Marcus Freeman breaks down Notre Dame coaches' mistakes in offense

The 2022 season has been difficult for Notre Dame. Nobody expected Notre Dame to be a College Football Playoff team in year one under Marcus Freeman, but nobody expected losses to Marshall and Stanford either. A lot of the issues that have led to the disappointment stem from issues on the offensive side of the ball.

While speaking to the media, Marcus Freeman was asked what the Irish have to do to get competitive again on the offensive side of the football.

“It’s, man, it’s everything,” Marcus Freeman said.

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“It’s, hey, are we calling plays that are putting our guys in position to have success…it starts with us. How are we calling the game? How are we preparing? And that’s what I’ll always say, it starts with the coaching.”

Notably, Marcus Freeman doesn’t want to throw any players under the bus or shift blame. He doesn’t use injuries as an excuse. At the same time, he knows there are questions that the coaching staff and players need to answer and adjust to if they want to have success going forward.

“And, then, let’s look at every play. Let’s identify the factors that really are determining this outcome. You know, hey, is the offensive line doing their job? Are we protecting the quarterback? Quarterback, are you putting the ball in a position where the receiver can catch? Receivers, wideouts, tight ends, are you running the exact route that you’re supposed to run at the exact details, at the exact depths of it? And then, you know, are we making the plays? Is the quarterback putting the ball there for him to catch? Is the wideout catching the ball?”

Marcus Freeman wanted to emphasize that a failed play is a team failure. For instance, if a quarterback has a pass batted down, it might not be their fault. It could be the issue of a line shift or the location of a running back, for instance.

“You know, so, a lot of different factors go into a completion percentage,” Marcus Freeman said. “A lot of different things. We’re always going to look at the quarterback. It’s what we do. But, same thing, we’re going to look at the coordinator, that’s what we do. But, I think, we in our building have to understand that there’s a lot of different individual jobs that have to be done for us to have success. And that’s what we can’t. We can’t let the outcome put this mask over our eyes about the reality of every single person doing their job.”

Notre Dame’s next test will come on the road against Syracuse this Saturday.

Marcus Freeman on Drew Pyne

Notre Dame quarterback Drew Pyne has been under scrutiny as he struggles to lead the Irish offense. However, Marcus Freeman praised Pyne and shared what makes him special.

“You never want to see your quarterback get hit like that, the one he scrambled. You want to tell him to go down, but he’s also trying to score a touchdown. That competitive side of Drew Pyne is what makes him unique and special. The improv stuff, I mean, go through your progression — one to two to three — and make a decision. He can, obviously, extend some plays with that improv that he has,” Marcus Freeman said.

“But you’ve got to protect yourself. And I’m not worried about as much as the depth as much as Drew, you’ve got to protect yourself. He’s not a 6-5, 230-pound football player like the guy we’re about to see. He’s a smaller guy that, really, can’t take a whole bunch of those blows even though he probably thinks he can. I don’t want to see him do it, especially as somebody that cares about him as the head coach, but go through your progression, one to two to three, make a decision [and] let’s go.”