Everything Notre Dame coach Marcus Freeman said in Syracuse week news conference

Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman held his Syracuse week press conference Monday. Here is everything he told reporters.

Note: Freeman’s answers are verbatim; questions are often paraphrased.

Opening statement

“Obviously, it was a good win for our program. Thought our guys played hard and physical and obviously that’s an identity that we want for our program and we demand from our guys. As you evaluate our offense, I thought we played well. We weren’t dominant versus, as I said, a really good Pitt defense, but we played well. I know we all expect to be dominant in our offensive staff and our players, but they were gritty in the run game. Other than the one long touchdown Jeremiyah [Love] had, I thought they had to fight and claw and scratch for every yard running the ball and we knew that was a defense that prevents you from running the ball. I was glad to see them do that and was explosive in the pass game, made some contested catches in terms of, that’s what we needed.

“Obviously, we can’t turn the ball over and give up 10 points, but as I told CJ [Carr] last night in our meeting, you can’t let those two interceptions, those two plays deter you or our offense from the really, really good things that he did. He does a lot of things that probably to just the normal observer, you don’t notice. He is really just doing things that are well beyond a guy with his experience level has done in the past. It’s just a credit to his preparation and the way he prepares and understands the game and he’s doing some really good things, but yeah, he knows he can’t turn the ball over and we’ll continue to go to work to correct those things.

“I think as a whole for the offense, we just got to continue to understand situational football in terms of gritty yards, pass protection, angles, different things like that. We keep talking about situational football, something that we all have to continue to elevate in.

“As far as for the defense, I thought they played lights out, I really did. They did a good job stopping the run, limiting the pass game, getting pressure and sacks on the quarterback and really executing at a high level. They scored twice on defense and really didn’t give up a touchdown until the last play of the game.

“As I told the staff yesterday, and I’ll tell the players today when we meet, like that last TD is our fault. It’s not Coach Narduzzi’s fault for calling the timeout. It’s not the ref’s fault for throwing penalties. We had plenty of opportunities to execute on that last series in the game and we didn’t. And so we have to embrace that and not use a crutch of, they shouldn’t have called a timeout or they shouldn’t have thrown a penalty because then you don’t own the fact that you control the outcome of that game. We need to make sure our guys understand that and own it and work to improve.

“On special teams, I thought it was solid overall, really was. I thought our kickoff return unit was outstanding, but I got frustrated with the one kickoff. We can’t let them have a big return versus our kickoff unit. That’s unacceptable. 

“We attempted one field goal, we didn’t make it. We gotta continue to look at our process, evaluate it, how do we improve it? We are improving in that situation and we just gotta continue to work what we’re doing and enhance it, right? Enhance it and find a way to make it better. I’m confident we will because we need to, we have to be able to have the confidence to kick field goals and make those field goals. We gotta get back to work on that.

“We got a great opportunity in front of us on Saturday, as we honor our seniors before we get ready to play Syracuse. Syracuse is coming off a bye week. I think as you look at their season, they’re decimated with injuries. Their record, I don’t think it reflects the culture of that team. I’ve gotten to know Fran (Brown) just through a couple award shows or things that we were at. I got a lot of respect for him and how he leads, to go 10-3 in your first year. They started this year 3-1 before a lot of major injuries. Obviously, Steve Angeli, but a lot of others. He’s a competitive guy that I’m sure his team is molded after and they’ll be ready to play their best on Saturday and so do we. Looking forward to the opportunity.”

Notre Dame has been really good during your tenure on Senior Day. What goes into that?

“We do some things during the week to honor them as a team. Obviously, we honor them as they run out Saturday before the game, but we always remind them they have to be able to — because it’s an emotional moment as you run. I remember my senior day. You run out there for what you know could be your last time in Notre Dame Stadium, but after you see your families and you get back to that sideline, you have to flip the switch back to competition mode.

“It’s something that you have to be proactive about as a coach to warn them and remind them, and then they gotta do it. I think it’s more important to honor them the right way for what they’ve done for our program, how they’ve left this program better than they found it. I think that’s important to honor those guys.”

Obviously Steve won’t be playing in this game, but assuming he makes the trip, what would it be like to see him before the game?

“If he makes this trip, I would love to see him. This game’s bigger — I know we’re evaluated on wins and losses, but for me and my position, it’s about people. It’s about helping young people ultimately have success on and off the field. Steve is a guy who gave everything he’s gotten to this place when he was here. Like I told him when he decided to leave, that the relationship between a coach and a player doesn’t stop once you’re gone. I’m always supporting him. 

“I was so happy when I found out he was named starter and watching him do some successful things. I reached out to him when he got hurt. I would love to see him and just hug him, just because you care about him. I hope he’s able to make the trip.” 

How do you keep your motivational speeches fresh, but real, and how do you keep them informative without overloading the players?

“I think a lot of things that I say to our players in those moments before the game are similar. The message is still the same. We have to have clarity of purpose in terms of what we have to do. How I say that, I can mess around with a little bit. It could be in the moment. It’s also about the opponent and how can we address this opportunity that we have. 

“It could be an away game. It could be a home game. It could be senior night. You wrap that around the core of what you always say, is that it’s about clarity of purpose, so win the interval. It’s about understanding that this isn’t about you. It’s about team glory and we have to submit individual glory to team glory in this moment. So that’s probably a longer answer than you’re asking. It’s just there’s still the core of your messages that you tell them before the game don’t change.” 

Human nature being human nature, your last two opponents are a combined 6-14. How do you make sure your players understand what can happen on any given day?

“I think one is our guys watch the film. The more you watch every opponent, man, it’s like, these guys are good. They’re good. I don’t care what the record says. They’re a good football team. You keep the lessons you’ve learned from the past, in terms of if you don’t believe you can be beaten by anybody, we can remind you what happened in the past.

“If you respect the opportunity that we have on Saturday and understand how great of an opportunity it is, you’ll value the moments that you have now. You’ll value what you have right in front of you and work and do the things it takes to grasp that opportunity that you have Saturday night. Those are the things that I’ll remind them.

“Every test, as we continue to move forward, will be tougher, every one. It’s not always the record of the opponent, but there’s also the added human element of the outside noise of playoffs, the outside noise of maybe this team’s record isn’t – like that’s a challenge, right? That’s why I say each test as we go forward is a greater challenge, because you add that into the mix. As much as I can tell them, control the noise that goes into your head, like, there’s there’s enough of it that they might hear some of it. And so it’s my job to make sure that the noise I’m putting in their heads or we’re putting in their heads are the loudest ones and that it’s the thought after the thought. You’ve heard me say that before. We’re all human, but if we understand that the purpose is bigger than ourselves, we’ll choose to have the right thought after that thought.”

Joshua Burnham and Tae Johnson have stepped up this season. What’s been clicking for them?

“Joshua is healthy. I think that was some of the things early in the season that prevented him from playing at the level he’s playing at now. But he’s playing as consistent. He’s always been a hard, high-effort guy. He plays the game with effort, but we had to get him healthy. Now you’re seeing him have the statistics and the performances that come along with practicing at a high level and playing with that high effort and he’s doing some really good things.

“I’ve always said how athletic [Johnson] is, but he’s now continuing to add that with work and understanding concepts. Now when you can anticipate things, that’s when some of the success comes, right? He’s anticipating. We’re in zone coverage here. He’s anticipating that quarterback looking there and went and picked it off. He’s just continuing to get better. He is. He’s putting in the work, too. He’s starting to get those rewards. It becomes a little, like, contagious. I want this. Like, I want to get it again. You’ve got to remind them in order to put yourself in that position, you’ve got to put in the work.”

Boston College wasn’t exactly a fireworks show. How do you keep the players locked in against a weak opponent?

“I don’t think that’s a distraction when you’re, I mean, it’s probably when you’re playing really well. That’s how you’ve got to try to keep them not distracted. These guys, they want to win. They want to be perfect. They want to be the best. If they’re not playing well, they’re ultra, ‘Coach, what am I doing wrong?’ Or they know what they’re doing wrong, and they want to get back out there and do it again.

“I said it earlier, we’ve got a great opportunity in front of us. We can’t worry about the fireworks of last time we played Boston College or anything else. We’ve got to worry about if we understand this is a great opportunity in front of us, we’ll value this moment that we have right now, we’ll work unbelievably hard and struggle the way you have to if you want to improve and then when we get to Saturday, we’ve got to win that first play, and then the next play after that and we’ll see what the result of that is.” 

What do you like about your Sunday meetings with CJ Carr, and what benefits do they provide to you?

“I’ve often said there’s, I doubt that anybody else who emulates or understands what the position of the head coach at Notre Dame is than the starting quarterback at Notre Dame. I’ve kind of made it a habit of mine to meet with the starting quarterback. 

“During the season, we meet on Sundays. For me, I like that time. We’re intentional about it. We talk about the game. We talk about life. We talk about family. It gives me a chance to just talk to somebody. My wife, a lot of times, she’s asleep when I get home, so I don’t have anybody to talk to sometimes. 

“That’s what I enjoy about it. I get more out of it probably. CJ probably goes, ‘Oh, I’ve got to meet with Coach Freeman. What is he going to ask me?’ I get more out of it selfishly than probably the quarterbacks do. But it’s the same thing when I meet with Kenny [Minchey]. I always leave my meeting with Kenny and CJ just filled. I feel better. They help me feel better because I gain wisdom from them. I do. It is more beneficial. I know it is for me than probably them. It’s important for me to be intentional about putting that time on my schedule because if I don’t, it’ll get eaten up. And so it’s important to me to have that intentional time with those guys.”

How have you learned to manage your emotions on Senior Day?

“I’ve gotta do the things I tell our players to do. A lot of times, maybe Tim asked about the message before a game, a lot of times, as I say something to our program and to our players, I’m reminding myself. The things I challenge our players to do, it’s not only telling them to do something, it reminds myself that, hey, the same things you tell your players, you’ve got to do yourself. 

“The way to get your emotions back under control is going to be important for me. When I think about our seniors, it makes me emotional at times because you just watch these young people grow up, they leave here as men, and you’ve watched them grow. 

“I mean, you watch them improve. You’ve watched them learn life lessons, and so, they’re just like your own children, and you know this will be the last guaranteed time that they play in Notre Dame Stadium, so you’re just thankful. I’m grateful for them, and I’m thankful to be on this journey with them.”

What’s the importance of James Flanigan helping the tight end room, and how’d you feel like he played against Pitt?

“Man, you talk about a guy that’s improving. Oh man, he is improving. We knew Flannie had some, he’s got really unique skillset. He’s a tough guy, physical guy, but now he’s understanding how to control that toughness and physicality and not just be a young bull in a China shop. I know that’s coaches speak, but he’s understanding technique and angles and details and he played as well as any freshman in that Pitt game and he played really, really well.

“We got only one game to play him in these last two. We owe it to him and always say we got to do things that are best for the team, but we also, when we can, we want to do what’s best for the player, too. And we don’t want to use his redshirt on just one extra game. And so we got to decide which game that will be. But he is man, he’s definitely helping us.”

How much does Flanigan’s presence help Eli Raridon, being able to move him around more?

“Yeah, it helps tremendously in terms of the run game and the pass game, giving Eli a spell, utilizing two tight ends, obviously, Ty [Washington] helping us too. It helps our offense holistically when you can add James Flanigan to the mix in terms of what we can do for Eli and how we could utilize ’em, keep ’em fresh or use ’em in different positions and have confidence that tight end in that’s in the game that isn’t Eli is getting their job done.”

What does constant improvement need to look like in the next couple weeks?

“I don’t know if I can describe that with an outcome, like a number. I know that I always look at undisciplined penalties. I look at MAs every week. I want to know what are the mental, I call ’em MAs, missed assignments or mental errors, where he should know exactly what he’s supposed to do and for some reason doesn’t get it done on this play. Execution errors are one thing, but when you have a mental error, we can’t. That’s unacceptable. We got to make sure we improve on that. 

“I look at the battle of field position and making sure we win the field position battle. I look at the turnover margin and so those are areas that I look at to say, okay, are we continuing to be disciplined, improving, but what does that mean in terms of the score of a game? I couldn’t tell you. I couldn’t tell you. I just know that there’s been times that we’ve won big and you’re like, we didn’t truly play at the level that I would aspire our group to play at. 

“And there’s been times we might’ve lost or won close that a play or two dictated the score, but we are improving. So that’s the thing I evaluated is to take out the score. I know the score does reflect it sometimes, a lot of times, but I’m evaluating each play more than anything.”

How did Erik Schmidt come out of the Pitt game, and were you tempted to try a 42-yarder instead of going for it?

“Yeah, it was under consideration multiple times even after he missed it, but we had a number, ‘Hey, where’s the ball at? What’s the first down marker? What’s the number that we are either going to go for it, the yardage that we’re going to go for it or we would kick it? And I always communicate that with Coach Denbrock and say, Hey, three or four or fives ago in this situation. And so we just kept putting the ball in a situation where we were going to go for it just using analytics, using my gut, but it wasn’t that I wasn’t willing to kick him. 

“We just got to, as you look at that kick, there’s answers why it happened, but how are we going to have a routine to fix it? I know I don’t love to look at just results, but I don’t know how to kick a field goal. I don’t know the exact technique. Coach Biagi does and Eric does, and let’s just make sure we’re consistently using that technique so that ball goes through the uprights. And so I haven’t lost confidence in him, but we got to keep getting better and we got to be better in practice. I’m going to evaluate the results in practice and as we get ready to go into the game.”

You had to scratch and claw in the run game each week since USC. How have the offensive line, running backs and Denbrock adjusted to that approach?

“We know teams are going to not just allow us to just run the ball. They’re going to do things to stack the box to do things to prevent us from trying to run a ball, but we got to keep finding ways through formations, through concepts. They might be stopping us running this zone scheme, but maybe we were going to go outside or maybe we’re going to run some gap scheme and we got to do it through having success in the air. But all those different things are going to contribute to the ability to run the ball because we still have to be able to run the ball. That’s who we are. I keep saying O-line, D-line driven. We have to be able to run the ball and how we get to that, though, can change depending on what the defense does.”

What did you see from the defensive backs against Pitt, and specifically Christian Gray after three weeks off?

“He played the way we expect Christian Gray to play. You can tell he’s different when he’s healthy. He is a different football player and he showed that on Saturday. He showed that in practice and he came out the game feeling great, and so we got to continue to make sure we keep him healthy if we can at all possible.

““But as you said, it was, I think between DeVonta, Christian and Leonard, I think that might’ve been the third game they all started. I think that’s the number or started and finished the game maybe, but they’re playing at a high level. They really are. Adon’s playing lights out. I mean, he played really, really well and even Luke [Talich] when he came in was playing well. So we got to keep ’em healthy and if they’re not, guess what the expectations for those guys that come in, Dallas Golden and Mark Zackery, some of those young guys is exactly where it’s at for the guys that are starters and they know that and they’re working while they wait for their opportunity, they’re not waiting. They’re working and so if they have to go in the game, I’m confident they’ll doing a good job.”

Is there discussion about shutting Jaden Greathouse down until the College Football Playoff, if Notre Dame makes it there?

“Yeah, we had a discussion recently and just that it’s very similar to what I just said about James Flanigan, and it’s taken him longer than we thought to get healthy, but he’s probably, he’s close to being healthy right now as he’s been, but is it right for us to make him play these last two games and cost him a year if we can get away with saving him a whole year by not playing in these last two games. And so right now that’s our mindset is if we don’t have to play him this week, let’s try not to. He’ll be ready, he’ll be ready, but we’re going to try to hold off on playing him in hopes of being able to redshirt him for this year and if we play beyond Stanford, then he’ll be ready to go.”

Is the long-term hope for Gabriel Rubio the same thing?

“Yeah, I mean, you got me talking about things that are uncertain right now, but if we are able to be in postseason play, we expect Gabe Rubio to be back for that.”

You mentioned that CJ does things that are beyond his experience level that people might not readily see. What are some examples against Pitt?

“Just run game checks. Pass game checks. There was something that they did defensively that we never game planned for and he was able to make a check that we never practiced. It is something as simple as being able to say, Hey, they play call told you to do this, but because they’re showing you this look that wouldn’t be good for it. Just hand the ball off and let him run the ball. Those are things that most people are going to be like, okay, coach told me exactly this is what I want you to do. 

“Throw the ball to that guy right there, and if somebody’s there, he would probably maybe throw it away or I don’t know, make a bad decision, but he put our offense in a great position and I’m just thinking this one particular play by saying, Hey, I know he’s taking that away. Let me just hand the ball and because they’ve shown to give us this look versus this formation and there’s plays like that. It’s just like he’s another coach out there. He’s seeing things and putting our offense in a position to have success and you’re not even telling him. You’re not even telling them, and so that shows you what level of football he’s really seeing it and playing at, right now.”

How do you foster a physical identity for Notre Dame?

“Yeah, I don’t want it to become our identity. I want this to be our identity, and as I’ve told the team, there is a standard and a style play that is demanded, and some guys naturally will do it. That’s just who they are and some guys have to choose to do it, and when you don’t choose to do it, there’s repercussions. Either you’re going to be held accountable and coached hard and to fix it or you’re going to be taken out of the game and that’s how you get them to play the way you want ’em to play.

“It is a choice to play the game of physicality. It’s a choice to play the game through the whistle, like all out effort, but in order for them to understand what you want, you got to show ’em. You got to demand it. And if they don’t do it to the standard, you got to have repercussions for it.

“Repercussion might be just being called out in a meeting or corrected or coached, but if you allow it, then it becomes a new standard. If you allow this style of play that you don’t believe is up to your standard, then that just becomes a new standard the way your guys can play. So we have to have a high standard, it’s got to be very clear to our players what we’re looking at and looking for, and you have to hold ’em accountable to that standard.”

What goes into getting a young defensive back ready to play?

“I think one starts with, you mentioned some guys that are, I think BMO was a second round pick, right? I think he was second round, and Leonard is one of the best that Coach Mickens, has coached. Kyle Hamilton is one of the best that I’ve been around. Sauce Gardner. I’m thinking guys that came in and started sometime during their freshman year. Some guys have just great talent, but also they’re coachable. They understand technique, they’re quick learners. Sometimes guys take a little bit longer. 

“You look at a guy like Xavier Watts that changed positions his freshman year and then played a little bit the next year. Then his third year, I think, was the first year starting maybe, and then developed into the player he is now. And so I think everyone’s different, right? But in order to play as a freshman, you got to, one, be talented, but two, you got to be a quick learner, have good instincts as you see with Mark Zackery, right? We’re not putting him out there if he’s not good enough, and I know he went through his growing pains early in the year, but I mean, he’s out there for a reason because we have a lot of confidence he’ll get his job done.”