Notre Dame football head coach Marcus Freeman met with reporters Monday inside Notre Dame Stadium ahead of Saturday's home opener for the Irish against Northern Illinois (3:30 p.m. EDT on NBC).
Here's everything Freeman had to say in transcript form. Answers are largely verbatim. Questions may have been edited for brevity and clarity.
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Opening statement:
“Obviously, it was a great team win in a great environment on Saturday. A lot of individuals did some really good things as you watch back and evaluate film. But I’m most proud of how we played complementary football. It was important to play complementary football when two really good teams go at it. We won the battle of field position, which was a major key for us, and then we won the turnover margin. Those two things were vital for us to have success on Saturday.
“The defense played really well. Two turnovers were huge and holding A&M to field goals two out of those three times when they were in our territory was key. That was something we emphasized. And offensively, to not make a crucial mistake versus a really, really good defense was key. We had to protect the football, and we did that by not turning the ball over and being effective offensively.
“To finish the fourth quarter with an eight-play, 85-yard TD drive, that was the difference. We knew it was going to be a battle the entire game and that’s really the moment where we were able to say, OK, we have this. We’ve got the game. We did a good job defensively following that and then we finished with a field goal.
“Special teams-wise, Mitch (Jeter) going 3-for-3, that was major. And then I thought our kickoff coverage unit did a really good job of pinning them back a couple times. And those points are all key when you talk about winning the battle of field position. They all contribute to that.
“The player of the game on offense was Riley Leonard, defense was Xavier Watts and then special teams was Mitch Jeter. The scout players of the week were on offense Justin Fisher, on defense Kobi Onyiuke and special teams was Cam Williams.
“The last thing was I thought the coaches and players both did a really good job of making those first-game adjustments. There’s things that you can prepare for looking at the previous season, new coordinators, all those different things but game one is going to be a game about adjustments. I thought our coaches and players did a good job. The iPads were key. Those iPads really helped with getting your players to see the adjustments that we have to make and see what the opponent is doing.
“A lot to clean up and a lot to improve from and we’ve gotta continue to learn from the many teaching opportunities that a game really gives you. We’ve got to go back and prepare. We’ll evaluate it today with our players and give them the keys that we believe is going to help them to improve our performance, and we’ll move forward from there.
“Faison was the only major injury from that game. We expect him to be out probably one to two weeks with an ankle sprain, but we’ll see over the next week how he improves and when he’ll be able to come back.
“Moving forward, we have a really good Northern Illinois team coming here on Saturday. They’ve won seven of their last nine games dating back to last year. They return 18 starters — nine on offense, nine on defense — and have been very competitive in Coach [Thomas] Hammock’s tenure there versus Power 4 teams. And you talk about they beat Boston College last year. I think it was a 7-3 game versus Nebraska in the second quarter. The year before, there was a one-score game versus Kentucky. The year before, they beat Georgia Tech in ’21. So, they’ll be ready to roll. They’re gonna come in here ready to go and they’ve had success. So, we’ve gotta be ready to roll ourselves and really have a good week of prep.
“We finally get a chance to play in Notre Dame Stadium for the first time this year with our home crowd, and it’s gonna be exciting. So, we’re looking forward to that.”
Question: What texts or calls have you received in the last 36 hours that told you Saturday was a pretty big deal?
Marcus Freeman: “Well, I’ll tell you one I just had about 10 minutes ago. I had a call from my college coach [Jim Tressel]. Expecting to hear great job and big win, and it was, ‘Hey, I just want to remind you.’ He said the greatest danger is the illusion that all is well when indeed all isn’t well. That’s the reminder that I needed more than anything is that it was a big win for our program versus a good opponent, but we have so much work to really improve on, and that’s kind of the focus now as we go into Monday.”
What do you do coming off of a major road win to make sure you build off it?
MF: “It goes back to watching the film with a critical eye. You can’t let the emotions of a victory or a defeat affect the way you evaluate what you need to do to improve. We have to believe that our preparation is the key to us having success on Saturdays. That’s what we’ll continue to rely on. Hey, let’s evaluate the film, really understand and own the mistakes that we’ve made as coaches and players and then come up with a process to fix it and go attack it on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. Then we get a chance to go out and play on Saturday. So, we have to prepare, and we have to have a critical eye.”
After watching the film, what stood out about the way the offensive line played? What can be improved from here?
MF: “I was really proud of the way they performed. They did a good job versus a really tough defensive line and they battled. There’s some mistakes that maybe to the normal person’s eye that’s like ‘Man that’s an O-lineman's fault’, but there’s also some things as a coaching staff that we’ve got to put them in better situations, make some different checks and things like that. But they continued to battle, even after, you know maybe you got beat, you got a holding call, you had a false start. They reloaded and they went back and performed, and they really competed through all four quarters. So, really pleased with the performance of our offensive line.”
What was the plan for Mitchell Evans going into the game and what’s the plan for him going forward?
MF: “He just got cleared probably six days or seven days before we played. So, we were very intentional about getting him on the field in the right opportunities. Without having a full training camp, he just physically wasn’t ready to play 50, 60, 70 plays. Each week he’ll continue to increase his workload. It’s a long season. So, we’ve got to make sure that we give him the best opportunity to succeed throughout the entirety of the season.”
What did you learn about your offense against Texas A&M’s good defense that will help continue to push it toward its peak?
MF: “As coaches we know when we evaluate and say we have a ways to go as a team. And offensively Coach Denbrock feels the same way. But you know what we played well enough that game to beat a really good opponent. Now, we want perfection, so we’re going to go back and look at every play in terms of how we can execute and be efficient on every play. But it’s a constant chase for improvement. We say chase perfection, but it’s not achieved yet. So, we’ve got to go back and improve and that’s to me...we have to make sure our players have that same mindset that we do. It’s a constant chase for improvement. I think we’ll see how well we’ve done after the season. You look back and say man look how far you’ve come. But when you’re in the middle of it, man, you’re just talking about improving, improving, improving.”
What does KK Smith bring to the table with Jordan Faison out?
MF: “He was a guy that we said, hey he could possibly get in the game versus A&M and he ended up not getting in the game. But we have a lot of confidence in KK. Micah Gilbert’s another guy that I think we’ll see this week. We had a plan to say okay, we have six guys that we know at any point could be the starter, be on the field. Seventh and eighth at that point was KK and Micah and with Faison being down KK will have a increased roll. But there’s a lot of confidence from Micah Gilbert on down to everybody in that room. We’ll see him on Saturday for sure.
How did you evaluate Riley Leonard and the passing game and how much better can it get?
MF: “He did a really good job in some of his decision making. There were also some decisions that he probably wished he saw something or made a different decision. But he really played the quarterback position well. He did what we asked him to do and that was to take care of the football. We weren’t asking for explosive plays. This had to be a complementary football game, and Riley did a really good job of doing that.”
When you looked at the penalties, how easy is it to clean up and do you feel confident that it will be cleaned up?
MF: “Nothing's easy. It's not easy at all. But we have to to practice it. We have to drill it. It's the lack of focus penalties that were ones that you get frustrated on. You gotta see the ball snapped if you're on defense and you can't jump offsides. It's easy for me to say that, but we have to continue to drill that practice over and over and over. Two pre-snap penalties on offense that we got to clean up. Those are the ones that you can't accept. There's some other ones that is it holding is it not ... that's football. You're never going to be perfrect. But that pre-snap lack of focus penalties are the ones that we have to clean up and really continue to attack in practice.”
Why was Mike Denbrock on the field as opposed to being in the press box? Was that a game situation? How much of your aggression on fourth downs was dictated by the belief in your defense to stop A&M’s offense?
MF: “Denbrock's decision to be on the field was a decision that he made. And we talked about it. What's best for you as an offensive coordinator to get your job done? When you're a coordinator, if you're going to be on the field, which I was, you have to feel comfortable with who's in the box and who's going to give you the information you need. If you don't feel comfortable with that, a lot of times you go up. When we were at Cincinnati, he was on the field for our last three years together. And so, he feels comfortable with Gino [Guidugli] up there and the rest of our team giving him the information he needs. Sometimes as a coordinator, you need to be a voice. You need to be a leader. Leadership is figuring out what the group you're leading needs. And I think that’s a sign of Denbrock deciding to be on the field and putting Gino up. OK, that's what this group needs at this moment as a leader.
“The fourth down calls, I want to be aggressive. I had a plan going into the game that in certain areas of the field, one's a go. We were going to go for it. And right around that 50-yard line, two was a go. I made the decision to go for it. And we were 50%. Would like to be 100%. I wanted to be aggressive in that game. I said, listen, we have to be aggressive. Me as in some of those decisions, I wanted to be aggressive. I'm asking these guys to be aggressive and attack. I just didn't want to be cautious in that moment in the game. There was a comfort in knowing that our defense — I felt strongly about our defense too. All those things go into consideration before the game when you make these type of decisions. I had a plan going in to go for it in those situations. But the defense, knowing what your defense can do goes into consideration for sure.”
How do you balance the decision making between pushing the football down the field with Riley Leonard, which isn't necessarily on his list of strengths, and playing to his strengths and doing what you do best offensively?
MF: “I think a strength of Riley is pushing the ball down the field. That's just my opinion as his coach. I'm no quarterback guru, but I do feel strongly about being able to say, Riley, let's take some shots and throw it down the field. Probably more than anything going into the game, we might have thought we were going to see some different things defensively that maybe taking shots downfield wasn't always going to be the first thought. The other part of it was, again, as I said, the battle of field position. As the head coach, I said, that's got to be the focus this game — turnover margin and field position. If you take a shot on first down and you decide to throw it on second down, you’re in third-and-long, three-and-out, you're not changing the field position. We have to move the chains. All of it was a part of the plan.”
What are some of the areas you identified from Saturday did you guys think you can fix right away?
MF: “Those pre-snap penalties are one for sure. We practice it. But the results aren't where you want it. So we got to practice it in a different way. Right? And it takes time but it also takes strategy. And so we kind of sat down as coaches, how do we continue to find ways to address jumping offsides defensively. Offensively, to to handle crowd noise to make sure we don't have those pre-snap penalties. Those are two things right away that can be addressed immediately. Some of the, I guess, decisions, protections that we make as a coaching staff or our offense, those are things that we can fix. When you watch film, I wish we would have had this protection check instead of the one we have. So we don't have we got a freely going after our quarterback. So those are things that as a coaching staff that you can help right away. Some of those other things will take time.”
How much are you and your team looking forward to being here and having a full stadium full of your supporters?
MF: “Shout out to our fans that did go to College Station and felt them. They were loud. We we just felt their energy. But to be back home, there's no place like home. That's what they say. To be back in Notre Dame Stadium. Every time we practice in our stadium, I reminded the team this has to be special. We can't take it for granted. It can't be another game. And so, we owe it to each other for football program to perform at a high level, but also to these fans that come here and support us, to make sure we're performing at a high level and at a high standard. We're excited. Our crowd has to be an advantage. It's an advantage for Texas A&M, right? You can tell, during the game the atmosphere affects the game. Anybody that says it doesn't, you're not in one of these big stadiums, right? Your atmosphere and your crowd can truly have an impact on your opponent. They they're loud and their offense is on the field, it's hard. You gotta practice against that. We spent intentional time for how many weeks practicing against crowd noise offensively. It can be energizing defensively. when you're on offense and you have success in your home stadium and they get going crazy, that provides energy. Those are things that I want our crowd ... It's true ... you can impact the game with when you cheer and how loud you cheer.”
Jordan Botelho made big plays in the game, but it also seemed like he made plays where he was just doing his job and not busting things. Is that the biggest growth you’ve seen in him?
MF: “I feel like you were in our defensive film session. We said the same thing. Botelho played, ‘oof.’ There was a debate if he was the player of the game or Xavier Watts. Jordan played well, and he played hard. Like, consistently, he did his job, and that’s what you want to see out of a senior. From the time I’ve gotten here to where Jordan Botelho is now, man, he’s grown so much, and I’m so proud to be on this journey with him. His performance is a reflection of the way he’s prepared, though. He’s preparing his tail off, and he’s playing at a high level right now.”
How do you set up advanced scouting for week 2 with an unfamiliar opponent?
MF: “You prepare for them all summer, right? As you’re preparing for Texas A&M, you take time to say, ‘Okay,’ we have to dedicate time to prepare for, probably, our first three opponents—have a base game plan. And then you go back, and you watch one game to see what has changed from last year to this year. But you don’t know exactly what you’re going to see. You have one game, and then you have all of last year, so you have to be able to adapt and adjust. I know offensively, they do so many different things. So many shifts, so many motions, so many different personnels. It’s going to be a challenge to, one, recognize what personnel they have in the game. Two, to be able to handle all of the different formations they give us. Again, we have a base plan of what we thought we were going to be able to put together this summer, but obviously, that changes off the things you saw last week.”
How much growth have you seen from Adon Shuler in his time here? How much is attributed to the instinct that he has?
MF: "He’s got some God-given ability. He’s a ball hawk, that’s why we recruited him. He showed in high school that he was a playmaker. For Adon it’s a reflection of a lot of young people: okay, you’re really really good in high school. We evaluate you when you’re playing fast when you’re playing the best ball you can play. Then you come to college and you’re learning a brand new scheme, a brand new system, so you’re paralyzed a bit in terms of how fast you can play. So what you’re seeing from Adon in Year 2 is now he’s playing at that fast, high level where we evaluated him. He’s earned everything he’s got. His mom texted me and said ‘thank you for believing in him.’ I believed in him since the minute we evaluated him. He’s just now earning everything he’s getting on game days. Practicing well, studying, and I’m proud of the way he performed on Saturday."
There was a little bit of an analytics debate after the interview you did last week. How do you balance analytics?
MF: "You have to have a pre-game plan. We just talked about it on 4th-and-1 and 4th-and-2, I have to have a pre-game plan. But there’s also a gut feeling that you have to make as a head coach. Some of that is the momentum of that game. Some of that is where you’re at home or away. There’s a lot of different things that go into your pre-game plan but also your in-game decision making.
"Big Cat, that was his name, right? He didn’t agree with me to kick the extra point. He doesn’t know…I’ll get into that later. We’ll have a conversation coming up soon for sure. The analytics are the analytics. We have the book. Sometimes I agree and disagree with the book. I said it after the game, the book would tell you to go down. I’m pretty sure in J-Love’s situation. But you have to make decisions as a head coach in that moment, do you want to tell J-Love in the huddle ‘hey, go down.’ We were just trying to get a first down and stay in field goal range. I didn’t want to put that in his brain. Hey, go score. I have a belief in our defense that we’ll be able to stop them."
How helpful were the iPads and headset communication? How did you utilize them?
MF: "I thought our coaches and our players both really did a good job of utilizing the I-pads as a teaching tool. A learning tool. It was efficient. And it’s an operation. It’s not just coach to players—who’s the manager? Who’s picking it up? Who’s delivering it to the press box? There’s a whole logistical system and plan that we had to put in place and I thought we executed it really efficiently and I thought the feedback was great from the coaches and the players.
"In terms of the helmet communication, I thought it went well. The difficult part is ‘When does it turn on?’ It’s not when it turns off; we know it turns off at 15 seconds. But when exactly when is it going to turn on so we can communicate to whoever has it. Sometimes you want to go tempo and you have to wait for it to turn on so you can talk to your quarterback. Defensively if you want to make adjustments and their offense is going tempo and you want to get them a call and make a check, you have to still wait for it to turn on.
"It went really well. It wasn’t a negative. Just continuing to get that exact detail of when are you going to be able to communicate with them? We know when its going to turn off but when are we going to be able to get that person the info we need to."
What was going through your mind when you were getting pumped up in the tunnel before the game? Were you sending a message to your team?
MF: "Yeah, that was intentional. There’s a couple different reasons but I remember when we came out, I’m looking at Anthonie Knapp, I’m looking at Sam Pendleton. It’s their first time. They’re freshmen and they’re playing this big environment. It’s almost you go into parent-mode and you want to take that pressure off of them. Put it on me. Let’s go man, this is what we talked about. I remember right in that moment saying ‘We’re right here. This is what we showed you in the meetings. This is what we talked about. That’s what I told them, We’ve Been here! We know exactly where we’re at. Because that’s what I want them to feel when we’re going through that week of preparation that this is what the crowd is going to be like. We’ve ben here. I wanted to take a little of that pressure off of them and have that mentality of like, let’s go, man. Let’s go. We’re competitors. I didn’t want them to have any fear.
"It was intentional why I did that. Obviously I’m not always like that in that moment. But it wasn’t just being jacked up and being ready to go. Sometimes as a parent or coach you want to tell them I’m with you. Don’t fear. Have as much confidence in yourself as we have in you. We’re going this thing together. My wife sent me that video and I was probably a little bit out of control. It was intentional."
How important was it for Christian Gray to have a big moment in his career start? And what does it say that he showed that aggressiveness on that fourth-down stop?
MF: "He had good game. Christian is a good player. It’s good for him to make some big plays in that game. It’s a mentality to be aggressive on 4th-and-2 right there and jump that ball, because if all of a sudden it’s a slant-and-go, that’s 6 [points]. Playing corner, you have to know when to be aggressive, when you can take chances, and when you have to be smart. That shows you the confidence he had in recognizing the formation. I know Coach [Mike] Mickens and him spent endless hours working on formations and splits and down and distances, but you gotta trust it. You gotta go do it. He did it at the right time. That was a huge play.”
What did you think of what you were able to get out of Howard Cross III after dealing with a hamstring issue in camp?
MF: “He’s a problem on the inside. He’s tough to block. He played really well, was disruptive and had a sack. It’s good to have 56 back and full go."
What’s your evaluation of the non-Jack Kiser linebackers? You had Drayk Bowen and Jaiden Ausberry in for a big drive in the fourth quarter. What goes into that rotation?
MF: "I think it’s a reflection of the belief we have in all five of those backers. Any one at any time can be on the field and we’re not batting an eye. Kiser’s your captain. Kiser’s your vocal leader. But all of them at any time can perform at a level that we believe they need to perform. Auberry, shoot man, he played well. He made a lot of plays. Kyngstonn [Viliamu-Asa]’s out there as a freshman making plays. Drayk’s playing well. [Jaylen] Sneed’s being Sneed, doing some third down things but also doing well on base downs.
"Max [Bullough] has done a great job with those guys in that he has confidence. There are five starters. Those are five starters. When you’re playing with two at a time vs. 11-personnel sets, you have to be intentional about rolling them into the game. You can’t be emotional. You have to be intentional about who’s going in that series and I thought everybody in that room performed very well."
How does the pass protection communication work? How does it get cleaned up like when Leonard gets hit by a free rusher on a third down?
MF: "Here’s an example: You game plan all year versus a team and you say ‘OK, they haven’t shown to do this, so let’s not count this guy. He’s not going to come. They’re not going to drop this guy.’ And then all of a sudden they do it and you have somebody free going after your quarterback. So you have to get to the sidelines and say ‘OK, guys, that tendency that we saw isn’t holding true. Let’s make an adjustment. And that’s what you gotta do.
“But when you go into a game you have to make decisions and game plan based off what you think the tendencies show you. They did something we never saw, and that’s why we let that guy run free. It’s not a good game plan to let this guy blitzing hit your quarterback without being deterred. The greatest thing is we recognized it, we made adjustments and we didn’t let it happen again.”
Is it on Leonard to set it or change it?
MF: “No. That play is on Riley to listen to what his coaches said. Hey, we don’t think he’s coming. Slide the protection this way or that way. And he did. He trusted his coaches. Then when he gets to the sideline, we say ‘Hey, they did something they hadn’t shown. Let’s make sure next time we get this look we don’t slide the protection this way,’ whichever direction we were talking about. He was just doing what we told him to do, and we made the adjustments on the sideline after that.”
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