Notre Dame football head coach Marcus Freeman met with the media on Monday at Notre Dame Stadium ahead of a Saturday Shamrock Series matchup at Yankee Stadium in Bronx, N.Y., between the AP No. 6 Irish (9-1) and No. 18 Army (9-0).
Here's everything Freeman had to say. Answers are largely verbatim. Questions may have been edited for brevity and clarity.
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Opening statement
Marcus Freeman: "Just recapping Saturday's game, I thought it was a great way to end our home regular season and Senior Day. A lot of good as you watch the film from all three phases. Offensively, 448 yards was tremendous and I think we had 230 yards rushing. There's a lot of positives as you watch the film.
“What we gotta do is be better at hurting ourselves. I think we had five drives in the first half that did not end in touchdowns. As you look, three of those five had some type of penalty: holding penalty, hands to the face penalty, which put us in third-and-extra-long situations. One of those, I think we had a minus-10-yard run on second down. No offense, Notre Dame’s offense, isn’t going to be great when you put yourselves behind the sticks. So, we got to eliminate those mistakes that are really slowing us down from moving the chains.
Defensively, played lights out pretty much all night. There was one drive that they scored on in the second half where as you look at that drive defensively, we had a defensive holding penalty. They had a long pass, which may or may have not been complete. We actually had an MA (missed assignment) on the touchdown. We had one of our guys who should’ve been in a different position. Those are areas we got to improve. We chase perfection, and we got to improve there.
“Special teams, I thought it was the best day we’ve had punting to date. I think our guys did a great job covering those punts that James [Rendell] punted. We gotta do a better job in our field-goal unit. I know the one before half we knew was a little bit of a stretch, but we gotta make the makeable field goals. Missing one from 42 yards is unacceptable, so we have to address that and we gotta get it fixed immediately.
“Players of the game on offense was Jeremiyah Love, defense Xavier Watts and special teams James Rendell. Scout players of the week were on offense Anthony Rezac, defense Devan Houstan and special teams Mick Brown.
“Couple of injury updates, Howard Cross will still be questionable for this game. We’ll see how he progresses as we move forward this week. Devyn Ford is trending in the right direction, but I think he’s still questionable for this game.
“Turning the page, obviously, to Army. I told the coaching staff, I believe it’s our toughest challenge to date. They’re a really good football program, 9-0 and on a 13-game winning streak, which is No. 1 in FBS. All nine of their wins this season coming by double digits. One of three undefeated teams in FBS. We understand the challenge they present.
“It’s year 11 for Coach [Jeff] Monken, so what you’ll see is a lot of consistency in their program. They play clean. They don’t hurt themselves. They’re a physical, tough bunch. I think they’re averaging around 35 points on offense and only giving up 10 on defense. They do a great job in time of possession, and they’re, I think, top two in the country in turnover margin. Our guys will understand the challenge. Looking forward to the opportunity to play in Yankee Stadium in our Shamrock Series game versus a very good opponent.”
Q: Two questions in one. Both transfers in this year: Jayden Harrison had a big game on offense and defensive back Rod Heard II. What have they brought to the equation?
“Those two guys have been great additions to our program. I think as you saw with Jaden Greathouse going down in the second quarter, it gave Jayden Harrison a chance to stay on the field more. I know those guys rotate a lot. He made some big plays: obviously, the touchdown, then he had a touchdown called back, then the long third-down conversion. He’s really playing at a high level. He did some really good things on punt. He stepped in for Devyn Ford and really stood out on his punt coverage. He’s brought a lot of production in terms of what happened last game. He’s an energy provider. I’m glad to have him.
“Rod Heard’s been terrific. We can play him at a couple different positions; play him at safety, play him at nickel. When Leonard [Moore] went down for a series, we moved Jordan [Clark] out to corner and moved Rod into nickel. He’s a multiple-position guy that has brought maturity but also a skillset that we need to our defensive back room.
Q: You mentioned needing to make the field goals. I’m curious where Mitch Jeter is at in being able to help you guys with that?
“After warmups, we thought his line was around the 42. Meaning a 42-yarder was probably the line for this game. We had him kick the extra points. Then we didn't want to kick the 54-yarder with him, because we thought that was a little bit out of his range right now. At halftime, we just made the decision up 28-0 to say, OK, let's rest him for the second half and get him ready hopefully for this week and extend that line a little bit longer to where he was earlier in the year. He’s not full-go as he was to start the season, but he’s going to be available to kick. We just got to continue to see where that line is for Mitch Jeter.”
Q: You mention Army being your biggest task to date. You sort of said the same thing about Navy. In preparing for a couple of opponents that are similar, what are the differences Army gives you?
“I met with the defensive staff, and the first thing we said is the biggest mistake we can make is think this is Navy 2.0. It’s not. It’s a different offense. They do some different things. They’ve got a different identity and present a different challenge.
“Yes, it’s still a version of the triple option, which you see with some of the military schools, but they run it with different personnel. They’re led by their O-line. They come off the ball. They’re physical. They’re big — bigger than what you usually see when you play academy schools. But it’s going to be a great challenge on all three phases. They’re aggressive in special teams. I think since 2020 they’ve blocked more kicks than anybody else in the FBS. All three phases present some issues that we have to be prepared for.”
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Q: Christian Gray got up from that long pass gesturing that it wasn’t caught. Now I know that people do that all the time on defense or offense. What’s your sideline’s procedure for reviewing this quickly to determine if you need a timeout?
“I asked the line judge that I was beside. I said, ‘Hey, I know what they called. Is replay looking at it?’ I was told, yeah. I was told they were looking at it. I don’t know if maybe they didn’t get time to buzz down before the ball was snapped. Obviously, Virginia was going tempo. They do a really good job of trying to help you not waste timeouts. The officials don’t want us to waste timeouts. So, when I’m told they’re looking at replay, I don’t want to waste a timeout if I think that’s going to be confirmed.”
Q: What was the official ruling on the fake punt that was called back? Was it simply that Jack Kiser took a direct snap under center and that created an illegal formation penalty?
“The ruling was it was not a kicking formation. So, if it’s not a kicking formation, you have to have five guys on the line between the numbers of 50 and 99. Going into the game, we believed it was a kicking formation. Haven’t heard back from the league yet, so we’ll see what they say. It is what it is.”
Q: Bryson Daily, the Army quarterback, what challenges does he present this week?
“He is a guy that has experience. I know he missed two games ago — I think two weeks ago. But he’s back from injury. Makes really good decisions, can run the ball if he needs to but also can throw it if he needs to do. What he does is run the offense efficiently, doesn’t put them in bad positions and he does a great job at taking care of the football.”
Q: With the offensive line penalties, the holding, hands to the face, what are some of the coaching points you have for the line coming out of this game?
“You watch the film and you address it and you go to practice and you work on those specific issues that showed up in the game. You hopefully don’t repeat it.”
Q: Army’s rushing defense is like third in the country. What are you seeing on film that makes them so good on defense?
“I think one is personnel. They got some good D-Linemen. They do a good job. They do a good job of simulating some pressures where you might be thinking a five-man pressure’s coming, a six-man pressure’s coming and it ends up being four guys. They just do a good job of saying, 'We're not going to let you run the ball.' And we got a mindset that, hey, we still want to run the ball. We've got to find ways to get hats on hats.
“The other thing I think they do is they move. They're not stagnant. They're not your typical just three down and they don't move. They're able to move the front and be aggressive, change the leverage on you, which is a challenge. When you change the leverage on an offensive lineman post-snap, it creates some difficulties.”
Q: CJ Carr was warming up prior to the game. Can you update us on him? And then some of the guys who had long-term injuries like Gi'Bran Payne, is there a possibility of any of them coming back early?
“No, those guys will be out for the year. CJ’s beginning his throwing progression in rehab. That’s about it.”
Q: You haven’t trailed in the second half since week two and are rarely within one score of your opponent in those halves. Do you look at that? Does that give you an indication of your overall quality of play?
“No. I don't know if I knew that stat. I think, more than anything, starting the Purdue week, was that emphasis of how do we handle success? It happened to present itself during the Purdue week when we were up going into half. I think our guys are believing in that, committing to it.
“When you say, how do you handle success? It isn't like, OK, sometimes you say you gotta start fast, you gotta finish fast, you've gotta come out of locker room fast. But it's like, is this play the most important play the game? And that's a mindset. Don't worry about the score. Don't care what the score is. You could be up. You could be down. It doesn't matter. This play is the most important play of the game, and that takes effort and focus to do. It's not natural. It's natural to let up. It's natural to say, 'OK, here's a score. It's not that serious. This play doesn't matter.'
“But the guys on the field have to have a conviction that this play is so important to get the outcome that we want in the game. If we can continue to have that mindset, we're going to be really successful. But that hopefully is a reflection of no matter who's in the game at what point in the game, they have a conviction that this play’s the most important play in the game.”
Q: Are there things you can do in practice to put your team under stress that it hasn’t been in in the second halves of games this season?
“You have to coach in a way that is not outcome-driven. The result of the play, the result of the period, has nothing to do with did you get your job done on this play? And that's how, to me, you simulate that. I don't care if we completed a 40-yard pass. Did you as the right guard get your job done with the perfect technique? If you didn't, there's going to be pressure put on you to make sure we get it corrected. That's how you simulate that. You don't look at the outcome of practice, don't look at the outcome of a drill or the outcome of a play, but you evaluate every single play to the standard that we've set.
“I think if we can continue to do that, you'll see like it isn't chasing an outcome. It isn't chasing a score. It's chasing perfection on this play. This play is all that matters. That's, to me, how you simulate that in practice. You simulate that by coaching every single play like it's the most important play, because it is. If you do that as a coach, your players will feel how important it is.”
Q: You guys have been really good in the middle eight minutes around halftime. Why is that?
“We emphasize two-minute offense and defense every week. We go good-on-good with different situations every single week. It could be the end of a half, end of a game situation, but every week our guys know we're going to get a good-on-good period that we have to execute.
“It goes back and forth. Does the offense win this week or the defense wins? But it's understanding how important that is as you're going into the half. And then coming out of the half, it's a mindset. Coming out, no matter if you're on offense, defense, kickoff or kickoff return of attack mindset. We've got to continue to have that attack mindset, and then you've got to win that play.
"We do emphasize those things. We do emphasize how we finish a half by doing two-minute offense versus two-minute defense, and then we emphasize starting fast. We have a break every day in practice where you can go and take a second, spend a minute or so with your coaches, and then you've got to reload. I give them a break. I try to make it halfway through practice. We started that when it was really hot where our trainer Rob Hunt would mandate, 'Hey, we have to have a break or two breaks here.' But I've continued that throughout the year, because I think it's a great way to simulate a game. Hey, take a quick break. It could simulate the end of a series or the end of a half. That horn blows, reload, refocus and let's go.”
Q: On Saturday you said you mentioned showing the fake punt to officials in the preseason. Did I hear that correctly?
"Coach [Marty] Biagi addressed that play with some officials in preseason."
Q: In the flow of weeks, would you bring that up to official prior to games?
“We've had this ready to go for about four weeks. You tend not to show clips to officials in the locker room. That's not something that is highly encouraged. So, more than anything, you got to explain it, which I explained it to them. Hey, we have a fake punt that we're going to come out of the huddle quickly and snap it. I just want you to know that our guys have to be set. We know all the rules, and we run it.
“I don't want to make it a bigger deal than what it is. I'm dang proud of the way our guys executed. I know it didn't count for seven points, but we're going to celebrate that fake punt. I can't wait to show them, because there's been a lot of work put into that. We obviously had it ready. You guys might not know this, but we had it ready for the bowl game, didn't get a chance to run it, and we brought it back out after Georgia Tech. When you practice something for weeks, the players are dying to run it. Just the opportunity didn't happen. It did this game, and they executed it flawlessly.”
Q: You had players recognized on Senior Day with remaining eligibility. Have you had fifth-year conversations with those guys?
“We’ve had it with a couple of them. There's certain guys that will have decisions to make after the season, and then, as I've told them, make your decision after the season.”
Q: There’s been a lot of etiquette talk on how to handle a fourth quarter when games are lopsided whether it’s you with a big lead or Virginia calling a timeout late while trailing by so much. What is your philosophy on handling all that?
“I never want to embarrass anybody. If I feel like we're in an opportunity to embarrass somebody, I never want to do that. I've got a lot of respect for the other coaches in this game. But also, I want to get work for whoever's in the game. If these guys are in the game, I want to get work for them. If a guy that doesn't play a lot is in the game, let's give them the opportunity to have success. We don't have to run the ball every play. If we need to throw the ball, throw the ball.
“It's the same thing with our defense. I'm not mad at Coach [Tony Elliott] for calling a timeout. Don't disrespect our guys by taking it easy on them. The greatest respect you can do is give it everything you've got as an opponent. It's OK. It's great teaching. I can't wait to watch those 10 plays with the guys that don't get a lot of opportunities to play meaningful game-like plays. So, no problem with them calling a timeout. It's a great opportunity for us to teach from those plays that happened during that series.”
Q: What’s the talent level of Army? You saw it in 2020. What can you say about how much it’s risen in recent years and are there any guys on their team that you recruited either at Cincinnati or ND?
"On Army's team?
Q: Yes.
“I have no clue. No. Not that I know of. You get so bogged down with numbers. I very rarely look at names. There might be somebody I recruited. I don't know. I haven't looked at the roster.
Q: But in terms of talent?
“Yeah, I think I see it from a different lens right now, obviously as a head coach, than I did as a defensive coordinator. But I believe this team is better, much better, than the team we faced in 2020. This Army team, I mean this is a good, really good, football team that every statistic shows you why. If we had a combine, would they be as fast maybe or as tall or athletic and run the drills as good as some of the other teams you face? Maybe not. But that has nothing to do with how good of a football team this team is. I mean, they are a dang good football team. They play hard. They take care of the football. They keep the ball away from you. They take the ball from you. It's a challenge, man. It's a really big challenge for us."
Q: We’ve seen multiple special teams fakes this year. How deep is that trove of fakes in special teams coordinator Marty Biagi’s bag and what is the process of deepening it?
"Marty is a creative mind. Sometimes I’ve got to reel him back and say, 'Hold on, Marty. We can't do that.' But when Marty has conviction on something and he's able to make me have conviction, ‘OK, let's do it.’ Like he has been with these last couple fakes. I don't ever want to be a program that holds back. All in — every play, every game. And that's a great challenge because guess what? Now we’ve got to come up with another one. We got to come up with another fake.
"But I want our players to have that mindset, man. If I told our players, 'Hey, this is a great fake. We're going to hold it for the last game of the year. We're going to hold it for if we make the playoff.' What I expect them to do is we get ready to play this next game, like, this is the Super Bowl. This is the Super Bowl. This week versus Army, Yankee Stadium, is the Super Bowl. And so, if that means we’ve got to come up with a new fake, then we will come up with a new fake. But I don't ever, ever, ever want to hold something back. It's a great challenge. Guess what, we’ve got to come up with something better. And we got the coaches and the players to do that."
Q: Riley Leonard wasn’t as aggressive running the ball as he was successful passing it vs. Virginia. Was that by design?
"It's all decision-making. Again, Riley wasn't put in great situations, in some of those third downs, to have success. I love that he did keep his eyes downfield. That's been something we've been talking about. Riley always knows he can escape and run. I'm really proud of the way he kept his eyes downfield to make some plays as he escaped the pocket to throw the ball. Made some really good decisions that way.
"We know that he can run. We're going to continue to encourage him to keep his eyes downfield, because when defenses know you can run, guess what, the minute you start scrambling those guys usually tend to come up and then there is somebody open down the field. So, if we can utilize him both, we will."
Q: When you see something in practice that wasn’t performed to perfection, how do you address it in the moment vs. back at the office when you’re reviewing some film?
"If I can give you immediate feedback, I’m going to give you immediate feedback. I always tell the coaches and the players, it's just like driving a car. When you're driving, you see one of those police radars that show you how fast you're going. And the minute you see you're going way above the speed limit, the natural reaction is to slow down. And that's what I tell coaches. That's immediate feedback. That's what we’ve got to do. If you see something, say something. Don't wait.
"Now, there are things you got to see on film that you didn’t see right there in the moment. Those are things you'll correct when you have meetings. But I believe in immediate feedback. And then guess what? We'll double down on that when we go watch it on film. But if I can correct you in the moment, that's something we're definitely going to do.
"That's why I often talk to linebackers that we recruit and say, 'Man, you’ve got two, maybe three sets of eyes on you.' I naturally tend to go to the linebackers during individual drills. I naturally tend to watch them a lot of time in defensive drills, because that's what I coach and that's what I played. I tell recruits, ‘You're getting immediate feedback. You’ve got two, sometimes three sets of eyes on you at all times.’ And I can't say that about every position. But that's all about how important I believe it is to make sure than you can correct them in the moment when you can. And not mess up the flow of practice. Like I know [Al] Golden sometimes or [Mike] Denbrock will say, 'Cmon, coach, let’s keep going. We’ve got to get these reps in.' But I understand that and I'm very aware of that, but when you can give a player immediate feedback, I think it helps them improve tremendously."
Q: There’s a ton of history in this game. What does it mean to you to coach in a historical game like this?
“It's an honor. I remember when [former athletic director] Jack Swarbrick told me that this was going to be our Shamrock Series game for this year, the first thought was, 'Navy and Army in the same year? C’mon Jack.' Then he told me why. And Jack was just such an innovative mind, he never wanted to have a Shamrock Series game just to have it. He said what better opportunity than to have a Shamrock Series game in New York City versus Army 100 years later after the Four Horsemen were named. And I think it's a great opportunity.
"Just doing my history, my research on who the Four Horsemen were, I know one of them was from Massillon, which is a shoutout to my wife. She’s a Massillon Tiger. Two of them are from Ohio, so there is a little bit of a connection there with the Four Horsemen. But it’s an amazing opportunity to play a great program that has a lot of history and ii's a Top 25 program. It's going to be a great challenge on Saturday night."
Q: There next two weeks, with games on both coasts and going cross country, is there anything special you’re doing to prepare for that kind of travel?
"Yeah. We've known this kind of timeline for quite a while. You’ve got to make certain accommodations when you get back at 3 or 4 in the morning. So, we made some changes in the schedule for Sunday, which is their day off and what we're going to do on Monday post-Army. And then it's a unique week, USC week, because it's Thanksgiving break. So, Tuesday will be a [typical] Tuesday, but we kind of made some modifications in terms of sleep and things like that for Wednesday through Saturday. It's been in the plans for a while. We’ve got a great sports performance team. We meet every week. But we've thought about this for quite a while."
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