Notre Dame coach Marcus Freeman April 13 press conference live updates
Notre Dame held a scrimmage inside the stadium Saturday exactly one week before the Blue-Gold Game. Fighting Irish head coach Marcus Freeman is speaking to the media afterward to give spring practice updates on his team.
Click the YouTube video player below to watch live and/or follow along below that for real-time, written updates from Blue & Gold.
WATCH: Notre Dame coach Marcus Freeman April 13 press conference
What Freeman is saying
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• 80 play scrimmage today. Defense won on the strength of two pick sixes. Freeman says this is the first time since he’s been the head coach that the defense has won the jersey scrimmage.
• QB Riley Leonard is not take part in the scrimmage today, but he took mental reps behind the play for every series. Freeman says he is doing more and more working back from his ankle injury as the spring goes along.
• Freeman says he was pleased with the defensive pressure on the quarterback today. There were some plays that if the quarterbacks were live they’d likely have been sacked.
• Freeman says wide receiver Jayden Harrison is out for the rest of the spring with a plantar fasciitis injury. Fellow wideout Jayden Thomas has been limited with a hamstring injury.
• Freeman says freshman QB CJ Carr has been great. He says he really understands offensive concepts but also defensive schemes, which helps him process things on the field.
• Freeman on freshman wide receiver Micah Gilbert: “He’s going to do some things for us this year.” Gilbert was running with the ones in the scrimmage.
• Freeman on sophomore defensive end Boubacar Traore: “He just keeps showing up.” Traore would have had multiple sacks today if the quarterbacks were live for tackling.
• Freeman says he remembers CJ Carr soaking everything in during Sun Bowl practices. He didn’t say much, he just learned. And it’s showing up now. “That’s how you improve; can you retain information your coaches are giving you so you can take it to the field?”
• Freeman says Tyson Ford is taking some personal time away from the program “to figure out what he wants to do.”
• Freeman says there will be “honest conversations” with players at the end of the spring to let them know where they stand with this team. He says this isn’t about the transfer portal window coming up, either. It’s about being real with young people these coaches have relationships with.
• Freeman: “There is not just one area we need to improve. It’s everything. That’s the mindset of this program; never satisfied.”
• Freeman says he doesn’t know what the running back rotation is going to be in College Station, but he’s not worried about it right now. He feels like that group is going to be in good shape no matter who’s on the field. Trending in the right direction there.
• Freeman says he’s seen a level of commitment from Jaylen Sneed this spring that is different from past years. That’s led to more consistency.
• Freeman says Jaiden Ausberry has been playing multiple positions because Notre Dame “is not going to be able to keep him off the field… He’s a talented individual.”
• Freeman says the Notre Dame defense is really humming right now because it’s year three of the same defense under coordinator Al Golden. Continuity matters.
• Freeman: “You’re going to see everything with Al Golden.”
