SOUTH BEND, Ind. — Who knew an iPad could be the key to a blind date not crashing and burning, the way many blind dates tend to devolve?
Including the football variety.
Yet on Monday Notre Dame head football coach Marcus Freeman lauded technology’s role in getting through the awkwardness and adjustment of facing a new coaching staff on Saturday night at 20th-ranked Texas A&M, with no reliable tendencies on film to pore through during the run-up to the season opener, staged in a uber-frenzied environment to boot.
“I thought the players and coaches both did a really good job of making those first-game adjustments,” Freeman said, reflecting on No. 7 Notre Dame’s statement victory, 23-13, over the favored Aggies and in front of the fourth-largest crowd (107,315) in the 97-year history over Kyle Field.
“There’s things that you can prepare for — looking at the previous season, new coordinators, all those different things. But game 1 is going to be about adjustments, and I thought our coaches and players did a good job.
“The iPads were key. Those iPads really helped with getting the players to see the adjustments that we have to make and see what the opponent is doing.”
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The Irish coaches and players will continue to use the iPads, allowable on the sidelines by the NCAA for the first time this season, when the Irish (1-0) host Northern Illinois (1-0) in the home opener Saturday at Notre Dame Stadium (3:30 p.m. EDT; NBC-TV/Peacock).
Adjusting on the fly during games is a constant throughout the season, though with Northern Illinois’ 54-15 rout of Western Illinois on Saturday available for film study and plenty of continuity in coaching and players (18 starters returning), there won’t likely be as much this week.
Meanwhile, the in-helmet communication, used by the Irish for the first time ever on Saturday night, was an asset as well. But the Irish coaches and players are still figuring out the nuances of that system, which by rule universally shuts off for both sides of the ball 15 seconds before the play clock is to expire.
“There’s a whole logistical system and plan that we had to put in place,” Freeman said, “and I thought we executed it really efficiently and I thought the feedback was great from the coaches and the players.
“The difficult part is: ‘When does it turn on?’ We know it turns off at 15 seconds. But when exactly is it going to turn on, so we can communicate to whoever has it? Sometimes you want to go tempo and you have to wait for it to turn on so you can talk to your quarterback.
“Defensively, if you want to make adjustments and their offense is going tempo and you want to get them a call and make a check, you have to still wait for it to turn on. It went really well. It wasn’t a negative. Just continuing to get that exact detail of when are you going to be able to communicate with them?”
An older piece of technology Freeman also found helpful, that coming into play in the aftermath of the victory.
The telephone.
“About 10 minutes ago, I had a call from my college coach [former Ohio State coach Jim Tressel],” Freeman related. “Expecting to hear ‘great job’ and ‘big win.’ And [instead] it was, ‘Hey I just want to remind you —.he said the greatest danger is the illusion that all is well when indeed all isn’t well.’
“That’s the reminder that I needed more than anything, is that it was a big win for our program versus a good opponent. But we have so much work to really improve on, and that’s kind of the focus now as we go into Monday.”
Easing Evans in
Look for preseason All-America tight end Mitchell Evans' game usage to be more plentiful and consequential going forward than the 10 targetless/catchless snaps he took in Saturday night’s road win in his first game action since suffering an ACL tear last Oct. 28 against Pitt.
The 10 plays were the fewest Evans has seen in a game in which he appeared since the six he received in head coach Marcus Freeman’s head coaching debut, a 37-35 Fiesta Bowl loss to Oklahoma State on Jan. 1, 2022.
“He just got cleared probably six days or seven days before we played,” Freeman explained. “So, we were very intentional about getting him on the field and [in] the right opportunities. But you know without having a full training camp, he just physically wasn’t to play 50, 60, 70 plays.
“Each week he’ll continue to increase his workload. It’s a long season. So, we’ve got to make sure that we give him the best opportunity to succeed throughout the entirety of the season.”
Despite missing the final five games of the 2023 season, Evans still was Notre Dame’s season leader in receptions with 29, good for 422 yards and a touchdown.
No Fear
The evolution of who Marcus Freeman is becoming as a head coach in his third year on the job was as evident in his, at times, daring play-calling in the 23-13 takedown of Texas A&M on Saturday night as well as his voice breaking at times due to the raw emotion during his postgame press conference.
On Monday, the 38-year-old successor to Brian Kelly provided a peak behind the curtain to his fiery pregame talk to his players as they stood at the edge of the stadium tunnel, waiting to be cued to run out onto the field.
And all of those phases were purposeful and knit together.
“That was intentional,” Freeman said of the pregame sequence. “There’s a couple of different reasons, but I remember when we came out, I’m looking at Anthonie Knapp, I’m looking at Sam Pendleton. It’s their first time [starting]. They’re freshmen, and they’re playing in this big environment.
“It’s almost like you go into parent mode, and you want to take that pressure off of them. ‘Put it on me. Let’s go man. This is what we talked about.’
“I remember right in that moment saying, ‘We’re right here. This is what we showed you in the meetings. This is what we talked about.’ That’s what I told them: ‘We’ve been here! We know exactly where we’re at.’ Because that’s what I want them to feel when we’re going through that week of preparation, that this is what the crowd is going to be like. We’ve been here.
“I wanted to take a little of that pressure off of them and have that mentality of like, ‘Let’s go, man. Let’s go. We’re competitors.’ I didn’t want them to have any fear.”
And the offensive line, in particular, played well above expectations. There were three first-time starters in that group of five and a total of six previous college starts among those five players combined.
“Obviously, I’m not always like that in that moment,” Freeman said. “But it wasn’t just being jacked up and being ready to go. Sometimes, as a parent or coach, you want to tell them, ‘I’m with you. Don’t fear. Have as much confidence in yourself as we have in you. We’re going into this thing together.”
And then a smile came to Freeman’s face.
“My wife [Joanna] sent me that video,” he said, “and I was probably a little bit out of control.”
Players of the week … and another strong candidate
The Notre Dame coaching staff’s choices for players of the game Saturday were quarterback Riley Leonard on offense, safety Xavier Watts on defense and kicker Mitch Jeter on special teams. Scout team players of the week were: Justin Fisher (offense), Kobi Onyiuke (defense) Cam Williams (special teams).
Freeman admitted grad senior defensive end Jordan Botelho’s performance Saturday made the choice for defensive player of the game very difficult to sort out. The former linebacker/enigma recorded a career-high six tackles against the Aggies (only linebacker Jack Kiser, with eight, had more Saturday for the Irish) and two QB hurries.
That on the heels of a defensive MVP performance in last December’s Sun Bowl on the other side of the state, in El Paso.
“Jordan played well, and he played hard,” Freeman said. “Like, consistently, he did his job. And that’s what you want to see out of a senior. From the time I’ve gotten here to where Jordan Botelho is now, man, he’s grown so much. And I’m so proud to be on this journey with him.
“His performance is a reflection of the way he’s prepared, though. He’s preparing his tail off, and he’s playing at a high level right now.”
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