Those guys are good football players.”
Q: How would you evaluate your pass rush after watching Saturday’s game film, and how important is it going to be to get pressure on their quarterback?
MF: “I knew someone was going to ask me about it. Sacks, everybody keeps talking about sacks. I told coach [Al] Golden, we're No. 1 in the country in pass-efficiency defense. And so, that's the stat I'm worried about. I'm not worried about sacks. The pressure that we're getting is great, and sacks will come, and I don't want our players overly concerned about sacks, because that's an individual to an individual stat that really doesn't matter. Like, I want to be No. 1 in pass-efficiency defense. I don't know who's No. 1 in sacks, but I want to be No. 1 in pass-efficiency defense, because that's a great stat. And so, they've been working really well, and sacks are a result of a lot of different things. But I was really happy with the way our defense has performed in the past game. To limit that offense the way we did was really, really good. I was pleased to see it.”
Q: Does the complementary part of how you played with your offense and defense last season against Ohio State change a little bit? What can you take from the defensive success last year that may still apply?
MF: “Coach Golden and the defensive staff had a great game plan last year and really did a good job of executing it. For the first game of the year trying to figure out who we were defensively, part of the mindset going into that game was trying to control the ball as long as we could. Limit their offensive possessions. It still has to be complementary football as we go into this Saturday, but I don’t want to play not to lose. I don’t want to play that way. I want our guys to be aggressive and our guys to be attacking. We will play complementary football, but our objective isn’t just to hold the ball and huddle every single play – kind of what my mindset probably was last year.”
Q: How much does it matter when you see a lot of opposing fans in Notre Dame Stadium in terms of the optics and what it says about the program?
MF: “We want to see a lot of green in here. That’s the cool thing about Saturday. We have green jerseys. I don’t know if they’re calling it a green out, but we want to see a lot of green. Our players notice it and appreciate that, especially pregame. We want to make sure there’s as many Notre Dame fans as we can. I think they’re doing some cool things for the fan experience. I encourage our fans: make sure that you guys are here, and let’s get as much green in this stadium as we can.”
Q: How much different is the offensive game plan this year? Is that Sam Hartman? Or what else goes into that?
MF: “Going into last season, you had some questions on really what was our identity. It’s game one. What was our identity on offense? Similar to this year game one, you don’t know until you face an opponent. But we know what we can do offensively after four games. We’re not going to go rapid speed now. I don’t want to go up-tempo and go as fast as we can. It’s complementary football. The ability for our defense — what we want to do is make sure that we limit the big plays. We want them to have to truly drive down the field and we limit those big plays. Offensively, we want to have success. We’re not going to go, again, throw deep balls every play. It’s complementary football. We still want to win time of possession and those type of things that really factor into your success. But the mindset is different, because you know more about your team this year than you did last year for game one.”
Q: How important is it for Chris Tyree and Jayden Thomas to get open to give Sam Hartman options against this talented defensive back group?
MF: “I’ll make sure I say I have a lot of confidence in our wide receivers. The work they put in, the development coach Stuckey has done with those guys. To have young guys making plays, to have a converted running back making plays, Tobias, JT, Colzie, those guys are all playing really well. I’m excited for those guys to get the opportunity to go out there Saturday and compete against some really good DBs.”
Q: What is your message to Javontae Jean-Baptiste knowing it’s a special week for him?
MF: “I can’t jump into his brain and know what’s going on. My message to him will be the same thing really to everybody else. Don’t worry about Saturday. Worry about today. And when we get to Saturday, worrying about doing your job and winning the interval every single play. That’s all that really matters. It does. Nothing else truly matters if we want to have success and if he wants to have a successful game. You have a great Monday, and you stay in the moment. Then on Saturday, you win the interval. If you want to have a great outcome, that’s what it’s going to take, Javontae. So the constant reminder, because you’re right, he was there last year. He knows a lot of those guys. And so, the ability to continue to remind him: this is what you need to keep telling yourself and this is what you need to do to have success.”
Q: Where have you seen growth from Jason Onye? How does he help you most now? Can it be in a larger sample size?
MF: “Yeah, we said that yesterday after watching film. This was the best I’ve seen Jason Onye play in an actual football game. He’s earning more reps, and we’ll play him more, because he’s doing some really good things on the football field.”
Q: How much do you think quarterback experience in a matchup like this factors in?
MF: “I’ll speak on our guy. He’s played in big game and big moments. His mindset, the ability to go out there and have the right mindset for him to have success. That’s what I’m most excited for is the experience he has. Sam Hartman knows this is about him going out there and going through his checklist and executing the things he needs to go through to have success. When you haven’t done that, I’m sure it’s a lot more difficult. Obviously, I feel great having a quarterback that’s had some of that big-game experience and college football experience that Sam has had.”
Q: What does it do for you offensively to have so much belief in your offensive line?
MF: “It does a lot, because you have a strong belief that those guys — you can run the ball behind our offensive line. As I’ve said, if we want to have success on offense, you have to be able to run the ball. I know Sam has done a great job of throwing the ball around, but it’s still created off of being able to run the ball and protect the quarterback. We’re going to have to protect the quarterback this week. It’s a great challenge for our guys. The first thing I might have said in my opening press conference is that we’re going to be an O-line/D-line driven program. Our O-line has really done a tremendous job of really playing at a high standard.”
Q: What have you seen from Chris Tyree’s development for him to find consistency at wide receiver?
MF: “A lot of work. He works at it. He works tirelessly at it. When you change positions from a position you’ve done probably your entire life — I don’t know if he played wide receiver in high school — you have to put the work in. That’s what you’ve seen him do. It’s great to see him make that big catch on Saturday.”
Q: What gives you the confidence that your team can reach its full potential against the best opponent you’ve faced to date?
MF: “What gives me the confidence? I hope the week of practice will give me that confidence. Really focusing on doing my job and being clear on my assignment and then going out there and doing it Saturday. I used that term reach your full potential, because I’m trying to make sure our program, myself, are not outcome driven. You all evaluate us on our outcomes. That’s what you’re supposed to do. But us worrying about that does not help us have success. If we continue to focus on our only job is reach our full potential. How do we do that? We continue to win the interval. How do we win the interval? We stay in the moment. We win the day. We practice with intentionality. That’s what I want our focus to be: micro-focused on today, this moment, being present, having a great practice. To getting to Saturday, I know exactly what I’m doing. I know why I’m doing it. I know how I’m doing it, so I can play with velocity. Then at the end of the game we say, ‘Did we reach our full potential?’ The outcome is the outcome. But I don’t want them to be outcome driven, because if you are, you walk off the field 41-17, you feel really good. But if you really evaluate the film, you say, ‘Oh, man, there’s a lot of room to get better.’ That’s what I want our whole program, the mindset to be.”
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