Live updates: Notre Dame coach Marcus Freeman Aug. 17 press conference

Freeman ended by mentioning how impressed he is with the freshmen cornerbacks — Cree Thomas, Mark Zackery and Dallas Golden. He also mentioned that tight end Ty Washington has performed well in practice.

“At the end of the day, I have to make a decision. It will be my decision. I’m not passing this on anyone else, but I will take into account the coaches, and we’ll tell the players and move forward.”

“At quarterback, you probably don’t rotate. But on defense, someone will go out first, but at linebacker and safety, it’s similar amount of plays. We make it too big of a deal in some positions for who is going out first. They’re all going to play. But at some positions, you’re probably not going to rotate.”

“Botelho is progressing back. He’s been in practice more. We’ll see when he gets cleared, but he’s itching to get back as soon as he can.”

He notes that KK Smith and Logan Saldate along with Elijah Burress and Micah Gilbert have done a “really good job of gaining confidence of our offensive coordinator and quarterbacks.”

“I never put a timeline on it. I didn’t because, why? It only will make you frustrated if you do it. As soon as one is clearly the starter, then we’ll make a decision. We have to make a decision before we play, but the moment hasn’t happened where a guy is clearly the starter — leave him with the ones. They’re battling and both doing a really good job.”

“I don’t know who will run out first [next to Shuler], but all four of those guys will play.”

Freeman notes that Jadarian Price and Jeremiyah Love are both capable kickoff returners and could be used there.

“We’re still in a competition. We’ll go back and evaluate today’s practice, and we have to make a decision 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 well … The best thing is that they’ve both gotten better.”

Freeman confirms that the right guard position is a battle between Sullivan Absher and Guerby Lambert. He added that the four returning starters will retain their starting offensive line spots.

“We have to make a decision pretty soon on who is going to be in the [starting] group.

The team had a scrimmage on Sunday morning, which was won by the defense by a few points.

“There’s some things we gotta clean up in all three phases. Fortunately, we don’t play today.”