What's K Erik Schmidt's role this season? Everything Notre Dame coach Marcus Freeman said Thursday

Because of an injury to Notre Dame football redshirt senior kicker Noah Brunette, freshman Erik Schmidt was put in a tough position to play last Saturday against Purdue. Schmidt’s debut began with a kickoff out of bounds and ended with a no good field goal try from 31 yards out.

Still, Schmidt could have a role on this year’s team. At least that’s what Irish coach Marcus Freeman told reporters on Thursday.

“Eric will do the kickoffs, and we’ll still continue to have him and (junior kicker) Marcello [Diomede] compete to be the backup field goal kicker,” Freeman said. “It comes down to just consistency.”

Here’s more of Freeman’s comments and everything else he told reporters in his about 15-minute news conference over Zoom on Friday.

On what he’s seen from Notre Dame sophomore DL Bryce Young this year, the aspects of coaching a legacy with a Pro Hall of Fame dad and the way he seeks to honor his late brother

“Man, that was a lot of questions. As far as how he’s been playing, Bryce has been doing a good job. He’s been doing what he’s been asked to do, and I know he wants to make more plays, but you just got to continue to do your job at a high level, and those plays will come to you. So he’s practicing hard, playing hard and doing a good job defensively. 

“As far as the challenges of being a legacy, I think the challenge for us was to make sure that we get ’em committed. I’ve always said, ‘If we can’t convince a child of a former Notre Dame football player, but also just a Notre Dame graduate, that this is the right place for them, then we got to evaluate how we’re selling this university.

“I don’t think that’s added … it shouldn’t be added pressure. He’s Bryce Young, and he’s going to create his own legacy in terms of what he does on the football field, what he does off the football field. 

“As far as his brother, I think a private matter, probably, with Bryce and how he deals with it personally, but I know he is very active in being involved with the Children’s hospital and spending time with some of those young people that are going through treatment, and I know it’s something that means a lot to him.”

On his thoughts on freshman kicker Erik Schmidt being used in some role moving forward, whether redshirt senior kicker Noah Brunette is healthy or not

“Well, Erik will be our kickoff specialist right now. Noah’s probable. We expect him, depending on the next couple of days, to probably be able to do our field goals, but Eric will do the kickoffs, and we’ll still continue to have him and (junior kicker) Marcello [Diomede] compete to be the backup field goal kicker. It comes down to just consistency.

“I think it was big for Erik to just go through that experience of a first game and being in the stadium and in front of the crowd. I know the first kickoff was out of bounds, and I always kind of say, ‘Freshmen have to go through some of those growing pains.’ There’s a human element of the pressure, I’m sure, the external factors that you put on yourself, and we encourage ’em to try not to allow those things to affect them, but for a lot of people, it’s human nature.

“So, I thought he did a good job in his first opportunity in Notre Dame Stadium. He’s continuously working on the consistency in his technique, and I think he has a really bright future here.”

On junior linebacker Jaiden Ausberry

“He is as consistent as anyone in our program. He constantly gets his job done. He’s always looking for ways to improve. He practices hard at a high level. He understands the value of Notre Dame and the things this place provides you outside of football. I couldn’t be more pleased with what he’s done in his time here — the consistent football player he’s been and how much he’s improved.

“So a lot of our linebackers rotate. We have a lot of guys that can play at a high level, and it’s a testament a little bit to his unselfishness, too, as you said. He could be a guy that says, ‘I can go transfer and maybe play more,’ but he understands his role with this team, and he makes the most of it. He’s definitely a guy that we are grateful to have in this program.”

On why he focused on talking about technique in Monday’s news conference, and if that’s because of the number of young players contributing, or if there’s been defensive tweaks that have changed the technique

“No, I think when I used the term ‘technique issue’ was when I was referring to man coverage, and anybody can understand I play this guy man to man. But the difference between making a play and not making a play usually comes down to some type of technique, and in particular, the young guys have to learn how to play with the proper technique, but also coaching. 

“We have to understand that not every player can execute what we want him to with this exact technique, and how do we change techniques or maybe use a different technique for this individual, so he can get his job done?

“So, that’s what I was referring to on Monday when I’m talking about a man coverage of making sure we’re playing with the proper technique every single play and also looking at different ways to change our technique depending on what we’re trying to defend.”

On whether he has ‘challenged everything’ with the defense

“Challenge everything is something I do with every aspect of this football program. And so yeah, defensively we challenge everything. How do we continue to find a better way? But it’s not always just change. It’s not — challenge everything doesn’t mean change.

“It might say, ‘OK, how do we enhance what we’re doing and how we practice? The way we prepare, who’s doing what? Everything we do is challenging everything, and ultimately, we’ll see on Saturday if it produces a better result.”

On Notre Dame second-year offensive lineman Guerby Lambert’s improvement since his freshman year

“I mean, he’s an improving player. He’s playing better in game three than he played in game one. He’s obviously a talented player. We knew that from the moment he walked in here. 

“But it’s the same things from game one to game three, is what you’ve seen from year one to year two. There’s constant improvement in everything they do. They learn how to prepare better. They learn how to practice better.  They learn how to play with better technique.

“There’s not just one thing that an individual does that produces a result. It’s an accumulation of a lot of different things that they are intentional about improving.”

On how much the technique issues are not showing up on the practice field, but then showing up during games, and how do they have an urgency to improve without panic

“I think as you look, sometimes you can’t simulate the speed of the game in practice that you’re going to see in a game. And when you do scout teams, you’re trying to stress the defense with speed as well as you can, but you can’t always go good on good. We do a lot of good on good, but there’s a lot of scout team stuff that we have to really work on to make sure, schematically, we know what we’re doing against our opponent.

“So, we’ve been intentional about trying to stress both sides of the ball with speed and physicality. But there is still — until you get into the game, you have to understand that the look you’re getting in practices might be the schematic look, but it might not be at the speed you’re going to see it with on game day. 

“So, how do we continue to get our young guys to play with the technique that will help them be successful when it’s full speed in a game versus extremely fast players is the ultimate challenge, right? They have to understand that the technique you need to play with in a game isn’t always going to be replicated in practice to produce the result you want. 

“So, I can be successful in practice and maybe not have to use the proper exact technique that I would have to use in a game. So, we got to continue to get them to — don’t be outcome-driven in practice, but to be technique-driven, and that will help them produce the results they want in the game.

“I think it’s always a fine line when you talk about the difference between the urgency that we have to have to improve, but we can’t panic. Panic means, to me, it’s like, ‘We’re screwed up.’ The things that we’ve done, the vision, the philosophies aren’t what it needs to be.

“As I’ve said, in the press conference, I don’t think that’s the case. It’s an urgency to fix those things we’ve identified that are resulting in a lack of execution.”

On how much time they devoted to technique in practice vs. game planning for Arkansas, and if he’s been pleased/satisfied with the response he’s given to the challenge 

“Our guys are fierce competitors. They want to do the things it takes to produce a result that they believe they can achieve. Every one of these guys have owned it. They believe that it’s part of — it’s never one person’s fault, right? That’s what it takes to create success, the ownership of, ‘Hey, it’s all of us. It’s all of us. We all got to buy in. We all got to work on it.’

“We’ve tried to spend — be more intentional, maybe about having a little bit more individual time with certain positions to work on that technique, that we’ve been talking about. But you can’t just do all the individual (periods) in practice; you got to continue to make sure that our guys understand the schemes they are facing on Saturday.”

On how they try to attack three huge things at once with limited practice time

“I think every practice is usually broken down into some type of part-to-whole. You’re going to have some type of individual (periods), some type of group work and then some type of team. So how do you make sure that you’re focusing on those things we need to correct in each of those structures of practice, right? 

“In individual, are we focused on our individual drills, replicating the things that we believe we need to attack and fix to produce the outcome we want? Our group work — in 7-on-7? Are we doing team paths? Are we doing one-on-ones versus the offense and defense? Are we working to fix the things that we talked about? The same thing goes for the team period. 

“So, you can’t practice more. You have to make sure that the loadage that you do in practice is going to help you be fresh for the game and prepare for the game. But the focus in each of those periods of practice has to be to attack those issues that we’ve been having.”

On Notre Dame using Arkansas’ defensive size against them with guys like running backs Jadraian Price and Jeremiyah Love and wide receiver Jordan Faison

“I don’t know if J-Love and Price are going to have an effect on the big D-tackle. Like, that dude’s a big dude. So can you affect them with how you’re blocking him? Maybe instead of two hands, you got to get four hands on that guy and run some type of plays that maybe you’re not just running right at him because it’s hard to move a man that’s that big. 

“But as far as the ‘backers (linebackers), we got to test all of them. We got to see, can they play in space? Can they be physical on the inside? We have a great plan. I think we’re going to try to utilize our strengths and try to put their defense in some predicaments that we feel like we can have success.

“It’s never how you just draw it up. You got to go out there and execute and make adjustments. And I’m sure we will.”