Notre Dame football head coach Marcus Freeman met with reporters Monday inside Notre Dame Stadium ahead of Saturday's season opener for the No. 7 Irish at No. 20 Texas A&M (7:30 p.m. EDT on ABC).
Here's everything Freeman had to say in transcript form. Answers are largely verbatim. Questions may have been edited for brevity and clarity.
SUBSCRIBE TO INSIDE ND SPORTS TO STAY IN THE KNOW ON NOTRE DAME ATHLETICS
Related Content
► Inside the surge of Notre Dame freshman OT Anthonie Knapp
► Notre Dame football names new starting offensive line
► Tracking the transfer trails, backstories of Notre Dame football's expats
► Notre Dame football depth chart projection for season opener at Texas A&M
► Ranking the opposing quarterbacks on Notre Dame football's 2024 schedule
---------------------------------------------------------------
Opening statement:
“It's here, right? Finally game week. I just reminded our players that you work about 300 days a year for 12 guaranteed opportunities, and we’ve finally gotten to game week. So, it’s exciting. We gotta have a great week of practice. We can’t get to the game before it’s here. Like, this week of preparation’s gonna be so crucial to dictate our performance on Saturday.
“This has been the healthiest fall camp, really, since I’ve been head coach. But as we’ve really taken data, probably from the last 12 to 15 years. We’ve had the fewest injuries in, I think, 15 years. We practiced 15% more this fall camp than we had previously. We only had one concussion, and we’re down 30% overall in concussions, strains and sprains. Just wanted to say I’d like to give credit to our sports performances team and the way they’ve supported our players outside of practice, and to our coaches that have bought into the adjustments we’ve had to make going into each practice. The way we’ve structured practice, the results have shown and it’s been really good. We’ve practiced more and had less injuries and that’s a great statistic.
“We put out our depth chart today, which I’m sure I’ll have questions about here soon. But I reminded our team last week that in my two years here, out of 52 possible starting lineups with O and D, we’ve had 39 different starting lineups. That’s about 82 different starters and it’s just a reminder that there’s one guarantee: that the future is uncertain. So, everybody on this trip has to be ready for any role, and that we’re gonna need everybody. Everybody that makes the trip down there, as we go throughout the season, we’re gonna need them all. So, as I told them, the first depth chart doesn’t dictate the value of you on this team, but also what the future will hold.
“I know you guys saw we announced our captains last week. Jack Kiser, Riley Leonard, Rylie Mills, Benjamin Morrison and Xavier Watts. Those five were chosen based off team voting, and I couldn’t agree more with the team in those five captains. But we had 16 players get more than one vote. If you get one vote, I often say ‘It might just be you’. But to have more than one vote, it shows the leadership we have on this football team.
“Onto the task at hand: Texas A&M, very talented team. As you watch the guys that return from last year’s team, they’re a very talented group. I have a lot of respect for Mike Elko and the job he’s done at Duke and previously as a defensive coordinator at different places and the way he’s developed his football teams. So, we know it’s gonna be a challenge. We’re looking forward to it. It’ll be a great environment. We’re looking forward to the opportunity to facing another top 20 program Saturday night down in College Station.”
Question: What is it about this team that it can cut through the clutter and the noise and be the team you need them to be Saturday night?
Marcus Freeman: “Well, I think you’re confident that you have a team that can do that. We’ve trained that. We’ve trained, really, being able to execute your assignment in crazy conditions with crowd noise and trying to do surprise situations in practice. But at the end of the day, they gotta do it when it matters, right? You can do it in practice. That builds confidence within yourself and with your coaching staff. But you gotta do it when it matters versus an opponent, and we won’t know that answer until we get to Saturday.”
When does a coach know his team is ready to play a game?
MF: “I think we’re always optimistic, right? I’ve never gone into a game saying, ‘We’re not ready.’ But you don’t know truly until you face an opponent and a good opponent at that. But I’m confident that this team is ready and will be ready when we go and face Texas A&M on Saturday.”
How did Anthonie Knapp win the left tackle job over Tosh Baker?
MF: “I think you make decisions in the moment based off previous experiences and then that’s the beautiful part of practice. Like, there’s competition. I tell those guys, ‘Every day you should be trying to take somebody’s job’. And every day if you’re a starter, you should know guys behind you are trying to take your job. We’ve had 10 practices since then that basically kind of got us to this conclusion that Anthonie Knapp will be our starting left tackle. But he’s worked tirelessly. He's done a really good job of building trust with his coaching staff and that’s why we made that decision.
How did Sam Pendleton go from backup center to starting left guard ahead of starting guards from last season?
MF: “I would say the same thing with Knapp, right? It’s consistency in doing the job you’re expected to do over and over and over, and that’s why you make decisions, right? It's not a one day thing and it’s not a last year thing. It’s ‘OK, who do we believe has consistently shown in practice to get the job done over and over and over?’ And that’s why we made those decisions. We have a lot of confidence in the two-deep of our offensive line. There’s guys with experience that are in the two-deep. But at the end of the day, you have to make a decision on who you want that first group to be, and Anthonie and Sam are two guys we felt will give us the best chance to have success.”
What are you doing to prepare for the Kyle Field atmosphere?
MF: “We’ve piped in crowd noise. We’ve been intentional about certain periods of it’s so loud you can’t even use your coach-to-player microphone speaker. Again, we’ll show them examples of what it’s like to play there in videos and different ways. Because you want them to be prepared. You want them to know what to expect. That’s gonna give them the best opportunity to have an idea of what’s going to be like on Saturday night. So, we’ve been intentional about doing that. We don’t do it every period, but there’s periods in practice we’re very intentional about piping in crowd noise, piping in some of the music that they play — their fight song and some of the chants — and just showing our guys ‘Hey, this is what to expect on Saturday’.”
How does your inexperienced offensive line match up with Texas A&M’s experienced defensive line?
MF: “It’s gonna be a great challenge. Their defensive line is going to present a great challenge no matter if you’re experienced or not. That’s what you’ll see on film over and over. They’ve got a really good defensive line. But the guys that are gonna play, they go against our defensive line every day. We feel very confident in the defensive line we have. They’ve shown to have success against really good defensive linemen, and we feel those guys will give us the best chance. That’s why we made that decision.”
What challenges does Mike Elko present as a defensive coach?
MF: “Their defenses have shown to be very sound. First and second down, they’re really sound in what they do. They play hard, they tackle well. And then on third down you can see some exotic things. That is something that, over the test of time, you’ve seen in Mike Elko defenses. So, our job is to try to, as best as we can, not to put ourselves in third-and-long situations where they can become super exotic.
“But we’ve got to be able to handle the things they do. You’re not going to be able to trick them. They’re sound, and they play hard. So, we’ve got to be able to match up and be aggressive in what we do, right? And have confidence in what we’re doing offensively that we can move the ball against any defense.”
What gives you confidence in the six-wide receiver rotation against Texas A&M?
MF: “All six guys have played with the ones in fall camp. That’s why we decided to have ‘ors.’ Those six guys, I don’t care who goes out with the first group, all six guys are going to play. All six guys have the ability to make plays down the field, to do exactly what we ask them to do in our run and passing game and we have a lot of confidence in all six of them.”
CLICK HERE TO SUBSCRIBE TO INSIDE ND SPORTS ON YOUTUBE
What do Ashton Craig and Billy Schrauth do well? Has Aamil Wagner settled into his starting spot?
“Aamil has done a really great job from the start of camp until now. He’s been really consistent. Him and Billy have a good camaraderie on that right side.
“The things that Billy and Ashton do really well is they’re powerful people. The things you ask your center to do are different than the guard in terms of some of the recognitions and calls and checks he has to make. Ashton is extremely intelligent, and he’s really good with some of his calls and stuff like that. He’s been consistent with his snaps, but the power. Those two are powerful individuals. They like to create a new line of scrimmage on the other side of the ball. That’s something that’s going to be necessary to have success in the run and the pass game.”
Do you get three green dots for helmet communication on the defensive side of the ball?
MF: “You can have as many as you want. Only one on the field at a time.”
Who else defensively, besides Jack Kiser, will wear a green dot in the game?
MF: “Our linebackers. So, Drayk [Bowen] will have a helmet on the sideline. Kyngstonn [Viliamu-Asa]. I think all of our linebackers will have the chance, if necessary, to put on a green dot, but Kiser will have the green dot to start.”
How much does facing a program with a new head coach add to the complexity of your preparation?
MF: “The openers, no matter if the coach is returning or not, coordinators are returning or not, you don’t truly know what to expect. You have an idea of what to prepare for, but openers are huge in terms of adjustments. We have to be able to adjust on the sideline to what we’re seeing on both sides of the ball, special teams.
“So, that’s something we’ve talked about in-depth as a coaching staff is that this game’s going to be about adjustments. How do we settle down based on what we’re seeing from our opponent to say, ‘OK, here’s the things we want to do on each side of the ball.’
“We understand that. It’s been like that since the first couple of years as the head coach that you have to be able to make an adjustment, especially in that first game.”
Is there any benefit of opening the season away from home?
MF: “Yeah. Through fall camp, you continue to preach that at the end of the day, it’s still 120x53 1/3 [yards]. That’s the things that matter. You prepare them for the elements, the things that are outside of the football field, but at the end of the day, it’s about the execution between the 120x53 ⅓ lines.
“Our guys are excited. Sometimes it’s good to go on the road. We love playing at home, but sometimes it’s good to go on the road, us against everybody. It’s gonna be exciting. We’re looking forward to it.”
Where do you believe this roster has made the greatest strides since you arrived at ND?
MF: “I think the depth. We’ve continued to improve the depth of all positions. It’s not very often you can replace Joe Alt at left tackle, then you lose the starting left tackle and still feel very confident about the left tackle that’s going into the game. And we do. Our coaching staff has done a great job — our recruiting staff — of developing depth at all positions. Each year, it’s different. That’s the great challenge of a coach is that you don’t just reload. You have to start over with this new group of talent and build it the right way and have a process that you believe is going to have an output that you want on these 12-guaranteed opportunities. So, I’m really pleased with the depth of this football team how our coaches and staff has recruited.”
Did the elevated quality of depth contribute to fewer fall camp injuries? Did you go into camp intending to have 15% more practices? Or was that a byproduct of the health?
MF: “No, it was intentional. It was intentional to make sure we don’t cut back on practice. Part of that was through me kind of going and visiting some other teams and programs and NFL teams. You can’t cheat practice. You have to practice. You’ve got to get the reps you believe you need to have a team prepared. So, it was intentional to make sure that we practiced more, but the changes came in how we structured practice. How we structured it and the flows of practice.
“But another key element was the health. So, what happens sometimes is in the spring, we had somebody go down and now all of a sudden, it’s added loads to everybody else. To be able to keep the majority of your team healthy, helped with continuing to being able to have two-spot team periods and really getting all of those periods accomplished.”
What can you point to that’s evidence of having more leaders beyond the five captains?
MF: “I think this might come out on the follow doc, one of these episodes coming up, but it was interesting how the voting played out where you had those five guys who got the majority of the votes that were named captains. But right below them, you had six offensive guys that got double-digit votes from like 25 to the upper teens.
“What I told the offense, I said, ‘Man, this is exactly how you want it to be. You’ve got your quarterback that’s the captain, and then you’ve got some real leaders on that offensive side of the ball.’
“Defensively, you’ve got four captains, right? So, that shows you about their leadership, but I love that. Let the quarterback get the shine. You’re good. You’re the captain, but we’ve got real leadership. That’s not just two votes. I’m talking about high teens to 20s, so that spoke volumes to me of the way our team viewed the leadership in our offensive room.”
What have you seen in Riley Leonard to know he can play in front of 100,000 people and be just fine?
MF: “He’s played in, obviously, big-game environments throughout his career. He’s done a really good job throughout his career of doing his job. I have a lot of confidence in him. Just from what he’s done, but also the trust that he’s earned here.
“We try to create high-pressure situations in practice. You can’t bring in 100,000 fans for practice, although you guys might like that. What you try to do is create high-pressure situations and see how your team performs. Riley’s performed really well in those situations.”
What’s the injury to Chance Tucker? In light of that and the safety competition, do you have to crosstrain any safeties as cornerbacks?
MF: “Chance will be out for the year. He tore his ACL. I love Chance. He’s a great teammate. He’s a great person. You feel terrible for him that he loses this season. But as far as the DBs, again it goes back to the recruiting question. We’ve developed. We’ve got a lot of depth there. I’m very confident in the depth of both the safety and the corners room. Rod Heard’s a guy that can play multiple positions. He can play corner, he can play safety, he can play nickel. So, he gives you added depth to both rooms.
“But I really like it. I like the depth. Adon Shuler has done a great job at proving he can be trusted and counted on. He’s going to be a really good player for us. Then we’ve got some good, young guys like Leonard Moore and Karson Hobbs and some of those guys that are all going to be able to help us this year.”
With the heat wave in South Bend, are you too close to the game to take advantage of that? Or is this what you need?
MF: “Appreciate the good Lord almighty bringing the heat here. What else would you want being here at Notre Dame? Our Mother on top of the Golden Dome will bring a little heat on Monday, Tuesday and probably into Wednesday. No, it’s not too late. We’ve been preparing for the heat, but now it’s not just preparing. You’ll feel it. You’ll feel it out at practice. It’s probably going to be warmer tomorrow during practice than it probably will be for the game. It’s a great reminder for our players. You have your routines for hydration and refueling, but now you have to do it with the heat. It’s not just, hey, remind you to drink fluids and to have carbs during these breaks that we have. The heat will force you to do that too.
“It's going to be good to be out there. We’ll go out there today. We’ll go out there tomorrow and get a little bit of it on Wednesday too. It’s going to be good for our team to really just feel the heat and double down on that routine we talked about to help them perform at a high level.”
How big of a tone setter is this game for your season?
MF: “I’ve thought about that. It’s a great opportunity to face a great opponent to see how good your program is Week 1. But no matter what the outcome of this game is, it doesn’t dictate what the season’s going to be. I’m sure a guy like [Florida State head coach] Mike Norvell’s having that same conversation. They come in with high expectations and they lose the first one, but guess what? You have a whole bunch of football ahead of you and you can still achieve all your goals. We are going to do everything in our power to make sure we’re ready to win this game. That’s what you do. You get 12 guaranteed opportunities, and I don’t care who the opponent is. You have success? You have to get refocused for the next week. You don’t have success? You have to get refocused for the next week. This is just Game 1, and we need to understand that.”
Are there things on the field that you’ll try to do to take the crowd out of the game?
MF: “I don’t think there’s anything intentional that we’re going to try to do to take the crowd out. That will be determined probably based off our execution. For us, it’s the preparation for a loud crowd that’s more important than anything. We didn’t do a great job last year of playing clean at Duke. We had too many pre-snap penalties. We’ve been very intentional on preparing a loud environment in practice so we eliminate the pre-snap penalties. We can’t let the crowd affect our operation. I feel very confident we have a great plan for the crowd noise.”
What has Christian Gray done to claim a starting cornerback job?
MF: “He’s a great football player. He’s talented. But he had a great example and mentor in Benjamin Morrison. Those two roomed together in the hotel, and I would see them studying last year when Christian wasn’t the starter. He was the third or fourth cornerback after Cam Hart and he was preparing to be the guy. Fast forward into the spring and the fall, you can’t wait for your opportunity to start preparing that way. He’s prepared that way since he got here. He had a great example of how to prepare with Benjamin Morrison. But he has now developed into a true corner. He’s not just a good player with great talent. He is a really good cornerback. That’s with Coach [Mike] Mickens and the way he’s developed that room, some of the leaders in that room and him putting work in, he’s developed into a really good cornerback.”
Did Mitchell Evans take contact in camp? Is that something you do with players coming back from an injury?
MF: “Oh, yeah. Mitchell Evans definitely has and the same thing with Benjamin Morrison. He’s gotten some live reps with tackling even though he had shoulder surgery. You have to callous yourself a little bit. You have to tackle. You have to take live reps. It’s important that you feel confident. It’s probably more for the individual than it is for the medical staff. That individual needs that confidence. I remember Benjamin Morrison came to me and said, ‘Coach, I have to tackle. I need to tackle. I want to be in there live.’ Because we held him out of some live situations. And the medical staff said he doesn’t have to do that, but for his own confidence he wanted to do that. To have him out on that field in those live situations, to have Mitchell Evans out, not being in a controlled environment, was important for their own confidence.”
What intrigued you about Texas A&M offensive coordinator Collin Klein when you interviewed him for Notre Dame’s job?
MF: “More than anything as you watch his offenses at Kansas State, he does a great job of utilizing different personnel, formation shifts. I remember at the time we were looking for an offensive coordinator, what attracted me to what they did at Kansas State was their ability to use multiple tight ends, to have some type of what I call the pro-style offense and have success doing it. You see the same thing, even this past year, when you watch his film. A lot of different formations, a lot of different personnel, utilizing multiple tight ends. Very creative mind. You’re preparing for a lot more than what you’re really going to see. We have to be able to settle down and say, OK, here’s the things we think we’re going to see or that we are seeing in the first couple of series and here’s what we want to do defensively.
How do you prepare for freshman Terry Bussey who might play in all three phases?
MF: “He’s also a guy that I think he’s going to be kick returner too. Big high school recruit, speed. He’s a fast guy. I don’t know how they’re going to use him. Are they going to use him as a running back or as a wideout or defensively? I don’t know. But he’s a good player. He is a good player that was a good high school player. We’ll have to know where he’s at and have him be accounted for.”
---------------------------------------------------------------
• Talk with Notre Dame fans on The Insider Lounge.
• Subscribe to the Inside ND Sports podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, SoundCloud, Podbean or Pocket Casts.
• Subscribe to the Inside ND Sports channel on YouTube.
• Follow us on Twitter: @insideNDsports, @EHansenND and @TJamesND.
• Like us on Facebook: Inside ND Sports
• Follow us on Instagram: @insideNDsports
