Marcus Freeman shares what Jim Tressel visit meant to him

Marcus Freeman recently had a visit from one of his mentors and his former head coach at Ohio State, Jim Tressel. Tressel stopped by not long ago to visit with the Notre Dame Fighting Irish first-year head coach and James Laurinaitis, their linebackers coach. The visit followed Notre dame’s 16-14 loss at the hands of the Stanford Cardinal.

Tressel’s visit came just at the right time following that tough loss. And despite the timing, according to Freeman, the visit was not planned following the loss. During Notre Dame’s Monday press conference, the Fighting Irish headman shared what his former head coach’s visit meant to him and revealed when his visit was planned.

“No, this was something that a month in a half or two months ago, he said he was on his way,” said Freeman. “He’s going up to Chicago and wanted to stop by and see me and, Laurinaitis; two of his former players. And it just so happened that it was a week that I might have needed somebody to kind of talk to. And it was great, it was.

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“He came for maybe an hour but again, any amount of time you can spend with Jim Tressel, you’re going to be better because of it. It was good for me; it was great for James to see him/ But no, it wasn’t something that was set up just last week. It was something that he had planned to do for a couple of months.”

Whatever the reason, Tressel’s words were right on time and helped refocus Freeman and the Irish. Notre Dame was able to dominate the UNLV Rebels at home to the tune of 44-21. Up next for Freeman and the Irish is a trip to New York to take on the No.16 Syracuse.

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Freeman says ‘urgency’ is emphasis for Notre Dame

Freeman isn’t letting up after Notre Dame’s 44-21 win over UNLV this weekend. It was a nice, bounce-back victory for the Fighting Irish after their disappointing loss to Stanford the week before. Still, Freeman won’t give his group an inch yet with another important game for them this weekend.

Freeman spoke about the message he was sending his team during media on Monday. He says one word came to mind in how he wants to see his players prepare this week.

“Urgency. As I told them, it’s not urgency to start the game now. It’s urgency throughout the entirety of the game…A sign of a dominant football team is a team that, no matter what the series is or what the score is, you’re able to be really effective in what you’re doing,” said Freeman. “We have to continue to be a mature football team and progress towards improvement, progress towards being a dominant football team.”

Notre Dame showed some real urgency after they started the season 0-2 to Ohio State and Marshall. They ripped off three straight wins after that, including a ranked win over BYU, before their loss to the Cardinals. However, that same urgency returned again last week during their preparation for the Rebels.