SOUTH BEND, Ind. — It’s not just about being pragmatic in the present for Marcus Freeman with regard to the historically underwhelming numbers being produced by the Notre Dame wide receiver corps so far this season.
The first-year Irish head football coach has to marry that reality with being cognizant about the future and how it all might appear from the outside looking in.
“If I'm a recruit, I'm saying, ‘Shoot, I want to go there. Let me go try to fight and see if I can get on the field and try to earn some confidence from the coaching staff,’” Freeman said Monday during his weekly press conference.
The fact that the Irish have three Rivals top 150 recruits committed at the wide receiver position in the 2023 class — Jaden Greathouse, Rico Flores Jr. and Braylon James — and another in the 2024 cycle (Cam Williams) strongly suggests that prospects are buying the premise that the vision Freeman is building toward has no congruence with the situation he inherited.
That is a trail of recruiting misses, transfers and position switches at a wide receiver group that lacks overall quantity and quality.
Heading into Saturday’s matchup at No. 16 Syracuse (6-1), Notre Dame (4-3) has seven healthy wide receivers on the roster with two — grad senior Joe Wilkins Jr. and sophomore Deion Colzie — still looking for their first reception of the season.
The other five have combined for 50 receptions for 652 yards and four touchdowns, with sophomore Lorenzo Styles accounting for nearly half of the catches (23 for 287 yards and a TD). Projected out over 13 games, Notre Dame at that trajectory would finish with 93 wide receiver catches for 1,211 yards and 7 TDs.
That’s down from 140 receptions for 2,100 yards and 16 TDs last season and the Brian Kelly Era peak of 214 for 3,071 and 27 touchdowns in 2014 a year in which Kelly demoted starting QB Everett Golson at the end of the year in favor of Malik Zaire.
Golden Tate had 93 receptions all by himself in his Biletnikoff Award-winning season (2009) as well as 1,496 receiving yards and 15 TDs. Michael Floyd had 100 receptions two years later with current Irish offensive coordinator Tommy Rees throwing him the ball.
“You have to tailor what you're doing around your players,” Freeman said. “That's offensively, defensively and special teams. I've never believed in having a system or this package where you put pieces into.
“You get the best recruits, the best football players you can get within maybe the framework, within, ‘Hey this is our philosophy defensively or offensively.’ You get the best possible players you can and then you have to tailor what you're doing around those players.”
At their current pace, the Irish would finish with the fewest receptions since the Bob Davie Era (1997-2001). Davie’s last Irish team before being purged got 90 receptions from its wide receivers, but that was over an 11-game season. And projected over 13 games, that number jumps to 106.
So it’s actually the 2000 Davie-coached team that was the last team to put up truly inferior wide receiver stats — 68 for 1,119 yards and 12 TDs projected over 13 games. David Givens was ND’s leading receiver that year.
The Irish used three different starting QBs that season — Arnaz Battle, who got injured early on and eventually returned as a wide receiver; tight end Gary Godsey, who converted back to tight end after outdueling Drew Brees and Purdue; and freshman Matt LoVecchio, who eventually transferred to Indiana after Carlyle Holiday overtook him on the depth chart in 2001.
"I think the reality is you tailor what you're doing to your strengths,” Freeman said. “Right now the best player on offense — and not to single him out — but we all know it's (tight end) Michael Mayer. And so, you're going to find ways to get Mike Mayer the ball.
“And we’ve got an offensive line that's playing at a high level and three running backs that are playing at a high level. And so, you're going to try to run the ball.
“Confidence and opportunities come from trust, too. Our wideouts have got to continue to play better. We’ve got to play better. We’ve got to take advantage of the opportunities that come to us. We’ve got to be better at the quarterback position and make sure they have a chance to make plays. But when they do have a chance to make plays, they’ve got to make them.”
But after playing teams over the past five games ranked nationally between 78th and 126th (out of 131) in total defense, the Irish face two teams the next two weeks that are 16th and 27th, respectively in Syracuse and fifth-ranked Clemson.
And those teams may have the personnel and schemes to force Notre Dame away from Mayer and the run game (Clemson is seventh in rush defense) and to try to beat them with their wide receiver game.
Notre Dame is 101st nationally in pass offense, 62nd in team passing efficiency and 77th in total offense.
“We'll see these next two weeks what type of football team we have,” Freeman said, “because you're playing two really good opponents, and it's going to be really a measuring stick for how good this team is and what we do when it really matters."
And the wide receivers?
“With confidence from the coaching staff, from everybody, then you'll get more opportunities. But have they grown? Yeah, I think they've gotten better. But we've got a lot of room to grow in that wideouts room.”
Angeli stays ready
Of the three plays freshman quarterback Steve Angeli was in the game against UNLV this past Saturday in his collegiate debut, he handed off on two of them. And on the other, tight end Mitchell Evans went in motion, stopped behind center Zeke Correll, took the snap under center — just as he did as a high school quarterback — and lunged into the end zone for a TD.
Freeman hoped to get Angeli back on the field later, in the fourth quarter, but a late UNLV TD dissuaded him from doing so, and now it’s difficult to see a window of opportunity for that to get him some more game experience, unless it would be due to injury to starter Drew Pyne, before the Nov. 12 game with Navy in Baltimore.
Freeman’s assessment of Angeli’s readiness isn’t much different than when he was asked about the freshman a few weeks ago: He points out there’s no other option (technically there’s sophomore Ron Powlus III) and that he’s only learning a small section of the playbook.
“We have to give him enough that he has a chance to be successful,” Freeman said, “but also make sure it’s small enough that we’re not asking him to be confused and do things that he's not capable of doing.
“We have the utmost confidence in him. He had confidence in himself. I was kind of joking with him (Sunday), like, ‘Man, you sure you were ready to go?’
“He said, ‘Come on, Coach, I was in for one play and we scored a touchdown. We’re good to go.’ His second response was, ‘Coach, it wasn’t too hard to hand the ball off. Next time let me throw it a little bit.’
“He’s a confident kid. That’s important. You have to have confidence when you take the field. He didn’t blink an eye.”
Tressel visits
One of Freeman’s most profound coaching influences continues to be his own college head coach, former Ohio State coach Jim Tressel. The 69-year-old, who roughly two decades ago won a recruiting battle with ND’s Tyrone Willingham for Freeman, is currently the president of Youngstown State University with a February retirement date upcoming.
The two talk on the phone on a weekly basis, at least. And last week after the Irish got upset 16-14 by Stanford on Oct. 15, Tressel came for an in-person visit.
“This was something that (was set up) probably a month-and-a-half, two months ago,” Freeman said. “He said he was going up to Chicago and wanted to stop by and see me and (former Buckeye All-American and current ND grad assistant James) Laurinaitis.
“Just so happened that it was a week that I might have needed somebody to talk to. It was great. He was only here for an hour. Any amount of time you can spend with Jim Tressel, you’re going to be better because of it.”
The Bertrand dilemma
The initial call midway through the fourth quarter Saturday against UNLV was a completed pass near the goal line and a targeting violation against Notre Dame linebacker JD Bertrand, which would have been his third of the season.
The replay booth reversed both aspects of the play — an incomplete pass and no penalty.
That’s not to say there hasn’t been an emphasis in practice this week to try to ensure that ND's leading tackler last season and this one doesn’t eventually get ejected for targeting for a third time this season. His absence would be felt substantially more, because of backup middle linebacker Bo Bauer’s recent season-ending knee injury.
"I've coached linebackers for a long time, and you can't change physicality,” Freeman said. “You can't change intent. He's a physical football player. That's what makes JD Bertrand a good football player.
“You try to create habits in practice where his aiming point may be lower, but that's hard, because receivers can go to catch the ball and they bend. And all of the sudden that aiming point is helmet to helmet.
“And so, you try to teach him to continue to make sure that when you tackle, you tackle with your face up. Tackle with your facemask and not your head down. But it's so easy to do, and those are habits and him being a physical football player at times putting his head down is something he has done for a while.
“We’ve got to continue to get his face up, protect himself, protect the opponent, but it's so much easier said than done. Again, those qualities make JD Bertrand special, because he is a physical, physical football player. But those qualities also can also get you thrown out of a game."
Players of the game
Senior defensive end Isaiah Foskey hogged the honors, with Freeman naming him as the top performer on both defense (five tackles, three sacks, one QB hurry) and special teams (two blocked punts). Running back Logan Diggs took top offensive honors with 28 carries for 130 yards — both career highs.
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