Marcus Freeman answers if he would ever take over pre-snap defensive play-calling duties

Throughout his career, both as an assistant and now as the head coach at Notre Dame, Marcus Freeman has been known for his excellent defenses. This year, however, the Irish have stumbled out of the gate on that side of the ball, which has left Freeman looking for answers.

This has come after Notre Dame made a change at defensive coordinator from Al Golden to Chris Ash. Now, there has been some push for Marcus Freeman to take over playcalling duties on the side of the ball that’s been his calling card. However, for the time being, he is pushing back on the idea that it’s the playcalling and not some other underlying issue holding the Irish back on defense.

“If I thought it was a call,” Marcus Freeman said. “If I thought we weren’t calling the game the right way — trust me, I know the definition of insanity. If that was the case, you gotta do what’s best with your program. But that’s not, to me, the issue when I’m evaluating our defensive play. It’s not what we’re calling at this time or why we’re calling it. It’s, okay, why aren’t we executing? Me saying I’m gonna call the defense means, it’s a call. If I’m gonna call the defense, it’s based on a call. We’re not calling the right calls. I don’t believe that’s true or I would say, ‘Hey, Chris Ash, call this.’ It’s, okay, we called this for this reason and it didn’t work. They executed an explosive play. What’s the reason behind it? And that’s what we spend a lot of time evaluating and discussing.”

The numbers do tell a scary story for the Notre Dame defense in the three games that Chris Ash has been their defensive coordinator. Against three Power Four opponents, the Irish are 1-2. That’s put their backs against the proverbial wall. In that run, Notre Dame is 118th in scoring defense, giving up 32.7 points per game. On top of that, Notre Dame is also 101st in total defense, giving up 398.7 yards per game.

“So, how do you get them to execute it at a better level or play with the right fundamentals? I think it still starts with a buy-in of, ‘It’s me.’ Everybody. I think right now we gotta make sure in our football facility that we’re not pointing a finger at a call. We’re not pointing a finger at, ‘If he would’ve called something else or if he would’ve.’ We’re pointing a finger at ourselves, as, ‘What am I not doing to execute this call the right way?’ If I’m confused, then you better speak up and say something,” Freeman said. “Because you’re gonna be held accountable. But if we do this [points at himself] and we do this [clasps hands together], we’ll get it fixed. That’s the challenge during tough times. I get excited when I talk.”

This amounts to two options from Marcus Freeman’s perspective. The Irish can either have a fight or flight response. The hope is that the players fight, and are able to correct what’s gone wrong. It’s that, rather than a change in playcalling, that Freeman expects his team to need.

“During tough times, there’s two options: Fight or flight. And the guys that flight blame other people. It’s the call. It’s his fault. It’s this coach’s fault or it’s that player’s fault. We gave up a big play, that corner should’ve covered him. That’s the flight mode. You deflect and blame other people. But the fight mode is, ‘Gosh. Call man again. Call man again. I promise you my man’s not gonna catch the ball. I’m gonna play with the right technique and I’m gonna refuse to let my man catch the ball.’ Put the pressure — ‘Man, I should’ve, agh, I gotta coach this better. I gotta coach this better. He should’ve known that this is the technique to play with. Okay, I gotta change his technique.’ That’s the fight mode,” Freeman said.

“But in order to do that, everybody’s gotta be bought in. Everybody’s gotta believe that we have the answers. It’s not a person. It’s not, ‘Marcus Freeman should be calling the defense.’ We have the answers. We gotta all buy-in and execute this the right way.”

Along with the change at defensive coordinator, Notre Dame also saw some major turnover on the roster. In particular, the Irish turned over their defense. Because of that, another challenge is for new leaders to emerge across the roster.

“And that starts with leadership. That starts from the top down,” Freeman said. “And that’s my job, but also Chris Ash’s job. It’s our coaches’ job, on down to our players. You have to create the buy-in to what we’re doing, and the ownership of it. If we get that, we’ll get it corrected with urgency. If we don’t, if we do this [points at the media], ‘It’s your fault, you shouldn’t have called that. You’re a bad coach,’ then it’s gonna be bad. I know our culture ain’t gonna let that happen.”

The goal for Notre Dame is still to make the College Football Playoff. However, that’s much more difficult to do following their second loss. So, improving on defense is going to be vital to avoid a third loss. That starts this week as the Irish prepare for another SEC foe in Arkansas.