Notre Dame head football coach Marcus Freeman met with the media on Monday at Notre Dame Stadium ahead of Saturday's matchup between the 12th-ranked Irish (6-1) and No. 24 Navy (6-0). The game will be played in MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J., and be televised on ABC at 12 p.m. EDT.
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: “Obviously, after watching it on Sunday as a staff, it was a good win, it was a big win. I thought our players and our coaches did a great job of, one, preparation but also the in-game adjustments that you have to do in any football game. We did a really good job of that. A lot of good in all three phases, a lot of good things to point out. But continuously we’ll make sure we focus on the areas of improvement. That’s what we gotta continuously do: find ways to improve, correct the mistakes and continue to try to take this program to another level.
“The message to the team will be: Consistency is the key. Consistency is what it will take. It’s really not hard to sacrifice one day, one moment, one play. But consistency is greater than just temporary sacrifice. We gotta continuously be obsessed with going from good to great. That’s what it takes to reach your full potential and have a constant strive for perfection. This must be a consistent thing for our program. So, we’ll get back to work. I’m very happy with the outcome and the performance of our team. But I also know there’s a lot of room for improvement, so we’ll continue to work on those things.
“Player of the game on offense was Jeremiyah Love, defense was Drayk Bowen and special teams was Davis Sherwood. Scout players of the week were on offense Anthony Rezac, defense Tre Reader and special teams Alex Whitman.
“Couple injury updates: Mitch Jeter will still be questionable. We’ll see if he can give it a go. He tried to warm up but wasn’t able to feel like he could contribute in a way he needed to. So, he’ll still be questionable. Billy Schrauth will be available, but in a role that’s to be determined. That will be based off this week’s practice. Not 100% sure what the role will be yet, but he will be available as he returns back to play.
“Moving forward to Navy, a 6-0 team. It’s going to be a great challenge for our program. They’re putting up big numbers offensively. Their offensive scheme is enhanced from what we saw last year as we prepared for them last season. They’ve really done a job of enhancing what they do offensively. They’ve been tremendous in the red zone on offense and defense. They’ve done a great job in terms of creating turnovers and protecting the football. They’re really good in the turnover-margin battle. They’re playing great complementary football, they’re playing hard, they’re playing sound and it’s going to be a great challenge for our program.
Q: What allowed special teams to make plays in waves against Georgia Tech?
MF: “It was probably the best overall performance by our special teams. We faked a field goal, faked a punt, blocked a field goal. I think on two kickoffs had tackles inside the 20, and then we recovered an onside kick. A couple of those fakes were things that we prepared for. The punt was a fake we prepared for a couple weeks. We were looking for a chance to steal a possession. We knew we were going to be limited in possessions offensively. But the preparation, the confidence that was earned from me in practice to call them and to say let’s do it comes from the way we executed in practice and what we saw on film. It was good to see our special teams group really perform at a high level and have some impact plays. We gotta be more consistent at punter. There’s room to grow. I’m going to focus on those things: We have to be more consistent at punter. And we will. We will.”
Q: When special teams contributes like that, what does that do to confidence of the room?
MF: “Special teams is one of those unique phases that everybody on the team’s involved with. You go from the O-line and D-line, talking about field goal and field goal block, it’s something that brings the entire team together. It’s not offense and defense. It truly has an impact on the game. You can see when you practice something, especially a fake, the players want to see you run it. I met with a guy that didn’t travel on Sunday. He was like, ‘Coach, every time you guys went on punt, I wanted to see if you guys were going to run the fake and we went crazy when you guys did.’ It ignites a team. It’s an important phase, and Coach Biagi’s done a great job of getting those phases, those groups to play at a high level."
Q: What about this Navy offensive scheme has made it so difficult to defend this season?
MF: “I don’t know what the percentage was last year, but this year they’re about 45% in the gun. That’s something that I know it wasn’t that percentage last year. They were some in the gun some, but not in the gun. It’s not your traditional, just every play, quarterback under center, triple option. It is some type of option, but they can do it out of gun, under center. They have some good playmakers. The thing I notice is they play with clarity. They play fast. They do what they do. And that’s something we’re going to have to make sure that we truly prepare for.”
Q: What kind of challenge does quarterback Blake Horvath present?
MF: “He makes really good decisions. He’s a good decision maker. If you give him one read, he’s going to do exactly what he’s supposed to do. If you give him another read, he’s going to do exactly what he’s supposed to do. He’s a threat with his legs, but he’s also been doing really well in the pass game. He’s experienced, and he’s doing a great job leading that offense.”
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Q: As it relates to the Navy offense, you’re young on defense. What are the concerns in facing this style of offense?
MF: “The old adage when you did play triple-option teams was that it was almost opposite of what I usually say. I usually say I don’t want to play fitball, we gotta play football. But I don’t want to get caught up by playing just fitball defensively, but you gotta be disciplined. You gotta be disciplined. It’s really hard to simulate in practice the speed at which they run their offense. It can take a little time, especially for guys that have not faced that type of offense, to realize the speed at which they run their offense. And then when all of a sudden you’re trying to adjust to the speed, you can lose your eyes on keeping your eyes on your assignment. We have to be disciplined. We have to practice until we can’t get it wrong, but then we gotta understand it’s going to take a little bit of time to catch up to game speed on Saturday.”
Q: What was behind the aggressiveness on fourth down up 17 in the fourth quarter? One of the broadcasters was speculating that it was about style points for the College Football Playoff committee?
MF: “No, at that moment — I think you’re talking about the fake punt and the fake field goal. At that moment, I felt like that was the right decision, regardless of the score at that point. It was like we want to steal a possession. We’re in a position where we can’t go for the field goal. I really don’t want to punt in this situation. If we can fake it here and they give us the look, let’s do it. That’s why we called it. I felt good about that play at that moment. Again, I tell our players all the time, the future’s uncertain. Why spend time worrying about making a decision today about what the committee or somebody else is going to think? I just felt like in that moment that’s what we needed to do, and that’s why we called it.”
Q: What has Billy Schrauth been able to do last couple weeks in practice?
MF: “He was able to get some scouted periods last week. That was his first time he was able to do actual football practice, practiced actual football stuff, not doing rehab. But it was limited in terms of what he was able to do. This week it will increase more, but again, his role is still to be determined.”
Q: Who are the scout team QBs this week?
MF: “You’re asking me if Buchner’s going to be the scout team quarterback, I’m sure. He’s going to get some scout-team quarterback reps, along with Anthony Rezac, who’s been the scout team quarterback ever since CJ [Carr] has been out. Both of those guys will simulate the Navy quarterback.”
Q: How do you and Al Golden prepare for all the adjustments that Navy is able to make within its offense? How did you do it last year versus this year when it’s in the middle of the season?
“We’ve been preparing for it since fall camp. You’re intentional about having Navy periods on certain days during fall camp. We attacked it again during the bye week. So we had a good base, a foundation, for what we plan on doing. We’ve enhanced it, obviously, since Sunday when we got together and starting game planning. They’re going to have adjustments. We just have to feel like we have more than just one defense to try to defend them. They’ve done a great job of not getting behind the sticks. It’s staying in the flow of what they want their offense to do. We gotta continue to try to create some negative plays. There’s an aggressiveness that we have to play with in terms of tactically. I’m not saying the mentality but also how we call it in some of our designed defenses. It’s gonna be a little bit of both. Try to get them off schedule a little bit, but also make sure we’re sound in what we’re doing.”
Q: What does the Navy prep look like in August camp and in bye weeks? How do you work your first-unit defense into what Navy’s doing with your scout-team offense?
MF: “Part of it is the fundamentals of playing a triple-option offense. That’s how you start back in fall camp. Hey, what are our base rules and our fundamentals of how we’re going to play, because it’s differently than how you play versus a normal offense. Probably the bye week was a little bit ramped up in terms of more scheme, more looks that we saw in the first couple weeks of the seasons from their offense. Now this week it’s full-go. It’s the plan to attack. You still gotta start with a little bit of fundamentals, because the way you defend them, the fundamentals of the way you defend this type of offense is different than a normal week. But now you gotta go full speed in pads and simulate it as best you can.”
Q: Where is your offense in its overall evolution? How much more growth would you like to see there?
MF: “It’s been tremendous. From week 1 to now, the growth of our offense, the growth of our staff with the players has been really, really good, and they’re performing really well. There’s still so much more out there to continue to improve. The big thing for our offense is consistency. We gotta continue to be consistent on every single play. That goes back to our preparation and executing on Saturdays, but there’s more. There’s more, and they believe it. That’s most important. You have to believe there’s more. And if you do, then you’re willing to put the work in. I’m so pleased with the growth and the performance, but I’m also motivated knowing that we still got a lot of room to continue to improve.”
Q: One area of improvement might be starting slow. Is that something you think you need to focus on now? Have you been able to figure out why the opening drives haven’t been as good?
MF: “I kind of went back and looked. I’m a person that I like to evaluate the plays, but I wanted to take a look and say, OK, what’s been the issues? Offensively, we’ve actually done a really good job on our opening drives. I wrote down we’re 57% scoring drive rate on the first drive, which is like 20th in college football. Offensively, we’ve done a really good job. And then the three punts that we’ve had on the opening drive that resulted where the offense is starts, I think, in the minus-37 or even farther back. What we gotta do is be better defensively. I think we’re 57% in terms of the opposing team’s offense scoring, which is bottom quarter of college football. We really gotta be better there on that first drive. What you’re seeing as you go back and evaluate it is a lot of different things on that first drive that you probably haven’t seen on film. You got the same thing from Georgia Tech. Some different looks, some different personnels that we hadn’t seen. But the adjustments have been crazy. From the second through the fourth quarter, our defense is No. 1 in college football in yards per play. It’s a credit to the adjustments that they’re making, but we gotta continue to find ways to be better on that first series. That’s the area of improvement that we can really focus on. The specials teams gotta be better. We had a muffed punt versus Miami (Ohio). We fumbled the opening kickoff return versus Louisville, which is detrimental to a team. I want to be number one in the country on the very first drive in all three phases. But you have to go back and evaluate. OK, what play, what is it? What play of the last game caused the outcome that we got? That’s what we gotta continue to focus on and attack those plays. If we can guarantee that every practice if we went out and said, OK, it’s opening drive of the game. Let’s make it competitive. That that would get the result we wanted, we would do it. We’ve done that before. But we gotta continue to just fix those plays, fix the issues that come about in those opening drives.”
Q: I imagine the 20-hour rule isn’t in effect with it being fall break. How does this week look different? How do you balance that with keeping the players in their habits?
MF: “You can’t practice them for 40 hours now, because they don’t have school. But you can utilize some of that off time for maybe non-physical preparation. So the ability to have our guys watching extra film, the ability to get some walk-throughs in are going to be crucial. The physical is the physical aspect. We have to make decisions in our plan to make sure we’re ready to go on Saturday. There is some consistency in terms of the physical preparation. The ability to have them in for more meetings, the ability to have player-led meetings sometimes is something we have to take advantage of, and we will.”
Q: Jordan Faison still has more receptions in the Sun Bowl than he has this whole season. I know he was running around out there and blocking on some run plays. When he gets fully healthy, what can he do to help this offense?
MF: “The impact he made on that game to the people in the football program is tremendous. When you watch the plays that he was in, the way he blocked, some of the things he did, the routes he did run, just because he didn’t get the ball, he performed at an extremely high level. But didn’t get the balls, didn’t get the stat line that really says to maybe the outsides that it was a great performance. But he really performed really well. He’s healing. He’s getting back to the guy he was before he got injured. We’ll continue to find ways to try to get him the ball. But again, sometimes those outcomes are a reflection of what the defense is doing and what decision is made at quarterback and those types of things. You talk about a guy that was asked to do this role, he couldn’t have accomplished it at a higher level than he did on Saturday.”
Q: Normally when you’re going an option offense with two sophomore and one freshman linebacker, you get asked if they’re ready for that. But it seems like Drayk Bowen, Jaiden Ausberry and Kyngstonn Viliamu-Asa are getting better every game. How rare is that to have guys so young that you can see getting better?
MF: “One, it’s a credit to recruiting. We did a good job of evaluating and recruiting really good players, but they’re developing. They’re becoming more comfortable. They have great God-given abilities, but Coach [Max] Bullough’s doing a great job of developing those skill sets to really show up on Saturdays. They’re committed to it, too. Like those guys are committed to it. This game will require you to make sure you’re disciplined with your eyes, you understand your fit, then you gotta use your God-given abilities. Those three guys and some other young guys we’ll make sure they’ll do that.”
Q: How much does it help to have Jack Kiser during Navy preparation?
MF: “He can obviously spread his wisdom to some of those guys that haven’t played against a triple-option team. But he’s a problem-solver. He is a problem-solver when he’s out there. The ability for him to communicate and get other people lined up, to communicate and tell somebody what’s happening is tremendous. My challenge to Jack is, I keep reminding him, he’s gone in a couple games. Like this is it. Now, you gotta challenge that room to step up. You can’t always make all the calls and the checks. Your job is to leave that room better than you found it, and you gotta make sure some of those young guys are seeing it the way you see it, can make those checks and are not always dependent on you to do it. But it is a level of comfort for a coach and for those young guys to have a guy like Jack in that room.”
Q: How much did you emphasize, especially with the linebackers, not just making the tackle but driving through the man against Georgia Tech? What kind of cumulative effect does that have in the course of a game?
MF: “It is interesting you noticed that. That was something, as we evaluated the game, that was the best our backers have played in terms of point of contact, driving guys back. And it’s huge, because now you’re talking about third-and-short situations. It gives our defense a chance to say, ‘OK, fourth down. Don’t give them a free first down.’ If you can drive guys back and limit the point of contact, that is huge. Because we’ve had a lot of success defensively on fourth-and-short this year, and a lot of that has to do with on third down, just at the point of contact you’re not giving up that extra yard. That is a huge effect that as you look at the game, has a cumulative effect on the opponent physically, but also mentally when you’re able to get them into short-yardage situations and stop them.
Q: Is there an upside to going down early because then when the guys are down in the third quarter they’ve been there before?
MF: “I don’t prefer to get behind early in the game, but it’s a great reminder. I told them before the game that — I don’t want to say this in a negative way, but you’re equipped with weapons and tools. How foolish are we to have these tools and weapons and not use them? So when you get behind early, there’s a tool. Bam. Stay in the moment. Don’t worry about the score. Don’t worry about the outcome. Stay in the moment and win this play. I think when you get behind in a situation like that, it’s a great reminder, ‘Hey, use those tools that you have in this moment to not worry about the last play, not worry about the next play. Focus on this play.’ If we can continue to get our guys to do that, no matter if we’re up or down — stay right here, stay in the moment — that is going to be something that pays dividends for this football program.”
Q: How have you seen Leonard Moore’s ability to move on to the next play after giving up big plays?
MF: “At that position, you have to truly, more than any — probably quarterback — but at that position, you gotta have a short-term memory. You gotta let the good or bad play, the previous play, go and really focus on this play. Leonard is a guy, from the moment he got in here, that’s had tremendous ability. Part of my message to the team is at the snap of a finger, you can be thrust into the spotlight. And then everybody outside of our program can recognize some of the individual accomplishments that you’ve really shown. But the first thing you have to do is earn the trust and respect of your teammates way before you get a chance to go do it on that field. Leonard’s a guy that has done that from the moment he’s gotten here. So, when all of a sudden you’re thrust into the spotlight because B-Mo (Benjamin Morrison) goes down, everybody else will see it now — that you’re a heck of a player and you’re doing some great things — but everybody in our football program has known through that trust that he’s built from the time he’s gotten here. He’s gonna continue to get better, continue to do great things. He has the right mentality, the right coach and he’s been blessed with some good genetics, too.”
Q: What kind of reminders do you have for Adon Shuler on the importance of eye discipline and wrapping up on tackles?
MF: “Every week that matters, especially this week. Eye discipline’s gonna be so crucial, because this week, more than any week, lack of eye discipline can truly result in an explosive play. And this offense is really — I don’t know the stats — but I know they’ve had more explosive plays than probably anybody else in the country. They’ve had a lot of explosive plays, which I’m sure goes back to a lack of eye discipline. Tackling’s gonna be crucial. We gotta practice it, and we gotta have great eye discipline.”
Q: It always seems like there’s more there for Eli Raridon. What kind of conversations do you have with him about untapped potential in the passing game?
MF: “It’s funny you say that, because we talked about our tight ends in our meeting on Sunday. We felt like this was Mitch [Evans]’ best game as he’s come back to play. Cooper [Flanagan] is still recovering. He’s still getting back to the Coop he was before the injury. But we feel like Eli might be one of the most complete tight ends we have in terms of what he does in the run game and the pass game. He is really becoming a complete tight end. I don’t know how many catches. He might have had one or two catches. But he’s really running the routes the way you want him to run them. He’s blocking better than he ever has and is really helping our offense and our tight ends room. I could not speak any more highly of Eli in terms of his progression and, obviously, where he’s gonna continue to go.”
Q: What did you saw from Riley Leonard responding to the interception against Georgia Tech?
MF: “I love it. I love it. He’ll be the first one to tell you he probably predetermined that decision to throw that ball before he saw the rotation of the coverage. He kind of laughed as he came off the field like, ‘I got it. I know what I did.’ The confidence, man. He’s got a lot of confidence. He gets on the field after that interception and throws 12-straight completions. He throws 12-straight completions. You’re gonna make mistakes, especially when we want you to be confident in your decisions and throw the ball in tight windows. You have to be able to respond the way he did. That’s just a reflection of the confidence, the ability to understand the game plan and to trust the coaching that he’s had. So, really proud of the way he responded from that interception.”
Q: What does it mean to have this Notre Dame-Navy rivalry as one of the biggest matchups of the college football weekend?
MF: “It’s awesome. It’s a great rivalry that goes back many years, and there’s a lot of history behind it. Just a credit to the job Coach [Brian] Newberry has done with that program, from where it was last year when we played them to where it is now, to be 6-0 and doing the things it’s doing. It’s a credit to their program. I love it. We’re looking forward to a great challenge. To play a 6-0 team, as the head coach, you’d much rather do that than play a team that’s 0-6, because it doesn’t take much to motivate your guys. They know the opponent. They know the challenge we have ahead of us. So, looking forward to the opportunity, should be a great matchup and we’ll get back to preparation and get ready for it.”
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