Notre Dame head football coach Marcus Freeman held a press conference Monday at Notre Dame Stadium, previewing Saturday's home game between his 14th-ranked Irish (6-2) and 2-5 Pittsburgh (3:30 EDT; NBC/Peacock). Here's everything he had to say. Answers are largely verbatim. Question are edited for brevity and clarity.
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OPENING STATEMENT
“I know we haven't gotten back together since the USC game. In just recapping that game, [I] was very pleased with the performance of our team two weeks ago. And, as I continuously remind the coaches, the players, there's a cause and effect for everything. Like, things don't happen by chance. And I think you have to reflect on your preparation. You have to reflect on the game plan. You have to reflect on everything we did to make sure our guys go and perform that way. And you have to continue to build on it. We have to make sure that that doesn't happen after a loss, that that's the expectations for this football team.
“Recapping the Players of the Game for the USC week, for offense was Audric Estimé, defense Xavier Watts, and special teams Jadarian Price. And then scout team Players of the Week, on defense Cole Aubrey, on offense Kenny Minchey, who did an unbelievable job being our scout-team quarterback that week, and then special teams was Eddie Scheidler.
“Last week we had a much-needed bye week for our players, mentally and physically. They needed it. You think about that we started this season the last week of [July]. We started training camp and have gone straight until last weekend. So, it was a great chance for them to have a bye week and after Wednesday's practice to mentally kind of check out with fall break. But we also challenged them with how to get better.
“So, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday we had a practice, and we had to get after it and really make sure that we were improving in all areas of the game of football, but also with the areas that we've been deficient. So, I was really pleased with those three days of practices. And then, I think they'll be ready to roll after a three-day break that they got. So, turning the page, obviously, to a talented Pitt team that we have coming in here on Saturday. Obviously, [they] beat Louisville and could have won that game last week [against Wake Forest]. And so, we have to make sure we're ready to go and ready to perform on Saturday. So, with that, I'll open it up for questions.”
Q: When you did a self-scout of the offense, what were the main differences between those first four games and then the next four? Obviously, you played tougher opponents, but did you find some play-calling things, some execution things?
Marcus Freeman: “It's the execution. And we’ve got to be better on third down, but part of being better on third down is being more efficient on first and second down. There's not just one common theme in the last three or four games that we say, ‘This is the reason.’ Each game has its own different story that we have to continuously attack. Five turnovers, and that's a different story than last week. And so, we have to continue to build confidence in taking shots, especially playing the defense we’ll play this week. You're going to have to take some shots and some play-action shots and continuously look at the things we do. But the biggest thing is the execution, so the challenge will continuously be, ‘Hey, we have to simplify so the execution is at the standard we need it to be.’ It's not ‘more, more more.’ It's ‘clear, clear, clear.’”
Q: On the other side of the ball, how good has that unit been? And when you've looked at it, what were the main reasons why you say, ‘Man, we're a really good defensive team because of these things?’
MF: “I think the biggest thing for the USC game was they played fast, because they were clear on what exactly the expectation was. They were relentless. You’ve got to give credit to Al Golden and our defensive staff for getting our guys prepared. But at the end of the day, you can put so much emphasis into a game plan, but if the kids don't execute what you want them to do, then it’s the game plan’s fault? No, it's the ability to get your kids to understand what you want to let them play fast. That is the most important thing as a coaching staff we have to do. And that's the biggest misconception about coaching football is that it's scheme. No, it’s clarity. You have to get your guys to understand exactly what you want, so they can play fast and execute. And that's a great example of what our defense has been able to do.”
Q: Pitt’s made some changes offensively over the course of the season. What is your scouting report on that?
MF: “Obviously, with the new quarterback, you really look at what they've done all season to now, what they're doing with the new quarterback, it’s a similar offense. But I think the packages might be tailored towards what he does well, and they've been able to run. Obviously, we know C’Bo [Flemister] really well. And he's been running the ball really well the past couple of weeks, and they have some threats on the outside. And so, it's a team that I see that’s continuously getting better. Like, that's what I've seen, especially these past two weeks, this team has gotten better from what they were at the beginning of the year. And so, we’ve got to understand the challenge that will be presented on Saturday.”
Q: You’ve mentioned how much it hurts when somebody leaves the program. To see people like C’Bo and Shayne Simon again, what will that be like for you and your team?
MF: “It hurts when you see people leave that don't get their degree. That's what really hurts. Guys who were able to get their degree from this place and go on and look for an opportunity to play more elsewhere, I'm so happy to see that. Both of those guys got the Notre Dame degree. I’m proud of what they've done here at Notre Dame, what they're doing at Pitt, and look forward to seeing them perform on Saturday.”
Q: When you look at a team like Pitt that’s 2-5, how did you get your players ready mentally to not overlook them and to stay competitive?
MF: “It's the same message. Saturday is about reaching our full potential. And 12 guaranteed [games]. We're down to four. I guess we’ve got five, because you're guaranteed to have a bowl game, but you work too hard to overlook any opponent. And the opportunity to play this game on Saturday, our guys will be fired up. They'll be ready to roll in Notre Dame Stadium versus a team [that beat] Louisville. So, we’ve got a lot of respect for these guys. That, I don't think, will be a lack of motivation at all.”
Q: What's been the vibe like now after the bye week, to see the progression that they've made with the mental rest that they’ve had?
MF: “We haven't met yet. They just got back last night, had to be back by 7 o'clock. And so, everybody got back on time, and we'll meet here this afternoon. It's my job, as the head coach, to really set the theme and the tone for the week, which I look forward to doing. But if they feel the way I think our coaching staff feels, we’re refreshed. We’re fired up and we’re ready to roll.
Q: Is Jadarian Price a guy you had to bring along a little bit slowly because of that injury? Going forward, is there something more there he can give you?
MF: “So, I'll answer your question and then we play role reversal?”
Tim O’Malley: Yeah.
MF: “I was at a football game watching [Tim O’Malley] coach a little bit yesterday. I’ve got a couple of questions. … Yeah, Jadarian Price, he’s talented, man. Our kickoff return unit has really been close, one or two blocks away from taking one back. And it happened a couple of times in the USC game. We had some good returns. One or two blocks that really stopped us from taking it all the way, and that last return was huge for our program, for that unit, for special teams. And so, he is a talented football player that we have such a belief in what he's going to do for this team this year and in the future. And we'll continue to lean on him.”
Q: More to come from him from an offensive standpoint? Audric Estimé is obviously the bellcow, but it seems like Price healthy would be a different runner?
MF: “Yeah, I see more from him, as the game dictates. He's one of those guys that we're going to try to find ways to get the ball in his hands, because he makes things happen when it is.
“My turn?”
TO: Yeah.
MF: “OK, two things. Second- [and] third-grade championship game. Two trips in the red zone. Zero points. One play was a reverse pass that was intercepted in the red zone. You were the offensive coordinator?”
TO: Oh, yeah.
MF: “Let’s talk about the red-zone playing-calling.”
TO: You know they were attacking the run so much, I thought we probably could drop one over their heads. But maybe the elements, the mud, the game, that wasn’t a great call.
MF: “That’s good.”
TO: Probably staying basic was the way to go there.
MF: “Last question. There was a Nico Freeman in that same game that had a long run that was negated by only having one flag [of the two required in flag football]. Whose responsibility was it to make sure the young man has two flags on him?”
TO: I think it would be the guy in the huddle, which would be me, but you might be to blame coach Stanley.
MF: “Oh, so you’re going to spread the blame? You’ve got to own it, now. ... I was going to finish with congratulations on your two championship wins yesterday. And, you know, head coaches sometimes get the credit when they deserve and when they don't deserve, but congrats.”
TO: I think it would be a D-minus on the first game and I think an A on the second.
MF: “But you found a way to win, and that’s important. … Appreciate it, that was a lot of fun.”
Q: I want to go back to your message on clarity, the constant challenge of making sure your guys understand. What are some of the things that you guys are either doing differently or have found work well that allows that message to get through such that you perform the way you did last game?
MF: “I think, as you look defensively, clarity happens with time. And you're talking about the second year of the exact same system and the same coaches and the same teaching — like that helps you become more clear.
“But offensively, the same thing. It's like what do we do well? How do we find different ways through formation shifts, personnel, to continuously do those things we do well? I don't want to continue to find ways to trick the opponent. I want to out-execute them, and that means our guys on offense know every defensive look they can see, so they know how to block it or obviously they can convert the routes or make the right decision in the pass game.
“But that's always the challenge, is that how do we continue to become more clear, more clear, more clear? And that takes time for our coaches and our players, like you’ve got to spend time with them. And don't tell them what happened, but figure out why it happened. Coaches can get really good at asking questions that they just know the answer [to]. They want to hear a certain answer. Your kids can get really good at giving you an answer you want to hear. But that doesn't show that they know what they're talking about. And so, we have to be able to have those conversations with our players in our rooms to continue to understanding what exactly are they thinking and why?”
Q: How healthy are Jayden Thomas and Jaden Greathouse? Do you think they’ll be good the rest of the year or will their hamstring issues need to be managed?
MF: “No. They’re going to be as close to 100% this week than they’ve been all year. JT was probably a step below where he was two weeks ago. So Louisville, he was probably at a higher level, in terms of how he felt, than he was versus USC, which dictated a little bit of what we did with him. Greathouse has continuously gotten better and better with his hamstring. Both of those guys will be as close to full-go as you’ll see all year. And that’s a week-to-week basis. We have to do things to try to prevent soft-tissue injuries from happening. We’ll continuously try to do that. But you never know in the game of football.”
Q: Where are you with Deion Colzie’s recovery? And how does Tobias Merriweather fit into the wide receiver picture moving forward?
MF: “With Deion, he will probably start some individual this week. He’s probably a little bit behind of where we thought he would be with the scope on his knee. But I still see him coming back here in the next couple weeks and being able to be available. As far as Tobias, we talked about this today in our meeting. We have to try and find ways to get him the ball and take some shots downfield with Tobias. With his body, his length, his speed, we have to try to continuously find ways to truly take shots. Not look for just the wide-open, perfect play. That’s what, at times, we can end up doing. We have to take shots and believe that he’ll make a play on a 50-50 ball. We have full faith that he will.”
Q: What did you and your coaching staff prioritize in the bye week beyond the three practices and hitting the road for recruiting?
MF: “You really didn’t have much time other than that. Three days of evaluation, practicing and then coming back in and watching the film. Then Wednesday right after practice, I told the coaches to get out of here, because Thursday they had to be wherever they’re going to be to recruit. So Thursday and Friday, we were all out recruiting. Then I gave them Saturday off and the majority of Sunday off. A lot of them could go see their kids play flag football. We got back in yesterday just to go over a couple things. I felt that was important to be able to give them a chance to be a father and a husband for a weekend.”
Q: How would you describe a Pat Narduzzi-coached team? What do you have to be good at when you play against his teams?
MF: “I think of tough. I think of physical. I think of aggressive. Especially his defense is something I’ve studied for years going back to my time at Cincinnati. Even in his time at Michigan State when he was the defensive coordinator, I remember studying him. I think I was at Purdue at the time. They’re really sound. They always have good corners. They’re able to play man-to-man with their corners and load the box and say, ‘OK, try to run the ball.’ We have to be able to do that. We can’t just become a pass-first team. We have to find ways to run the ball versus a loaded box that you know you’re going to see. They’re going to run pressures — those hot pressures that you see over and over. We have to be good up front, but I also believe we have to be good with our playaction shots. We have to take some chances downfield and make some plays. It will be a game of physicality. That’s what I think the challenge for our group is: We have to exceed their physicality.”
Q: Do you get a chance to watch college football games that aren’t your upcoming opponents?
MF: “Sometimes. Saturday night I was able to kind of turn on — I don’t want to watch a team we’re going to play, because then you feel like you’re working. I was able to watch a little bit of the USC-Utah game. I watched a quarter of that. A little bit of the Florida State-Duke game. I was just kind of turning back and forth a little bit. Then I think I went to bed. I needed to catch up on some sleep. I do enjoy the chance to sit down with my kids and watch football like a normal father and be able to look at other coaches and teams stressed. But the greatest thing about it is you can root for somebody and if they win or if they lose, it’s OK.”
Q: Can you watch it indifferent to what’s being run?
MF: “Yeah, I think at times. Because you kind of watch the ball. When you’re a fan, you watch the ball. When you’re game-planning, you watch specifics. Offense, defense, what are you trying to do? It depends on what I’m watching at that moment. But when I’m with my kids, I try to just watch the ball and kind of watch the game. I got a chance to catch a little bit of the Ohio State game, the very end of it. My wife was running a half marathon. By the time we got home, we were able to watch the last maybe couple of series of that game too.”
Q: Was the structure of practice last week any different in how you divided up the reps? Did that allow any opportunities to look at some of the younger players who haven’t played a ton?
MF: “Monday for the guys that played in the game was a typical Monday. They just played a tough game Saturday night, so we couldn’t go out and really get after those guys as much as the 2s and the 3s. We got a lot of good-on-good reps. Tuesday and Wednesday, the 1s practiced. We had to get after it. The structure of practice was different, because it was a lot of good-on-good. But the chance for 2s and 3s to get a lot of reps at the end of practice was important. That time is so crucial when you talk about the development of the bottom half of your roster and the future of your roster. To be able to see those guys and we have to watch it as coaches. I make the coaches the watch it, and let’s evaluate it and call things that they know how to do. Let’s give them a chance to show us what they can do. They’re not going to be able to show us what they can do if they’re confused. I don’t care if we had two defenses called and three offensive plays called, I wanted to see what those young guys could do and was pleased.”
Q: You have done a lot of play-action this season. Why hasn’t that been a part of the offense all year?
MF: “We had success throwing the ball early in the year, just because of what our pass concepts were. They didn’t have to be play-action shots. Then you come back and you say, ‘OK, we have to be able to run the ball.’ We didn’t run the ball well versus Duke. We ran the ball well versus Ohio State, but versus Duke we didn’t run the ball well. We have to be able to find ways to run the ball. Well now teams are saying, ‘I dare you to throw the ball.’ They’re truly putting an extra defender in the box. Part of that is, OK, now we have to be able to take some shots. We have to look like we’re running in a run formation and be able to run some play-action shots. That will be a challenge for us to continue to evolve that part of our game.”
Q: Are you planning to stick with the same five on the offensive line coming out of the bye week? Have you considered any shuffling moving forward with the offensive line?
MF: “No. We’ll stay with the five we have. They’ve all been healthy and practiced well. It was good to see some of those young guys — Billy [Schrauth] and Ashton Craig, some of those guys — get a lot of meaningful reps in practice this week.”
Q: When you get out on the road for recruiting trips during the season, what do you get out of those? What is the value of them?
MF: “For me, it was I want to go see the guys we have committed and be able to just watch them play in games. I was able to get to three games, I think, and just watch the guys that we have committed play. One, to let them know we support them, but two, I want to see them compete. There’s nothing like a live eval. That’s important for me to make sure I get to as many of our committed guys as I can.”
Q: Is there anything in the self-scout that revealed why it’s been hard for the defense to get off the field on third downs?
MF: “We look at everything. Some are penalties. Some are sometimes they catch the ball. There’s a lot of different things that we always look to enhance in all aspects of our football team. I can’t say there’s just one thing third-down-wise that we have to improve on defensively. We’ll continue to put pressure on our D-line to get pressure up front. I thought, obviously, they did a good job versus Caleb Williams, but we’re going to continuously try to improve on all areas of third-down defense, for sure.”
Q: Sometimes players and families want to chat about their future during the bye week. How has that gone? Is there any difference in being proactive with guys being frustrated?
MF: “I think you have those conversations every week. You don’t save those for a bye week. I’ve always challenged our coaches to continuously have a relationship with the guys in your room, so you know and they know exactly where they stand and why they stand there. It’s important. You don’t wait until a bye week to have that conversation. I take a lot of pride in making sure all of our players understand where they’re at, why they’re in that position and having that dialogue with their position coach. You’re talking, we’re now going onto week 9, so guys that want a chance to redshirt, that chance is probably already over in terms of playing more than four games. We have to have those conversations every week. It’s so important that our kids understand exactly what we’re thinking. Here’s where I think you need to improve. We have to have that open dialogue. There is no blind obedience anymore. There’s honest conversations that aren’t always pleasant to have, but they must happen so our kids understand why they’re in the position they’re in.”
Q: Why did the execution on the offensive line go better against USC than Louisville? And how can you build on that?
MF: “It starts with what we’re asking them to do. There are still areas of improvement as you really look at the fine details of things. But I thought they battled their tails off versus a really good front. USC’s front four is as good as you’ll see. I thought our guys battled. We continuously asked them to do things they can do well.”
Q: Is there space for a larger role for Boubacar Traore in the last four games?
MF: “Yeah. Boubacar is a really good pass rusher and is continuing to develop trust in the coaching staff. It’s great to see him go out there and make a huge play, obviously in that two-minute situation. We all know what happened after that, but more importantly it’s good to see him put himself in the position to make that play, for sure.”
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