SOUTH BEND, Ind. — Marcus Freeman hears voices, and he always listens.
But the second-year Notre Dame head football coach doesn’t always apply the feedback that sometimes he seeks out, from regular coaching contacts, and sometimes comes to him unsolicited.
“To me, the challenge is not ignoring people, but being able to decipher what is important, what can portray to your team or your situation that could help,” Freeman said Thursday during his weekly Zoom call with the media ahead of Saturday’s road clash (noon EDT; ABC) between his CFP 15th-ranked Irish (7-2) and a rare unranked Clemson team (4-4).
“To me, I've always looked at that I love to take advice,” he said. “I love to hear information and read information. But the challenge is always what is important to this team and for me as a leader but also what can truly help this team in this situation?
“If it's nothing, it's nothing, but you don't know unless you hear it and really process it through your own lens.”
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Freeman enters game No. 24 of his head coaching regime playing at a venue — Clemson’s Memorial Stadium (Death Valley) — where only three of the past 65 opponents have emerged with a road victory. A regular communication routine of chatting with a couple of trusted coaching contacts — including his college coach, former Ohio State coach Jim Tressel — has helped the 37-year-old navigate the head-coaching growth curve through “seeing the biggest picture, see things from a different perspective.”
But if somebody outside that network volunteers an opinion?
“I'm always usually willing to listen,” he said, :because maybe you can get something for somebody.”
One of the more valuable tidbits in 2023 has to do with team messaging. And Freeman’s theme this season has been for his team to focus less on the opponent and more on chasing its full potential.
“Every week we're chasing that,” he said. “And so each week, I'm trying to find different ways with that consistent message to challenge our guys to raise the level we're playing at. How do we find a way to raise the level of playing at?”
Time to catch on?
Two players who could ease the season-ending injury to Irish junior tight end and team receptions leader Mitchell Evans are players navigating two very different injury-recovery challenges of their own — junior wide receiver Jayden Thomas and sophomore tight end Eli Raridon.
Thomas suffered a hamstring injury in the third quarter of Notre Dame’s 17-14 home loss on Sept. 23 to current CFP No. 1 team Ohio State. He then missed the road game at Duke on Sept. 30, then returned to play 35 snaps in the 33-20 loss against Louisville the following Saturday.
Since then, he played just six offensive plays Oct. 14 against USC and 11 against Pitt this past Saturday after a bye week.
After hauling in a total of 12 receptions over ND’s first four games of the season, he’s had a combined five over the past five games.
“I think with a soft-tissue injury, like Jayden had, it's more of a physical thing,” Freeman said. “You have to physically build up the reps to callous that body so that you can go and play at a high level for an extended amount of time. That, to me, is the physical part with Jayden, whereas with Eli, I think it's just continuously building on the details of the passing game.”
So with Raridon it’s more mental after tearing the same ACL twice within a 10-month span and not seeing his first game action in almost a year until Oct. 7 at Louisville.
Raridon has played a total of 32 snaps in his three games back, fewer than Evans had played in any single game this season, including the 42 he logged in the 58-7 rout of Pitt in which he suffered his own torn ACL. Thirty of Raridon’s 32 snaps have been run-blocking assignments, with going out for a pass happening just twice.
“When you're out for so long with an ACL, it takes time to continue to work on the details,” Freeman said. “He's physically ready to roll. Now, he's got to get the confidence that it takes with reps in time to really be able to perform at a high level. I think he's getting it.
“He obviously got a lot more [practice] reps this week with Mitch being out. So, I'm excited to see the progression where he performs on Saturday.”
Raridon came to ND with a reputation and projection to evolve into an elite pass-catcher at the college level. But he’s still looking for his college reception, though his run blocking in five games last season was consistently outstanding. And he’s improved dramatically each week in that facet of the game in each succeeding game this season.
Built Ford tough
As the No. 40 recruit regardless of position in the 2018 class, Penn State grad transfer Devyn Ford had the second-highest Rivals national ranking coming out of high school on the Notre Dame roster, with five-star junior offensive tackle (No. 26 in the 2021 class) Blake Fisher being No. 1.
Ford’s rep was built on elite speed. His contributions to the Notre Dame football team in his first season with the Irish have incorporated that and so much more — as a blocker on offense and as a special teams stalwart.
In fact, Ford has the second-highest special teams grade (91.1) in the nation, per Pro Football Focus film reviews, among players who’ve played at least 60 special teams snaps this season. Ole Miss’ Ladarian Tennison is first at 91.4.
Ford has appeared on the kickoff return team, kick coverage team and punt coverage team, and has the highest special teams grade on the team regardless of number of snaps, with recently returned linebacker Nolan Ziegler (90.0) No. 2.
Ford’s hustle on punt coverage Saturday against Pitt helped coax a muffed punt by the Panthers near the goal line, which Ramon Henderson recovered in the end zone for an Irish TD.
The 5-foot-11, 200-pounder from Stafford, Va., has also also become a physical presence on offense without the ball.
“It's truly a huge piece of what we're doing,” Freeman said, “and obviously it takes being an unselfish football player. Running backs want the ball in their hands, but he's being effective in ways that have nothing to do with the ball being in his hands.
“And that is just the greatest example for our team of a guy embracing his role and thriving at it and making our team better. He is an important piece for our team to have success. And I told him that last week after the Pitt game. I'm excited to continuously see it throughout the end of the season.”
November to remember?
Notre Dame’s quest to reach the New Year’s Six bowl stage this postseason will require an impressive month of November. And since 2018, the Irish are 19-1 in November, with the lone loss coming at USC in last year’s regular-season finale.
“November's kind of that month that's synonymous with the big games, the rivalry games, where you're kind of in the heat of the schedule,” said Irish quarterback Sam Hartman, set to play in his first November game with the Irish, Saturday at Clemson, after scads of them with Wake Forest. “Everybody's beaten up, everybody's tired. It's kind of where the great teams separate themselves.
“Really, it's always kind of been the fresher and healthiest team usually outlasts them all. We've been playing really physical. We've been playing well, up front, and obviously, everyone else around us is, defensively, has been dominant.
“And so as an offense, we just got to maintain the details and focus and execution. The games in November, they take care of themselves.”
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