SOUTH BEND, Ind. — There are still dangling details even Marcus Freeman wasn’t able to coax out of Matt Balis’ surprise resignation phone call Sunday night or the face-to-face meeting the next day, when the Notre Dame head football coach couldn’t change Balis’ mind about leaving.
In the bigger picture of things, the most consequential words regarding the end of Balis’ transformative 6½-year run as the director of football performance were uttered Tuesday, the day the news became public and the eve of Wednesday’s first training camp practice.
It wasn’t about the “why” so much as how an Irish football team with College Football Playoff ambitions moves forward mentally from such a shock to their collective systems.
“Change is inevitable,” Freeman told his players. “... And this won't be the last change. This won't be the last thing that happens to this group. And I don’t know when the next thing or change will happen, but time doesn't stop.”
Three of Notre Dame’s best teams since the Lou Holtz years (1986-96) — its 2012 squad that played for the national title and the two playoff qualifiers (2018 and 2020) — lived those words, and those circumstances.
And the buy-in from the 2023 group on the first day of training camp practice, which the media got to absorb in its entirety, looked convincing. That was even with someone different blowing the whistle — interim Fred Hale — during stretching and warm-ups.
But Balis wasn’t just someone who was charged with making Notre Dame’s players better, stronger, faster — and less-resistant to injuries. And the stronger, more energetic team in the fourth quarters of games.
He helped Freeman’s predecessor, Brian Kelly, reboot his career and Notre Dame’s football culture with ideas like offseason SWAT teams that fostered accountability, competition and leadership.
Freeman assured Wednesday, in a post-practice press conference, that culture is not walking out the door with Balis, a month before ND is to open its 2023 season, Aug. 26 against Navy in Dublin, Ireland.
“The head coach and the strength coach, their culture has to be the same,” Freeman said. “We can't have a culture in the weight room that's different from the culture of the head coach. And so, that’s the universal Notre Dame football program’s culture.
“It’s not Balis. It’s not Freeman. It's our culture. And that culture won't change. Those standards won’t change no matter — well if there’s a new head coach, maybe they will. But no matter who’s the strength coach, no matter who’s the position coach, we have standards for our football program in a culture that everybody has to make sure is clear.
“I said this to our staff, I can get in front of the team and say, ‘This is our culture. This is what we want.’ But the most powerful voices for those young people are going to be those position coaches. So, they have to speak the exact same message with the exact same clarity as I'm speaking. I don't care if you're a strength coach. I don't care if you’re a position coach. We have to have a clear message that's driven from the head coach.”
Freeman said Hale will have a chance to be considered to be Balis’ permanent replacement after the season, noting he was the one member of the remaining strength-and-conditioning staff who had experience actually leading a football program’s strength-and-conditioning arm (Eastern Michigan).
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As for the 51-year-old Balis, Freeman reiterated Wednesday that the Chicago native and former elementary school teacher didn’t share the personal circumstances that led Balis to claim “he couldn't serve the players in the capacity that he felt he should in his position.”
“It's a personal matter,” Freeman emphasized. “And that's how he left it with me.”
Freeman’s expectation is that he has a veteran team that will help him collectively fill that leadership void.
“As I told the group, I was as hurt as anybody by losing somebody I respect and enjoy working with,” he said. “That hurts, but time doesn't stop. That's the reality of this thing, is that we have to continue to move forward. Leaders lead. Leaders continue to lead.
“… And we understand that we have an objective in front of us in making sure that we're ready for Dublin, Ireland. And so, our guys did a great job of refocusing themselves. Listen, I’m not saying it doesn't affect them. But we have to continue to move forward.”
First Impressions
The caveat of the first day of practice is that contact was limited. No one is in full pads yet, and the Irish even had a practice period in which half the team was participating in drills without their helmets on.
So that’s the distortion in the lens in which practice is observed in day 1.
Having said that, among the three transfers who arrived in June (safety Antonio Carter II, running back Devyn Ford and kicker Spencer Shrader) and the 11 summer-arriving freshmen who were not around for spring football, running back Jeremiyah Love was an attention-grabber.
Just as he apparently was this summer.
“Jeremiyah Love can fly,” Freeman agreed. “I mean, he can fly. It’s impressive to watch him run. [Freshman cornerback] Micah Bell is a track kid. He can run, but it's been really impressive to watch Jeremiyah Love just this summer, being able to move.
“Now, that type of velocity, we talked about, versus velocity on the field are two different things. We've been talking about this in our meetings. Like, clarity equals velocity. So we’ve got to get those freshmen or those new guys, to be crystal clear on what they're doing, how they're doing it, why they’re doing it.
“So that they can play with that same velocity that you see in summer conditioning or you see it in their high school film, because, listen, they're great players. They're some of the best players in the nation in high school. But that’s because they're crystal clear on what they’re doing. And so, our job, as coaches, is to make sure … that we catch them up, so that they can play with that same velocity that we saw.”
• Only one player was held completely out of all practice periods and out of uniform Wednesday, and that’s June-arriving freshman wide receiver KK Smith. He was on the stationary bike for a while and took in practice with his left arm in a sling.
“He had shoulder surgery,” Freeman said. “I don’t have a timetable on his return. It won’t be for a couple months. But he got surgery in the summer.”
Even a player like freshman offensive tackle Charles Jagusah, still rehabbing from February knee surgery was able to participate in practice on a limited basis.
A healthy Cam Hart, a returning freshman All-American Benjamin Morrison and a much-improved sophomore Jaden Mickey are just the three biggest of many reasons that cornerback appears to be the position group, from top to bottom, they will enter the season as the team’s most formidable.
“Really good, really special,” Freeman said of the group that also includes freshman prodigies Bell and Christian Gray, and juniors Ryan Barnes and Chance Tucker and senior nickel Clarence Lewis.
“You look at Cam Hart, who’s the veteran. He's made a huge jump in a year. I'm just saying a guy that has been a starter, he's made a huge, huge jump this summer, just in terms of his work ethic off the field and his film study.”
Plan B at QB?
Freeman on Wednesday reiterated what he told Inside ND Sports back in June, that while adding a fourth quarterback from the transfer portal after losing junior Tyler Buchner to Alabama this spring was thoroughly discussed. It was never seriously considered.
Sophomore Steve Angeli showed several glimpses why that was the case during Wednesday’s practice, with freshman Kenny Minchey also getting reps behind starter and sixth-year grad transfer Sam Hartman.
“We believe Steve Angeli, Kenny Minchey — both of those guys — can be the future of Notre Dame football at the quarterback position,” Freeman said. “I’ve seen a couple things [with Angeli]. He’s continuously, constantly hanging out with Sam Hartman. Really learning the habits that Sam has as a starting quarterback, as an elite quarterback. That’s helping Steve.
“But also, last year if you think about it, it was game 2, and he’s going from being on scout team as the third-string quarterback to thrusted into being one play away [from being the starter]. He knows he’s one play away now. His mindset is different from last year than where it is now. I’ve seen him continuously improve. I look forward to seeing what he does the rest of camp.”
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