'Momentum is a real thing': Everything Notre Dame coach Marcus Freeman said before NC State

Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman met with the media Monday two days after the Fighting Irish’s 28-7 win over Boise State and five days before the Irish host NC State in South Bend.

Here is everything he said.

Opening statement

“The film confirmed what I felt Saturday probably when I met with you all. It was a tough, hard-fought victory over a really good, fundamentally sound football team. We didn’t execute on certain plays in both phases. We didn’t execute as well as we all aspired to, but we executed well enough to get the outcome that we wanted. 

“We gotta clean up some of the penalties. That’s something that sticks out. Way too many penalties for the team we aspire to be. And I’m not talking about aggressive penalties. I always say there’s a difference between aggressive penalties and undisciplined penalties. The undisciplined ones have really been the ones we’ve been able to prevent the first couple games of the year. 

“But false starts and offsides and late hits out of bounds, those are selfish penalties, undisciplined penalties that we can’t have. We gotta make sure we clean those up with urgency and get back to work and find a way to improve for NC State, a 4-2 team. I think this is Coach [Dave] Doeren‘s 13th year, and he’s been as successful as anyone during that tenure. That span is the fifth longest tenure coach in FBS right now. He’s done a heck of a job. 

“Their offense is very efficient. Many weapons. Their running back, [Hollywood] Smothers, No. 3, is as good as anyone we’ll see all year. He is a really talented football player. And you better tackle him, because if he gets an open space, he can take it all the away.  

“The quarterback, No. 11, [CJ] Bailey, he’s a really good player. Another tall, athletic [quarterback]. Really distributes the ball to many people. I know the tight end [Justin Joly], No. 7, has gotten the most passes. He’s a problem, too. So we have to have a good defensive plan for what they’re gonna present. But it’ll be another great challenge. 

“Before I really get into their defense, I know their defensive coordinator, DJ Eliot, is expected to be back this week following the loss of his daughter Drue. I think it’s important that hopefully he knows and his family knows that they’re in the prayers and thoughts of everybody, especially mine. 

“The defense has been dealing with a whole bunch of injuries, as you’ve seen, from Week 1 to where they’re at. And I know that’s probably slowed down a little bit of the progress coming with a new coordinator. But last week they played really well. I don’t care who the opponent is. They played well last week. Their D-line’s big. They’re gonna bring pressure. They have pressure from the edges. We’re gonna have to have a great plan offensively, too. Looking forward to the challenge.” 

How do you maintain consistency in special teams year over year? What does it speak to the buy-in in your program, top down, when it’s like that?  

“It starts with the buy-in. As the head coach, I know how important it is to me. And I make sure to be in every special teams meeting. They know the importance. Coach [Marty] Biagi has done an unbelievable job since the time he’s been here. He’s been consistently creating chaotic plays, creating explosive plays for our team. That’s something I know is often overlooked but not in our building. The work he puts in, his staff, and then the buy-in from our players to aspire to be on special teams.  

“It used to be you have to mandate every starter’s got to be on a special team. Now you’ve got guys that are begging to be on special teams. They want to be a part of that special teams group. It’s a reflection of the culture of our program, but what Coach Biagi has built here.” 

How do you handle those conversations with redshirts or potential guys redshirting, especially in this era of NIL when maybe an extra year in college can mean an extra year of making a pretty good living?  

“If you’re a freshman, we think it’s important to — we’ve got to do what’s best for the young person. We don’t want to waste a year for a couple of plays, especially if you’re a freshman. But we also have a stance that if you’re not a freshman, and you have a role on this team, we need you to do your role for this team to achieve team glory. 

“Nobody’s ever satisfied, I’m sure, with their role. I don’t want anybody satisfied with their role. But on Saturdays, you have to embrace it. Because if you allowed everybody that wasn’t satisfied with their role to redshirt and only play four games — and I’m not talking the freshman — you won’t have a team. You won’t have a team.  

“So, we create this culture of your role doesn’t determine your value. Your role is so important for us to achieving the outcome that we want. And we need you to get that role done. We’re not asking you to be satisfied with it Monday through Friday? But on Saturdays, that’s all that matters. That’s just been my stance since this whole thing started happening. It hasn’t been an issue. To each their own. If a guy decides he doesn’t want to play, he doesn’t want to play. That’s just been the stance in our football program.  

Do you have any thoughts on the five years for five seasons of eligibility discussion? 

“I don’t know if you would really approach it any differently, right? You just don’t want to waste somebody’s year knowing that you’ve only got five for five, right? Let’s make sure we’re intentional about what we’re asking this guy to do. If it’s best for him and best for the program to redshirt, then we’ll redshirt him.”

Cooper Flanagan is working his way back. What have you seen from him? What are the expectations for him? How important will he be for the Notre Dame offense when he gets back?  

“He’s getting closer. He’s started to get a little bit of reps last week in practice. We’ll see. We’re going to try to add a couple more reps to him in practice to start to work up that capacity of how much he can do in the game.  

“It’s the value, right? We need to make sure that when he’s back and ready to roll, we can get the most value out of Cooper Flanagan. He would be a huge addition when he’s ready. I don’t know if it will be this week, next week. But he’s getting closer. Right now it’s not the injury anymore as much as the capacity to give us what we need on the football field. He’s an impact player. When we’re able to get him back, you’ll see him out there on the field for sure.” 

You guys got stopped on the fourth-and-goal on the one-yard line this past weekend. Where are you at in terms of identifying answers in short yardage situations and maybe what hasn’t gone right with that so far?  

“That particular play was a reflection of really as an offense, and this is something I’ve learned in my four years. Most guys deep inside of ball it’s all reaction of what you see. On offense you have to anticipate what you think somebody’s going to do. We have to anticipate what we’ve seen on film. What we’re going to show, this is what we anticipate the defense to do.  

“They didn’t really do what we exactly thought they were going to do. It’s not that we’ve never seen that look. They didn’t do exactly what we thought they were going to do with the play action we did with that play. As you look at it now, looking back at it, you would say, let’s try to keep it inside. But as we prepared for that, we thought it was going to hit right there in that C-D gap. There were a lot of people in that C and D gap that we didn’t expect to be there.  

“They got us. We’ve got to come back and have a better plan that ensures that we do. Like it’s not OK. I’m not justifying that. That’s just what happened. We’ve got to ensure that we have a plan that no matter what they do defensively, we can score in that situation. I’m confident we will.” 

Where have you seen the most growth with the Notre Dame offensive line? What are some of the nuts and bolts in the offensive line play that you’ve seen improve?  

“Probably the biggest thing I’ve seen is when you have that consistency and you have the experience at four of those positions that you had — and Guerby [Lambert’s] now becoming a more experienced guy — the adjustments they have been able to make to things they didn’t see on film has been tremendous. We’re getting it every week. 

“Boise State did some things that we had just not seen. The ability to get to the sideline and say, OK, let’s block it this way in the run game, let’s protect it this way in the pass game has really, really been good. They did a great job of adjusting to some of those exotic pressures that Boise State did. That’s probably the biggest thing is the ability to handle different looks and still get bodies on bodies and create some open lanes for our running backs.  

Can you give us an idea of what the dialogue has been between you and Rob Hunt and Loren Landow on the workload and health of Notre Dame kicker Noah Burnette? 

“It is a constant conversation on cause and effect. What happened and how it happened. The return to play, and OK, he feels healthy. Then all of a sudden we get a muscle strain. With Noah, it wasn’t the same injury. With DeVonta [Smith], it’s the same injury — calf strain, and he re-aggravated his calf strain. With Noah, it was a different injury. 

“So, we’ve got to keep figuring this thing out. And nobody’s ever going to be okay with soft-tissue issues saying we’re unlucky. No, it’s cause and effect. It’s being able to communicate with Noah. And maybe if it’s a kid saying I feel good. OK, let’s go kick it. And all of a sudden, maybe you felt good, but it wasn’t good enough. That now he was sore or in too much pain to kick on Saturday.  

“We’ve got to find the right formula. He’s in a really good spot right now. But he was in a really good spot a couple weeks ago, and then he got injured again. We’ve got to kick him. We have to. You can’t go weeks without kicking and expect to make it in the game. Like anything you’ve got to practice.  

“But is it practice? Is it treatment? Is it some type of fueling thing with his muscles? We have to get this thing figured out. And we are all — from the kid to us to sports medicine to nutrition — trying to figure out, hey, what is the right formula to make sure he’s available for Saturday, but also he’s prepared to do what he’s asked to do.” 

You called some of the penalties selfish. Is that a game flow thing? Is it just a reaction to the opponent? Can you tell when some of that stuff is coming, and how do you coach against it?  

“I shouldn’t say selfish. Undisciplined is the word I like to use. There’s aggressive penalties and undisciplined penalties. Undisciplined penalties are lack of focus. I don’t think it’s the flow of the game. It’s just a lack of focus in that moment. If you false start, I’m just not locked in. If I jump offsides, I am not focused on what I’m supposed to be focused on on that play. That’s one of the great challenges.  

“Tae-Tae [Johnson]‘s got to know better where he’s at on the field, and we’ve got to make better decisions in that situation there. Some of the aggressive penalties, you grab a guy’s jersey. We don’t want you to grab a guy’s jersey, but that’s part of the game. Sometimes it’s just a little tug. A little tug, and they caught Luke [Talich]. I can go through a couple different ones. But aggressive penalties, I’m OK. It’s just the lack of discipline penalties we’ve got to clean up.” 

Notre Dame’s average third down distance to go was 11.1 yards. One-for-five when it was longer than nine yards for your offense. When you rewatched the game, was that a penalty-driven thing, or what can you do to get better?  

“Every drive that we had except for the one that we went for it on fourth-and-8 — we tried to throw it to Will Pauling at the north end and it was incomplete. Every drive but that one that we didn’t score, there were penalties or negative yardage plays but penalties. Every drive that we didn’t have one penalty, we scored a touchdown. 

“That’s not the only reason, but that’s a huge reason. We can’t put ourselves behind the sticks because of a negative yardage play or a penalty. That’s called beating Notre Dame. If we don’t beat Notre Dame, we’ll be hard to beat. But we can’t put ourselves behind the sticks because of penalties.” 

How do you simulate pressure for the two Notre Dame kickers who could see action if Noah Burnette can’t go? 

“Yeah, I had a long conversation with Coach Biagi on Sunday. We’ve been in a kicking battle between Erik [Schmidt] and Marcello [Diomede] for a couple weeks, just trying to prepare in case Noah couldn’t go. And I think it’s time, at some point this week, we just gotta [say], ‘Hey, if Noah can’t go, this is gonna be the guy’ because we — I, as the head coach — gotta have confidence in that person. Our team has to have confidence. And that young person has to have confidence. 

“And I told him, it’s kind of similar to the quarterback competition. There are two guys that are really, really good, and they’ve both been really good and both missed some in practice. The stats probably aren’t gonna give you an answer. You’re gonna have to make a decision, and we’ll make one this week in the case that Noah can’t go. But I think it’s time now — the competition, it’s not helping us the way that I would like it to, so we need to now make a decision and just say, hey, you’re gonna be the guy if Noah can’t go, and let’s get ready.”

What’s the next step for the linebackers to catch on to what’s going on defensively and be formidable in that side of the ball’s improvement? 

“I think it’s an accumulation of a couple things. The answer would probably be similar if you ask me about the defense. It’s the ability— we know those guys have unbelievable talent. I’m talking all five of those guys that you would mention. Their talent level is extremely high. How do we get them to play that way consistently, right? And is it the clarity in what we’re asking them to do? Is it them understanding what is being asked of them and then going out and doing it on Saturday? I think it’s just all those things and the experience that we have in a new system that’s now allowing those guys to play with much more velocity and use that athleticism that we have. 

“Coach Bullough pours so much into those guys. I mean, the thing I really appreciate about that room, and I’ll say that about multiple rooms, is the unselfishness. There’s four, or there’s five — Madden [Faraimo] is young, I won’t let Madden be the fifth in there — but four of those guys you could argue to never come off the field. But we got to split time. We got to roll guys. We have different roles for each of those guys, but they all played at a pretty high level on Saturday.”

What has improved the most for the Notre Dame defense in the first five games of the Chris Ash era, and what still needs some work?

“There’s a lot of things. We’re greedy people. Like, I think I said it after a game, your standard’s perfection. And it has to be that. It’s never going to be that. But you can’t be okay with that, right? Like, if you’re not okay with it, now you have the capacity, understanding that let’s find the answers to get closer to that.

“But, you know, I know who Chris Ash is. I think the best thing for me in these five weeks was being with Coach Ash through good times. But now, for a while, it was tough times and saying, ‘All right, I know, I think I know the type of competitor and person he is and leader he is, but let’s see. And I wasn’t surprised one bit. And the ability for him to stay steady as the leader, to rally the troops, to make decisions defensive personnel-wise, schematically, to help us play with more velocity, that’s what I’ve been most impressed with. And they’ll continue to get better.”

How do you plan on balancing letting the guys play free but also holding them accountable for their penalties? 

“Yeah, that’s, I mean, it’s very similar, I think, to what I just said earlier with Tyler. Just, there’s undisciplined penalties and there’s aggressive penalties. Aggressive penalties are a part of the game. You always try to clean up some of the aggressive penalties with technique, right, and playing with proper technique. The undisciplined penalties are ones that have to be expedited with urgency. And those are — you go on two on scout team, right? You go on three, you clap three times. There’s intentional ways to improve those things, right? If you’re an offensive lineman, the scout defense should stem because that’s what they’re going to do in the game. And so you got to practice those things. And then, you know, [Tae Johnson’s] one is just awareness. Taetae, you got to be aware of where you’re at on the field, right? And that wasn’t intentional, but you got to be aware. We can’t have that. And so that’s how you attack those undisciplined penalties with urgency.” 

What does CB Leonard Moore mean to Notre Dame?

“There’s so much that he brings to our team. It’s obvious he’s a great football player. He is a gifted football player. But there’s a leadership aspect that he brings in his own way. There’s a confidence that I think he brings to that defensive back crew when he’s on the field. And there’s a confidence he brings, I’m sure to the coordinator, knowing that Leonard’s on the field at times. Just knowing that, hey, you can trust and you can count on, hey, he’s gonna take care of the boundary, right? You can play different coverages, but if you need to play man, you got a lot of faith in, hey, Leonard, take care of him, play man. 

“And I’m not saying we can’t do it with other guys, but there’s a confidence that if you’re gonna throw it to a guy Leonard is covering man to man, there’s a chance that he might intercept that ball or that’s not gonna be a completion. And so it’s just great to have him back, personality, as a person, what he brings to the team, but also as a player.”

Do you believe in momentum? And does Notre Dame have it right now? 

“Yeah, I think as you look back at something, you believe in momentum. You say, ‘Man, we gained some momentum.’ I believe there’s a confidence that helps with momentum, that success brings you. But I don’t believe you can rely on momentum to achieve an outcome that you want. I believe you achieve the desired outcome by the work you put in every single day. And there’s a little bit of fear, if we don’t put in the work, we’re not gonna get the result that we desire. And so we can’t rely on momentum, but I think as you look back, momentum is a real thing.”

What did the Notre Dame defensive front do better to have its best game of the season in terms of generating pressures?

“I think for the majority of the game, we, especially in the four-man rushes, did a better job of executing our rush lanes. You didn’t see a lot of times where our inside guys were behind the quarterback and he had a vertical gap to escape. And then when we brought some of the five, six-man pressures, they got home, right? And I thought Coach Ash did a good job of mixing up what coverages we were playing when we brought those pressures. It’s easy to [say], ‘Oh, they’re bringing pressure, play man.’ And, all of a sudden, if you’re playing a little zone, that quarterback has to hold it. And if he has to hold it, now the pressure has to get there. And that’s what I mean when I talk about the front and the coverage have to work together. And if we’re bringing pressure, how long are you asking these guys to cover? And if you’re not bringing pressure, we’ve got to stay in our lanes as we attack the quarterback.”

How have you guys figured out how to keep LB Kyngstonn Viliamu-Asa on the field more being that he hardly came off vs. Boise State?

“Well, I think to start off, they played with a little bit more 12 personnel than we’ve seen all year. And so you had three linebackers on the field more than you have in the first four games. And so Kyngstonn was the third guy. He wasn’t going to come off the field. And then when we play with two linebackers, we have our normal rotation.

“And then you talk about the versatility of Kyngstonn and [Jaylen] Sneed in third down situations being pass rushers. So it was intentional, but also because of what the offense was doing, it gave us more opportunities to keep linebackers on the field, especially Kyngstonn.” 

How did you and Coach Mike Mickens keep Karson Hobbs involved after he lost his playing time to Dallas Golden? 

“Well, I think it’s never easy to have something you want taken away from you. And there’s two options. You can blame your coaches. You can blame somebody else. Or you can say, okay, I’m not getting what I want. What do I gotta do to get more? And that’s what Karson Hobbs has done. He’s worked his tail off. And at some point, it’s gonna be another example of delayed gratification. If you don’t understand and value delayed gratification, you won’t get another opportunity, right? 

“And so I know Karson is a competitor. I know that he wants more and he’ll continue to work in a way that will earn him the opportunity to get more. And so, Karson’s a reflection of everybody on our team, right, is that everybody wants more, right? And I don’t want anybody in our program to be okay with having less. But you gotta just work while you wait, right? They say patience plus strategy, like, working while you wait is delayed gratification. If you just wait, you ain’t ever gonna get an opportunity. And so that’s what Karson’s doing. He’s a great teammate. Great teammate. He’s hungry. But he still understands, I put my team in front of myself and I’m gonna be the best teammate that I can be and I’m gonna be as prepared as I can be.”

What is the role of the quarterback in Notre Dame’s wildcat offense and do you agree it’s necessary to have a QB on the field in that package?

“Yeah, I guess you don’t have to have a quarterback. But I think from a defensive point of view, if you don’t have a quarterback on the field, we’re gonna do something completely different. Because you don’t know what formation an offense is gonna give. You see personnel, but then you gotta react and adjust to the formation. And so I think it’s important to have a quarterback on the field. 

“But yeah, it’s a growing package, right? We had some success with it. And we didn’t have success on that fourth and one situation on the goal line. How do we keep growing it? At some point, if we gotta throw the ball to CJ Carr as a wideout, maybe we have to do that to get somebody to respect him. But yes, it’s an evolution. And again, it’s not just, let’s try things out. It’s like, do we believe this package can give us a chance in a short yardage situation — or a non-short yardage situation — to have success? If we do, let’s find ways to continue to enhance it. And that’s what we’re trying to do.” 

How has Notre Dame improved its tackling in practice knowing there isn’t a whole lot of 100-percent, all-out tackling occurring in those sessions? 

“I mean, you get what you emphasize. And there’s ways to emphasize tackling in practice and individual periods. We kinda talked about this a couple weeks ago when it was like, okay, you guys need to work on zone defense. Well, how do you do that knowing that the time you’re on the practice field isn’t really gonna change? Well, you gotta make a decision on what you’re gonna emphasize during this time you’re on the practice field. If it’s zone coverage, then we better do some pattern match periods. If it’s tackling, then we better take a couple minutes and really emphasize tackling. You gotta be creative. You can’t just live tackle, but you can be creative in terms of tackling drills. But it’s the way you emphasize those things in practice that I think helps you improve for Saturdays.”

How do you go from defending a slippery 5-10 quarterback to a bigger QB like NC State’s 6-6 CJ Bailey? 

“I don’t think that when you’re talking about attacking a quarterback that you overly emphasize the height. Now, you look at Kyngstonn’s roughing the passer penalty, right? He was really going for the ball and hand hit the head. I don’t think you gotta worry about that this week because you got a six foot six guy. You know what I mean? And so, hey, go after that ball. If you don’t get the ball, you probably hit the shoulder, not the head. And so that might be a positive. 

“I think when you have shorter quarterbacks, you overly emphasize getting your hand up and throwing lanes to try to make sure that he can’t have a clear picture. A guy that’s tall, I don’t know how much that’s gonna affect him. But he’s a different quarterback. I don’t know— I’m not gonna say he’s a true dual threat. He’s a quarterback. He wants to throw, he wants to distribute it. He wants to pass that thing. But he has the ability to keep it in some zone-read situations or take off if he needs to. There are some quarterbacks where you say, ‘All right. Keep it if you want.’ You can’t do that with this guy. That’s, to me, the challenge this week. We got to be good in our coverages. We got to make sure to try to make him uncomfortable in the pocket and when we get a chance to get him, we got to get him down.”