Quick-hitters: Marcus Freeman on the remainder of spring practices, quarterbacks
There are exactly two weeks left until the Notre Dame Blue-Gold spring game.
Irish head coach Marcus Freeman sounded very pleased with the direction and progress of his team during a post-practice press conference Saturday. Freeman spoke at length about the way in which his coaching staff has helped him through his first spring session as the Notre Dame head coach, and he touched on player performance too.
Here are some of his most striking quotes from the media availability.
On the objective for the last two weeks of spring practices
“What situational football do we need to really, really get going on? I know we don’t have enough third down plays on film from practice. We need to focus on third down. But I’ll sit down with the coordinators and say, ‘Okay, hey, what situations on your side of the ball offensively and defensively do we need to make sure we get on film so that we can teach and coach from it? I wasn’t pleased with the way we kicked today. We missed a couple of field goals. So I’m going to put those guys in a little bit more competitive situations.”
On defensive coordinator Al Golden’s impact
“One of the main reasons we hired him was because he’s been in my shoes. And he’s been a guy that sees things from a head coach point of view. There have been many times he’s come to me and said, ‘Hey, just something to be aware of, this something I hated I did when I was a coach.’ And that is something that has been very beneficial. For me being a first time head coach on the team, he has been great.”
More Notre Dame quick-hitters
• Tommy Rees on Notre Dame quarterbacks, tight end development, improvements in spring practice
• Al Golden on Notre Dame linebackers, secondary, spring progress
On the development of the Notre Dame wide receivers
“Coach Stuckey has done an unbelievable job with that group. He just wants to earn your trust. It’s about earning new trust first, and then coaching them and making them better football players. But I’ve seen them all progressing. And we had a couple of injuries. (Deion) Colzie was out early, and then he came back. (Jayden Thomas) has been fine. (Lorenzo) Styles was limited on Thursday. So some other guys had to step up. They’re getting a lot of reps. And I’ve been really pleased.”
On Notre Dame quarterbacks Drew Pyne and Tyler Buchner
“I was really, really pleased with the work that they did today in taking care of the ball and making good decisions. It’s a great competition between Tyler and Drew. It is. After this scrimmage, I’ll sit down with Tommy and say, ‘Hey, give me your grades. Let’s talk about where you see these two.’ It’s still going to be an evolving process in terms of naming a starter. But I wouldn’t hesitate put either two in the game because they’re both really, really good football players, and they can help us win.”
On using GPS systems to analyze player performance
“Every day after practice I get with Coach Balis, and we look at the GPS systems. Who’s in red? Who has high value numbers? I told the staff on Thursday, every number right now is above where it has been. It’s great. It’s showing it their workload can increase, but then they can also sustain it if they continue to do it. We haven’t had those small tissue strains. It’s a credit to be able to look at the analytics, look at their workload, but also push them to get treatment. If he’s in red, usually we say, ‘Be careful.’ And guess what? He had the same workload the next day, and he was fine. Braden Lenzy is the first person I think about. His workload has increased, and it’s just showing through 10 practices, 11 practices, that hey, he just needs to push. He’s been great. His body can handle it. We study it every day post practice.”
