Notre Dame football notebook: Marcus Freeman on play calling, Jim Tressel
Marcus Freeman is no stranger to the Arizona desert in early January.
He was on the Ohio State team that beat Notre Dame in the last Fiesta Bowl game played at Sun Devil Stadium in Tempe, Ariz., on Jan. 2, 2006. Freeman was injured and not able to play that day, but he didn’t have to wait long for another opportunity.
Freeman totaled a game-high 15 tackles in Ohio State’s loss to Florida in the national title game one year later at what is now State Farm Stadium, the same venue he’ll lead the Fighting Irish into against Oklahoma State this Saturday in another Fiesta Bowl.
It will be the fourth Fiesta Bowl Freeman will have been a part of. He had eight tackles for the Buckeyes in a narrow loss to Texas on Jan. 5, 2009. The agenda for Freeman this week? Improve his personal Fiesta Bowl record to 2-2 and notch that second victory while in charge of the program he beat the first time around some 16 years ago.
Like the games against the Gators and Longhorns, this one won’t be easy for Freeman. He knows that. The No. 9 Cowboys (11-2) have earned their spot in a New Year’s Six Bowl against No. 5 Notre Dame (11-1).
Freeman has known what he’s up against for a while. The reality of it was reinforced on Monday’s four-hour plane ride from South Bend to Phoenix. Freeman spent every minute of it watching film on Oklahoma State.
“I’m so impressed with how hard they play from every position but especially their front four,” Freeman said. “They play extremely hard. They are relentless and they tackle and they pursue the ball well. It’s going to be a huge challenge and the challenge is not going to be schematically, it’s going to be to match their intensity and the physicality they play with.”
Who’s calling defensive plays?
Freeman’s elevation from defensive coordinator to head coach has come with a wide range of duties. Some head coaches are comfortable calling plays on the side of the ball deemed to be their area of expertise, but imagine the stress of doing so in your first career game as head coach and that game being one of such great magnitude.
Defensive line coach Mike Elston has been Notre Dame’s primary play caller during practices this month, and Freeman said Elston will have a “lead role” in defensive play calling Saturday with help from cornerbacks coach Mike Mickens and safeties coach Chris O’Leary.
Notre Dame’s primary play caller in all 12 games to this point, Freeman has gladly taken a backseat to that trio in the last month.
“I would be doing a disservice to our defense if I said, ‘Nope, we are doing exactly what I say. I’m the one that’s going to call it. I’m the one that's going to do it,’” Freeman said. “I haven’t had as much time to prepare for Oklahoma State’s offense as those guys.
“I think this gives our group a better opportunity to have success. That’s why I made this decision. These guys have spent more time preparing for Oklahoma State than I have in terms of just our defense versus their offense.”
Leaning on authoritative figures
Brian Kelly didn’t leave Freeman completely empty-handed.
Before Kelly left for LSU a month ago, he had already devised a bowl-prep practice schedule. Freeman analyzed it and stuck to some of its structure while implementing plenty of unique touches and operational changes.
Freeman also went back and took bowl preparation techniques from his time working with Luke Fickell at Cincinnati. The Bearcats went 2-1 in bowl games while Freeman was on staff, with the only loss being a narrow defeat to Georgia in last year’s Peach Bowl.
Kelly is busy in Baton Rouge and Fickell is getting ready to face the No. 1 team in the country in this week’s College Football Playoff semifinals. Freeman didn’t bother to pick either of their brains. Instead, he went back to the man who coached him while he was at Ohio State: Jim Tressel.
“The guy I was leaning on the most in terms of day-to-day operations and things I hadn’t had across my desk before was coach Tressel,” Freeman said. “I have used all three and kind of come up with what I feel is best for our team to be ready for this game.”
Tressel lost three straight bowl games while Freeman was on his Ohio State roster; national championship games in the 2006 and 2007 seasons and the Fiesta Bowl at the end of the 2008 season. But in the seven other bowl games Ohio state played under Tressel’s guidance, the Buckeyes went 6-1. That mark included three Fiesta Bowl victories, a Rose Bowl win and Sugar Bowl triumph.
That’s five more major bowl game victories than Notre Dame has had since the 1993 season. Freeman can snap a stretch of nine major bowl losses in a row for the Fighting Irish in his first ever game as head coach. He has called on one of the game’s great all-time head coaches to help him accomplish the feat.
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