Everything Notre Dame coach Marcus Freeman said after final fall camp scrimmage

Notre Dame football coach Marcus Freeman did not name a starting quarterback Sunday. However, he did address the competition and several other topics in his latest news conference. Here’s everything he said.

Opening statement 

“Good work today. Probably had about 100-plus plays. We didn’t go live the entire scrimmage. The ones had a couple of sets, the twos a couple of sets, the threes were live the whole time.

“We only scored the live periods, so the defense ended up winning, I think it was by four points.

“You try to make the scrimmage about something to simulate some type of game environment where there is a reward for winning. And losers are losers. So, we try to create that type of environment to see your guys compete with a little pressure. They competed. They did a really good job competing.

“We know these guys will go, we know these guys will compete. There are some things we gotta clean up all three phases. Fortunately, we don’t play today. We got two weeks. But, we gotta fix a couple little minor details with urgency. That’s what we’ll get back to work doing here this afternoon.”

On the evolution of the offensive line position and right guard competition

“The four guys that are returning will be in their normal position. There is competition for that right guard position with Sully (Absher) and Guerby (Lambert). Will (Black) has been in there a little bit. 

“We’ll see. We’ve gotta make a decision pretty soon here to see who’s going to be the guy to go with that group. But it’s been a good competition. We’ll evaluate those two guys, between Sully and Guerby, and make a decision soon.”

On Notre Dame defensive lineman Jason Onye’s camp

“He’s had as good of a camp as I’ve seen in my four years. He’s just a reminder of development. Not everybody’s going to come in here and be an All-American as a freshman. If you believe in them and work with them, they can develop into something really good.

“Obviously, Jason battled some things off the field this year. To show this community and this staff and this university surrounded him with resources to help him and to see how he’s playing now, I know he’s going to do great things for us in football. 

“But the story shouldn’t be that; what the story should be is how he overcame adversity and has developed in his four years here. He’s going to do a really good job for us this year.”

On how close they are to naming a starting quarterback

“We’re still in competition. We’ll go back and evaluate today’s practice. Make a decision. We’ve got to make a decision here soon. I don’t know when we’ll make it. I don’t want to put a timeline on it. But they’ve both been playing really, really well. 

“We’ve got two guys that have been battling all camp, and today was no different. There were some good things and things we’ve got to get improved.

“But the best thing I love is that they’ve both gotten better. That’s the whole point of having a competition. Competition can raise the level of the people in the competition, and that’s what has happened. Both of those two have really elevated their play, and we’ll make a decision here soon.”

On how they’ve put the quarterbacks in high-pressure situations  

“Every day we’ve done some type of team situation since camp, and it was no different today. Practice 15, we’re still doing it. And yes, part of it is high-pressure, but also some of it is them understanding some of those critical details of the last minutes of the half, last minutes of the game, and some of the decisions you’ve got to make. 

“And it’s not just for the quarterbacks, it’s for everybody. I think they’ve done a really good job.”

On junior running back Jeremiyah Love and what he can do this season to step up his game

“I don’t think anybody worries about a target being on their back. We’re the most self-motivated people, and we better be self-motivated people. So a target doesn’t mean much.

“He’s a great player. He’s a competitor and loves the game. You know, we’re going to find different ways to utilize getting the ball in his hands. At the end of the day, we’ve got to make sure production, the offense’s whole production, is most important.

“If there’s ways to utilize Jeremiyah Love, yes, to get the ball to him, but to help our offense have production, we’re going to do it.”

On Love being a student of the game

“I think it takes studying. You have to watch film. You have to meet with the coaches. I often tell those guys, you can’t elevate if you’re just meeting when everybody else meets, you’re just practicing when everybody else practices. What are you doing outside of the mandatory (NCAA) hours? 

“But he’s a guy that wants to improve, wants to be better. So he’s meeting with his coaches, he’s watching extra film and I just think he’s practicing at a higher level than I ever have seen him. A faster level, disciplined. I think he’s doing a really good job.”

On the punt block drill with a volleyball

“My only thought process was I don’t want Marcello (Diomede), he’s one of our, everybody’s important, but he’s an important player. I didn’t want him to get hurt. If you’re going to hurt somebody, hit somebody, hit me. 

“Gave me something to do instead of just watching with the guys on the side. That kind of gets boring sometimes. But, again, listen, nobody’s too good to do anything around here. 

“Then, I got a little bit tired and put Marcello back in.”

On Love and junior running back Jadarian Price being on kickoff return

“Yeah, I mean, both of those guys are capable kickoff returners. We’ve discussed keeping them on the field at the same time. Is it a rotation? You usually have a primary returner and an off returner based off the opponent’s kickoff team. 

“But again, those guys, we don’t just talk about Jeremiyah Love and JD in terms of offense. How many different ways can we put them on the field to help our football team? That might be one of them.”

On the safety and kicker competitions

“If we played a game today, Noah Grubbs — hope that’s not a violation — Noah Burnette would be the kicker.

“Safety, listen, we’ve got four safeties. Adon (Shuler) obviously is a starter. I don’t know who’s gonna run out first. We’ve got a couple of weeks to decide who’s going to go out for the first series. But, I can tell you: all of them are going to play. All four of those guys.”

On what he remembers about Kenny Minchey in the 2023 recruiting cycle

“Kenny can be reserved. The more you get to know Kenny, he’s a competitive individual. He has a different style of competitiveness. He’s confident in his abilities. 

“But I also like that he’s even-keeled a lot of times, too. Maybe because you see an even-keeled person, it doesn’t mean that’s not a competitive individual. Those are things that attracted us to him, other than his physical skill set and the things that he does on film. That personality is unique to Kenny, and it’s helping.”

On what he has learned about Minchey and redshirt freshman CJ Carr during the quarterback competition 

“Nothing that I didn’t know. They’re both really good. Really good players. They both have a short-term memory, able to move forward from mistakes. They’re able to recover from mistakes. They’re both coachable. 

“They work outside the NCAA-mandated hours. There’s not much negative I can say about them. Those dudes are improving and doing a really good job.”

On whether he thought they would know a starting quarterback by now, or if it could be a possibility that the competition could drag on

“I never put a timeline on it. I didn’t, because of why? It’s going to make you frustrated if you do that. I said, ‘Hey, as soon as one clearly says he should be the starter, then we’ll make a decision.’ 

“Now, we have to make a decision, and we will. But there hasn’t been that moment where this guy has said, ‘He is clearly the starter, let’s leave him with the ones.’ I think they’ve both done a really good job.”

On whether there is a big picture advantage that the QB competition has gone on this long

“The advantage is, our offense, whoever are the ones, have practiced with both quarterbacks and are comfortable with both quarterbacks. And, so, sometimes you don’t get that when you have a starter and a backup. All of a sudden, that backup comes in with the ones, there’s a little bit of confusion if they don’t understand how the guy’s cadences are.

“I think it’s a benefit, and I’m always going to look at it as a benefit, no matter what the situation.”

On how he’s seen wide receivers Elijah Burress, Micah Gilbert and others progress through camp

“Yeah, KK Smith. Those would be the guys you’re talking about. Fifth, sixth, seventh. Those are the guys that really have done an excellent job of improving, right? And there’s been days they’ve been with the ones. Days they’ve been with the twos, but I think they’ve done a really good job of gaining confidence from our offensive coordinator, the quarterbacks and everybody else. 

“So, I’ve been really pleased with (them). I think all those guys are improving, and we’ll figure out what we’re going to do in terms of getting them on the field.”

On how the defense has maintained the standard of last year’s group despite the coordinator change

“I hope we don’t wanna repeat what we did last year, because last year’s over. But I hope the mindset is ‘How do we get better,’ right? And that’s what we talk about, right? We’ve got a new coordinator, we’ve got some new guys. Like, the expectation is to elevate, to be better. 

“And so, it’s a mindset. It’s not ‘Let’s repeat last year, let’s be as good.’ Like, ‘Ok, here’s our team, here’s our group, here’s our directions, how do we go to work and get better?’ There’s really good leadership. I think I look at the coaching staff and the unity amongst them. The alignment of the coaching staff is one thing, and then the player-led leadership is another thing. It’s been strong. It’s been really strong. 

“So, they’ve been playing well. I told them after practice that you try to put something on the line, and at the end of the day, they’re going to know ‘OK, we’re pretty well today. How do we get better?’

On how many edge rushers they’re comfortable rotating and where Jordan Botelho fits in that

“Yeah, they’re deep. We have a lot of guys out there that we’re confident in that have either played or, like Loghan Thomas, haven’t played, but we’ve got a lot of confidence that he can go in and rush the passer. 

“But you’ve gotta play the run, too. We’re not just saying, ‘Hey, go in and rush the passer, the offenses run the ball.’ So, Botelo’s progressing back. He’s been out and practicing a little bit more, and we’ll see when he’s cleared. But he’s itching to get back here as soon as we can.”

On how much time they spend on the plays that are made versus the mistakes they didn’t make when evaluating quarterbacks

“For me, more important than anything, like I don’t want to just sit here and watch the outcome, and, good or bad, and say ‘Blame the quarterback.’ It’s like ‘What decision was he supposed to make, and did he make the right decision?’ Then you look and say, ‘OK, was the ball good? Was the protection right?’ All those different things that are on his plate. 

“But that is more important to me than anything. It’s about decision-making. Because there’s so many different aspects that go into the outcome of a play, right? It’s easy to, again, I always say it, we’ll give the quarterback credit when things are good, we’ll blame him if things are bad. But the one thing they control is their decision-making and the ability to get everybody on the same page.”

On how much defensive coordinator Chris Ash serves the quarterback competition 

“Yeah, I think they’re seeing different things defensively. Our defense isn’t exactly what Miami’s defense is going to be. You don’t know what they’re going to be. Obviously, the coordinator’s from Minnesota. But they’re learning football, right? As we get out of today and tomorrow, we’ll start truly working scout teams and truly working Miami game plan. 

“But today was all about learning the game of football, and they’re learning a lot because they’re seeing a lot of things defensively. And they’ve got to be able to process it. Process the checks and downfield decisions. So, I think it’s a benefit for them.”

On how much prep time goes into evaluating Miami’s transfers

“We do all those things in-depth. You look at personnel. If they’ve transferred, you look at where they’ve come from. When you’re evaluating, you look at the scheme from where it was last year to ‘Hey, maybe let’s watch their film last year.’ Because you want to look at personnel, is there any scheme carryover? So, all of those things we do. 

“Everybody works tirelessly to make sure there’s no stone unturned. And then, as you get to Miami, it’s going to be a game of adjustments. It’s game one, right? We’ve got different personnel, we’ve got a different coordinator. They’ve got different personnel, got a different coordinator. It’s a game of adjustments.”

On a narrow difference between players battling for a starting job being encouraging and discouraging

“I get what you’re saying about it could be discouraging when we’ve got two guys and nobody’s good enough. But when you look and say at all of these different positions, we have guys that are good enough. Now, the quarterback position, you probably don’t rotate. Whereas those other guys, it’s like, somebody’s going out first, but you are going to play the linebackers, the safeties, similar plays. 

“I think we make it too big of a deal in a lot of positions of ‘Who’s going out first?’ They’re all playing. Now, there’s certain positions that you don’t rotate. Probably don’t rotate right guard. You’re not gonna rotate the quarterback. So, those are decisions we’ll have to make, but I look at it as a positive.”

On the process of naming a starter and informing people 

“In a lot of the decisions I make, I involve people. I believe we have the best staff in America. So, how can you not take some of their opinions into account? We’ll talk, and at the end of the day, I have to make a decision, and it will be my decision. I’m not passing this along on anybody else. 

“I’ve got to make a decision, but I will take into account the, like I do all my decisions, the coaches, and then we’ll tell the players, and we’ll move forward.”

On the difficulty of tight end Kevin Bauman’s retirement 

“Yeah, it was an emotional conversation. He’s a guy that loves Notre Dame. Loves this program. He’s given everything he has to this program, and he’s a great leader for us. So, it’s unfortunate, but he’s a tough individual that will get the knee taken care of, and he’ll do great things when he has a Notre Dame degree. 

“He’s a hard worker and a good person. As I told him, you’re not going to have any more success in football, but you’ll be successful in life because of the hard work you’ve put in and you’ll continue to do.”

On what he has learned about the team off the field that makes him confident in them

“We’ve spent a lot of meetings really building our culture, our brotherhood, and you get to know a lot of the older guys on a more personal level as they give stories on personal things in their lives. I think that’s important. The Xs and Os are important. Personnel is important, but the connection of your team, to me, is as important as any other one. 

“So, we spend time making sure that we are connected as a team. Like, this is more than just individual football players. This is guys that are willing to sacrifice because there’s a duty and a love for the man next to us. So, in order to have that, you have to really build it with the intentional bond.”

On whether there’s someone who has taken a big leap this offseason that is not being talked about 

“I don’t know what the fans talk about. I think we have three freshmen that are doing a good job at corner with Dallas (Golden), Mark (Zackery IV) and Cree (Thomas). I think they’re doing an excellent job. Ty Washington at tight end. I could go on. I could really list a lot of people that our fans don’t know, that I expect to do a good job for us this season.”