SOUTH BEND, Ind. — On a day when summer school officially started at Notre Dame, on Monday, the veteran members of the Irish football team had already been back to work for more than a week.
And their leader?
Third-year head coach Marcus Freeman never really stopped and took a break when spring football concluded April 20 with the Blue-Gold Game at Notre Dame Stadium.
Perhaps the most compelling aspect of his May cultivation, beyond his five-team NFL tour and 36 hours aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln, is how comfortable Freeman is with the rapidly/seismically changing way college sports is doing business.
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A facet of the college game that has chased away some coaches and disheartened others.
Even though no one seems to know exactly how the mechanics of directly paying athletes as a result of the NCAA settling lawsuits, including House v. NCAA, will work. Or how soon.
“I think it’s really good for our players,” Freeman said recently of the concept of players being paid. “I’m a believer in it, and that’s the general idea, right? Should players be able to make money based off their name, image and likeness. Yes.
“And there’s still so many open-ended avenues to how this is going to happen. That’s been my constant communication with [athletic director] Pete [Bevacqua], with everybody I’ve talked to about this … we can’t all of a sudden start making decisions based off things. The decision hasn’t been made by the Supreme Court. The courts haven’t said this is the final ruling.”
But if/when they do, Freeman exuded confidence in Notre Dame’s ability to compete in the new college athletics universe.
“Are players going to get paid? Yes,” he said. “How [will] they get paid? Still to be determined. How much [will] they get paid? Still to be determined. I still, in my heart of hearts, believe you’re going to get paid based on how good of a football player you are. And that’s my message to them.
“It’s no different than now. You’re making money off your name, image and likeness based on how good of a player you are. So, continue to focus on that. You’re going to get paid just as well at Notre Dame as anywhere else in the country.
“We’re going to be great. We’re in a great situation here. I couldn’t be more excited for our athletic program. But, players shouldn’t focus on how much you’re getting paid; just keep being a great player. You’re going to get paid as well at Notre Dame as anywhere else in the country.”
Freeman recently met with some members of the core beat media at Notre Dame Stadium, with the breaking news and big-picture items already making their way to publication.
But the financial thread was one of several intriguing ones the 38-year-old Freeman teased out with the media. Here are four more:
The transfer learning curve
The Irish brought in an ND record eight scholarship transfers this offseason, with three more coming as walk-ons. Of the six who participated in spring practice, the early impact was more subtle than sensational.
Something Freeman has come to expect early in the process.
“Just because you have a fourth or fifth year guy, Jordan Clark and RJ Oben, you can't just assume that because they have game experience,” Freeman said, “that they're going to be able to play fast in a new scheme.
“It's a learning progression for those guys. We have to remind ourselves of that. We can't get frustrated when guys that are just learning this stuff, they can't perform it yet because they don't know it well enough to play fast.
“So, that I think is going to be the challenge for us, to get those guys that have transferred caught up to the standard that the guys that have been here, no matter if you've played or not, are able to play at.”
Defensive end Javontae Jean-Baptiste is a good example from the previous transfer class who had a quiet spring and relatively underwhelming training camp and early season before becoming arguably one of ND’s best five players on the roster over the last half of the season.
Safety Antonio Carter II, who on Monday announced his transfer to Jacksonville State, never did find traction after coming in from FCS Rhode Island and moving from cornerback to safety.
Keep an eye on Beaux Collins
Notre Dame starts the summer with 11 scholarship wide receivers, including four at the very deep boundary receiver position that would seem to have some redundancy in skill set — returning starter Jayden Thomas, fellow senior Deion Colzie, freshman spring surprise Micah Gilbert, and Beaux Collins, a transfer from Clemson.
The 6-foot-3, 210-pound Collins lived in South Bend during the spring semester but didn’t actively participate in spring practice while getting his degree remotely from Clemson after just three years in college.
Collins’ stats in 2023 at Clemson weren’t dominant — 38 catches for 510 yards and 1 TD with a long reception of 18 yards. The receptions total was tied for third on a Clemson offense that was less than overpowering in the passing game (60th nationally in passing offense, 87th in pass efficiency).
Still Collins’ reception total and receiving yards, accrued over 11 games, were higher than anyone of the Notre Dame roster achieved in 2023.
"I have high expectations for him,” Freeman said. “The length, the experience, the skill set. Is he going to be the No. 1? That’s to-be-determined. We’ll see when he gets out there in fall camp. But I believe he brings a skill set to our wide receivers room that’s going to truly make us better. And I’m excited to get him out there.”
A fun recruiting tidbit, Thomas, Colzie and Collins were all recruited by Notre Dame in the 2021 cycle, and Collins, as the No. 10 receiver in the class — per Rivals, was the top-rated among them. Colzie was 19th and Thomas 45th.
Loren Landow’s culture club
Because of the way NCAA rules dictate how college football summers are structured and who does the structuring, first-year director of football performance Loren Landow will spend significantly more time with the Irish players than anyone on the coaching staff.
And infusing Freeman’s cultural checkpoints.
“I think you can be very demanding and still treat people with respect,” Freeman said, “and I hope that’s something people say about the culture of our football program. ‘They’re tough. They challenge you. They’re creative, but they treat you with respect.’
“That’s a non-negotiable for me. I love coach Landow, I think he’s done a terrific job. I’m excited for his first summer. I love the plan that he has, the ability for him to work with our coaches to say, ‘OK, hey, here’s the goal.’
“As you look at this thing, there’s many different ways to get the load in. The players need a certain load as you build up to fall camp. How can we utilize football? How can we utilize the strength and conditioning program to get them prepared for fall camp? That’s what it’s about.
“I love his collaborative effort working with our coaches, our sports analytics, to say, ‘Here’s how we’re going to get to the point where our guys are ready for fall camp.’ So, I’m really, really encouraged by all of that transition and what’s going to happen to this summer.”
Next level for the defense?
Continuity of scheme, per Freeman, played a big part in Notre Dame’s defensive improvement in 2023 after changing schemes and coordinators ahead of the 2021 and ’22 seasons.
The Irish most dramatically surged in red zone defense (129th to second nationally) and turnovers gained (99th to 12th), but positive evolution was across the board, including a leap from 41st to first in pass-efficiency defense, 38th to seventh in scoring defense and the first top 5 finish in total defense after an admittedly respectable showing of 21st in 2022.
Al Golden’s third year as defensive coordinator includes a blend of returning veterans, including two 2023 All-Americans in safety Xavier Watts and nose guard Howard Cross III, seeming depth at every position and some exciting, young players pushing into the two-deeps.
So what’s the next step?
“There is a lot to improve on,” Freeman said. “As you look at it statistically, we were really good defensively. But there are details in what we’re doing that we’ve got to continue to fix. We’ve got to tackle better. We’ve got to continue to find ways to play multiple/different coverages effectively.
“Where we were at [in] year 1, we couldn’t do everything that [Golden] wanted to do. Then you progress to year 2, and you can play more schematic schemes defensively. Now in year 3, you can disguise a lot more.
“We can’t just keep putting in all these different defenses. Enough is enough. But how can we disguise what we’re doing? I think we’re at the level now where we can really work on some pre-snap disguises and not just tell the offense what we’re playing. To make an offense react after the ball is snapped, that’s really beneficial.”
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