Marcus Freeman summer sit-down transcript Part I: House settlement, Notre Dame QBs and more

Local reporters in South Bend sat down with Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman on Thursday in two separate waves, 30 minutes apiece, for an on-the-record conversation about Fighting Irish football. There was also an off-the-record back-and-forth spanning half an hour for both groups. 

This is everything that was asked and answered during the first half of the on-the-record portion of the first sit-down session.

Note: Questions are paraphrased.

As college football moves to a professional model instead of an amateur model, how do you make sure culture still matters?

“Yeah, I think there’s still a lot of similarities between what college football is becoming and the NFL. I still think culture wins in the NFL. I do. I think as you look at some of the successful franchises and organizations in the NFL, it’s still culture. Because they’re making money, that has no difference in the culture you are creating in the building. The money you make is the money you make. When you walk into our building, the culture is what you should feel. The culture is what is demanded around here, and that’s how we operate around here.

“It doesn’t matter how much money you make, you’re not treated that way. You’re not treated any differently, no matter if you’re making more money than this person or if your role is bigger than this person, you’re treated the way you go about your business, and I think that’s important. So that’s what I believe in, like, the culture is what you feel. I can tell you what our culture is. It doesn’t matter — it’s what they feel, it’s what you feel when you’re in this building. And what you feel is gonna be not determined on what money you make.”

You said Mike Mickens is ready to be a defensive coordinator. How were you able to keep him invested here now, and does his role change with Chris Ash coming in?

“His role is always continuing to grow based off the confidence that the coordinator has in him. And I think that’s something that was built through three years with Al Golden, and that’s something that Chris Ash is learning in his time here. And that’s with all three position coaches. That’s with Mickens, [Al] Washington and Max Bullough. You could ask me the same question about Al Washington, who turned down the Tennessee defensive coordinator position four years, five years ago.

“Are they ready to be defensive coordinators? Well, Al Washington was offered the defensive coordinator job at Tennessee, so I believe he is. I believe Mike Mickens is. For me, when I make decisions, it’s more about, ‘What does this program need at that moment?’ And I believe, at that moment, we needed a Chris Ash because of the traits that he brought to this program. The traits that we lost, versus the traits that we wanted to bring in, right? And that’s what went into that decision.

“Mick is gonna have a huge role. But that’s, again, the confidence that he’s been able to gain out of Chris Ash.”

What went into moving Charles Jagusah to right guard?

“I think it’s what’s the best five. It’s not, make a decision off the best one. On offensive line, it’s ‘What’s the best five?’ And a decision for Charles Jagusah to play guard might not mean that’s Charles Jagusah’s best position or future position as much as it’s what we need out of those five guys. And I think Charles Jagusah could be a center, guard or tackle. He’s a freak. He is really freakin’ good.

“And I’m evaluating off of practice, but also, what is, three games? But I’m also evaluating based off the things I hear [Joe] Rudolph and Mike Denbrock — when I hear Mike Denbrock compare him to the guy at LSU that got drafted to the Patriots, it’s high praise. But that’s what went into the decision for him to play guard. It’s what’s best for the five.”

What do you see as Eli Raridon’s potential at Notre Dame?

“Hopefully a game changer. I do. I think he’s continuing to progress to be a complete tight end. He’s gotta stay healthy. That’s been Eli’s biggest nemesis in his first three years, is that there’s always something that has kept him from practicing or playing. I think he has a high ceiling, but he’s just gotta continue to put it together and be a complete tight end.

“He’s gotten high praise from Denbrock, who’s coached some of the best tight ends that Notre Dame has had. And even when we were at Cincinnati, we had two NFL-drafted tight ends. He’s got a high ceiling and he’s progressing, but he’s gotta stay healthy and continue to be consistent in all phases of playing tight end. Potential and consistency are two different things. We need him to continue to be more consistent. He’s got high potential.”

When you think back to the national championship, what are some of your thoughts on that?

“Pain. Devastation. When I think back to the season, it’s completely different. When I think back to that game, that night, painful. Disappointment. Underachieved. Those are the things I think about. I wish we could go back and do it one more time. We didn’t play our best when our best was needed, and the outcome is the outcome.

“That’s different than when I think about the entire season. I think about the journey. That’s a selfish answer, but that’s what I feel. Grateful for the seniors. Grateful for the guys that it was their last game. Appreciative of those guys and their sacrifice, but selfishly, that’s what I feel when I think about that game.”

How are you a better coach because of what you went through at the end?

“I think I’ve said this before, but your past experiences continue to be your foundation for your future. And I’m a better coach because of the experience. I’m a better coach because of understanding what that experience was like, what it took. It’s gonna take something different this year. It doesn’t just repeat itself, just because we did it last year and we know the answers. But those experiences become the foundation for this upcoming season, and I think that’s made us all better.”

How does this offseason feel different from others, knowing that Notre Dame was so close to a title?

“I think it’s very similar to the answer I just gave. It’s understanding the experience told us what it took, right? And how does that make us better for this year? Just we have that experience, it’s the foundation, they understand that we can be as good as anyone in the country. It’s that belief that you have. Confidence goes a long way. It not like, ‘What would it be like?’ We know. We know.

“Now, there’s new talent. New talent, new coaches, new personnel. They have to be able to be on that journey, have been on that journey, without being there physically. That’s a challenge for me to make sure, you might not have been here last year with us, but you have to understand the things we learned, even though you weren’t here last year, because you’re here now. And I always use the understanding of relationships.

“When you’re in a relationship and you come and join this program, you have to go through the previous experiences. I don’t want to put this out there in the media, but if you’re dating somebody and my wife doesn’t like somebody in the past for whatever reason, she probably expects me not to be friends with that person. That’s the expectations of relationships. So it’s the same thing when you join a football program. If there’s things that we learned from last year, you have to understand that and have those same feelings that we had.

“But again, it’s a new year. It’s a totally new group, got a new coordinator, but it’s the understanding that, ‘Hey, we know it’s not foreign to us anymore. We know what it takes.'”

The House settlement feels like it should’ve been resolved by now, but it hasn’t. Does that weigh on you, and have you talked about contingency plans?

“When they made the decision on grandfathering-in the walk-ons or anybody that’s been on the previous roster, that was a major decision that we needed to know: ‘Do we have to make cuts or not?’ And so, no matter if they approve it or not — we’re assuming they’re gonna approve it — but no matter if they approve it or not, we don’t have to make roster cuts, which is a huge decision that we had to make.

“As far as the other things in the settlement, again, we’re moving forward as if it’s probably gonna be approved here in the next week, days.”

What have you learned about Kenny Minchey and CJ Carr in the past four months, now that they’re getting their opportunity at Notre Dame?

“They’re both high-ceiling guys. They are highly intelligent, highly talented football players, but they also lack in-game experience, and there’s no substitution for that. So, how do I create as many game-like situations for them during fall camp is gonna be really important, but I think they’re both really high-ceiling guys. Talented, maybe different in certain areas, certain aspects. But when you look at the overall picture of the quarterback, they’re both really, really talented individuals.”

What are some ways Notre Dame has expanded its use of analytics since hiring Anthony Treash as director of analytics?

“Yeah, I mean, he is obviously my right-hand man on game day in terms of game management decisions, but a lot of that work is done throughout the week. We meet three times, four times a week. One, to learn, to learn from our experience, from other people’s experiences, but also to prepare, right?

“The first couple days, we might get together and say, ‘Let’s learn from our game, let’s learn from the NFL, let’s learn from other college teams. What would I do in that situation, what would you do, would we accept the penalty, would you go for it?’ All these different situations. And then as we get closer to the game day, we start saying, ‘Okay, what’s the plan? What’s the book telling us where we gotta go for it? Let me communicate with the coordinators, where’s the kick line,’ all those different things.

“That’s in terms of game management, but he also has a lot of value in terms of helping in the personnel with using analytics in terms of evaluation. That’s something that he’s done a terrific job.”

Any funny stories from the EA Sports College Football 25 cover photoshoot? The two Notre Dame representatives were front and center.

“That was, I think, a voting from fans, where we should be placed. Nah, I’m just messing with you. When I just went there, I was told, ‘Hey, you just stand here.’ The guy I was standing beside was Dylan Stewart. I was like, ‘Holy cow.’ The quarterback at Michigan, Bryce Underwood. Holy cow! I didn’t know who was gonna be there. I just knew me and Jeremiyah [Love] were gonna be there. And then all of a sudden I saw Tim Tebow, Reggie Bush, ‘Okay, this is pretty cool.’

“So I was there, and you kinda saw what they were trying to do. It was pretty cool. I don’t take a lot of pride in where I was standing. That was up to EA Sports. But it was cool. It was cool to be with those guys. We spent some time together, all the coaches and players.”