Quick-hitters: Marcus Freeman on Cal, Manti Te’o return, pressure on players

Marcus Freeman gets another shot at his first victory as Notre Dame head coach in 48 hours. The 0-2 Irish host 2-0 California Saturday (2:30 p.m. ET, NBC) in a rebound opportunity from a surprising 26-21 loss to Marshall Sept. 10.

Freeman met with reporters via Zoom Thursday for the final time before the game. Here’s what he had to say on several topics, from preparing for Cal to the pressure to get a win.

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On former Notre Dame linebacker Manti Te’o returning to campus for Saturday’s game

“Anytime you can have one of your greats come back, it’s a great thing for our program. I try to do that often. If we’re going to have a former great football player, somebody who can talk to our players as someone who has gone through it, I love that opportunity. When I found out he would be coming back, I think this is a great opportunity for him to come back to Notre Dame, but for us as a football program to utilize one of our own being back on campus.

“It depends on what time his flight gets in, but I’d love for him to be able to say hello to the team. I’m not looking for a big speech, but an opportunity for our guys who know who Manti Te’o is to be able to sit down and meet him.”

On guard Jarrett Patterson’s health and mindset

“He’s been great. He has had a great week of practice. I don’t know if I could sit here and say he feels 100 percent. I think this will be something over time that he feels better as time goes on. But he’s a warrior and he really, really competed his tail off last week and had a great week of practice. He has been a great leader for our group. I expect him to play really well Saturday.”

On the week of preparation

“The game plans are in. Now it’s about really making sure what we want to get done and our players know exactly what we’re looking for. We just had a meeting, and I told those guys it’s about us as coaches making sure our players know exactly what we want, why we want it and have the ability to execute it. If there’s any gray area from now until Saturday, throw it out and condense the packages.”

On the Cal defense

“They give you a couple different looks. They’ll play three-down. They’ll also go to some four-down. The big nose guard, 91 [Ricky Correia], he’s a house. He’s going to be hard to move. They’re an aggressive unit. The middle linebacker [Jackson Sirmon] being the defensive coordinator’s son, you know he knows exactly what’s expected and I’m sure he’s the quarterback of that defense.

“They’re going to present a great challenge for our offense. I think the week of preparation for our offense has been good. We still have 48 hours to continue to prepare. We know we have a very tough challenge ahead of us with a really good defensive unit.”

On the pressure on Notre Dame’s players after starting 0-2

“The focus from myself to our team has been that we have to look at why we haven’t been successful the first two games and really study and put into action the things we’ve learned that it will take to make sure we have success on Saturday.

“That’s the pressure I as the head coach and our coaching staff put on players. Here’s what we have to do to have success. Here’s what we can’t do if we want to have success. Let’s make sure in practice we execute what we’re looking for to a T.

“As I told them, if you continue to listen to all the voices out there that have opinions about what you’re doing or what we’re doing as a football program, you will feel the weight of the world. Focus on the things that matter to dictating the outcome on Saturday. That’s where I want the pressure to be. What things truly dictate the outcome of the game?

“If we continue to focus on those things, we don’t have to worry about added pressure from outside. Don’t play for Coach Freeman. We’re going to play to make sure we have a chance to have success.”

On being sharp in the fourth quarter

“If you looked at the Oklahoma State game, the Ohio State game, even if you look at the Marshall game, you can get distracted about the fourth quarter and say, ‘We didn’t finish.’ I think after the Ohio State and Oklahoma State game – ‘What do we have to do to finish?’

“Then after the Marshall loss, I said, ‘We need to look at the entirety of the game and just look at every single play. Because there are plays in the first quarter that could have truly dictated the outcome of the game. The GPS [energy expenditure tracker] numbers don’t tell us a great story in terms of why we didn’t win the game. Throughout the entirety of the game, where are the plays that we’re not executing that really can dictate the outcome?”