Notebook: Will history repeat as Freeman, ND recalibrate the defense?
SOUTH BEND, Ind. — There’s some poetic symmetry to how Marcus Freeman successfully recalibrated the Irish defense as Notre Dame’s first year defensive coordinator last season and how he has approached doing something similar two games into an 0-2 season as the first-year head coach.
The opposing quarterback in game 3 of 2021, after the Irish were gouged for a combined 67 points against Florida State and Toledo, was Purdue’s Jack Plummer, who lost his grip on the starting job to Aidan O’Connell following a 27-13 Irish squelching of the Boilermakers on Sept. 18.
Saturday at Notre Dame Stadium, the very same Jack Plummer leads Cal (2-0) against an Irish defense reeling from fourth-quarter implosions in back-to-back weeks, against Ohio State and Marshall, and yielding a combined 57 points.
Kickoff for ND’s “Wear Green” game is 2:30 p.m. EDT, and NBC has the telecast. The Irish are wearing green jerseys for the 16th time since 1983 and riding a four-game winning streak in that color. These green jerseys have the ND players’ names on the backs.
Meanwhile, the 6-foot-5, 215-pound Plummer is ranked 65th nationally in passing efficiency (143.3), two spots below O’Connell (143.4), who’s still leading Purdue.
Freeman’s process, though, is no matter who the opposing quarterback is and no matter what ND’s record might be at this point, he’d be self-scouting and looking to make tweaks to make the defense better.
“That's the biggest message I've been sending to our players and our coaches,” Freeman said during his weekly Thursday Zoom with the media, “is that we can't let the outcome dictate the critical eye we must have as we evaluate the games and in practice.
“Sometimes we let the result of a play or the result of a game kind of mask the reality of what's going on. If there's confusion, what do we have to do to correct that? That could be coaching it better. That could be taking the play out. That can be changing something within the scheme.”
In 2021 Freeman simplified the blueprint that had worked so well for him at Cincinnati and made different kinds of adjustments at midseason after losing All-America safety Kyle Hamilton to injury.
The result was the Irish going from 111th nationally in scoring defense heading into game 3 vs. Purdue to a No. 15 ranking at season’s end. Combined with the Nos. 13, 12 and 14 rankings defensive coordinator Clark Lea put up in the three years before Freeman’s arrival, it marked the first four-year stretch since 1946-49 in which the Irish finished in the top 15 nationally in scoring defense consecutively.
Three of those teams won national titles, and the one that didn’t (1948) went 9-0-1 and finished No. 2 in the AP poll.
The only other times ND cobbled together three top 15 defensive seasons in between 1949 and the current stretch were twice in the Ara Parseghian coaching era — 1964-66 and 1969-71.
“If we need to stop practice, stop practice to correct mistakes,” Freeman said of the latest tinkering, without giving away trade secrets of the upcoming changes he’s counting on happening Saturday against the visiting Bears.
“If we need to take something out of the scheme, let's take it out. But let's give our guys a chance to truly have success, because they (need to ) know exactly what they're doing on every single play.”
Notre Dame, under first-year defensive coordinator Al Golden, finds itself at No. 69 nationally in total defense.
Which kind of begs the question, why didn’t it find itself during training camp last month — or even last August, when the Irish players were celebrating an upgrade from Lea’s defenses, calling Freeman’s approach “fast and free”?
“When you practice 20-something days against the same opponent, you slowly start to figure each other out,” Freeman said. “And then, all of a sudden, you face an opponent, and you look and say, ‘OK, there was a lack of execution on this play at this position.’
“And what you have to see, as you go throughout the season, is you’ve really got to take a deep dive and a really honest and realistic look at what are the issues?”
Manti Te'o returns
Former All-America linebacker Manti Te’o, the 2012 Heisman Trophy runner-up, will be part of Notre Dame’s Victory March player walk from the Basilica of the Sacred Heart to Notre Dame Stadium prior to the Irish game against Cal.
Te’o is scheduled to address the crowd in front of the Touchdown Jesus mural at the Hesburgh Library at around 12:15 p.m. EDT.
“Anytime you can have one of your greats come back, it is a great thing for our program,”’ Freeman said. “I think this is a great opportunity for him to come back to Notre Dame, but for us, as a football program, also to utilize one of our own being back on campus.
“It depends on what time his flight gets in, but we'd love for him to be able to say hello to the team. And listen, I'm not looking for a big speech, but it's an opportunity for our guys to know who Manti Te’o is, to be able to sit down and get a chance to meet one of our own.”
Patterson rebounds
One of the best leaders in the Notre Dame football program in recent years, grad senior offensive guard/captain Jarrett Patterson, let his emotions get the best of him Saturday after Marshall’s 26-21 upset of the Irish at Notre Dame Stadium.
Patterson slammed his helmet and was trying to storm off the field when he was pulled back to sing the Alma Mater with his teammates.
The Marshall game was Patterson’s first action of the season after missing the Sept. 3 opener and two weeks of practice with a sprained right foot. Patterson also battled back from a torn pectoral muscle earlier in the offseason.
“He's been great. He's had a great week of practice,” Freeman said of the preseason All-American. “I don't know if I could sit here and say that he feels 100% (regarding the foot sprain). I think this will be something that he'll feel better and better as time goes on.
“But he's a warrior, and he really, really competed his tail off last week and had a great week of practice, has been a great leader for our group. And I expect him to play really well on Saturday.”
Faith journey
Freeman was asked Thursday about word that he had recently been confirmed in the Catholic faith.
“I've tried to keep it as private as I could,” he said. “Family decision and personal decision. Obviously, when you're head coach at Notre Dame, nothing's private, but yeah, just a decision I made, and I was confirmed.”
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