Quick-hitters: Marcus Freeman on Ohio State, Tyler Buchner, preparation for first game

Marcus Freeman’s first regular-season game week as Notre Dame head coach has arrived. The No. 5 Irish open his debut season as head coach at No. 2 Ohio State Saturday (7:30 p.m. ET, ABC).

It is, of course, also a return to his alma mater. At every turn, though, he has downplayed the significance of that angle. He has already been back as a coach once, in 2019 as Cincinnati’s defensive coordinator. He’s more concerned with having Notre Dame prepared for it. And he’s leaning into the challenge.

“Right now, the emotion in this isn’t going back to Ohio State,” Freeman said. “The emotions you have are we get to go play a great team, a great hostile environment. That’s, to me, the emotion – like any competitor, you get those butterflies and get that excitement going to a place like that and going to compete against a great program like Ohio State.”

Freeman met with reporters Monday for the first of his in-season press conferences that start each game week. Here are some of the topics he addressed.

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On what he sees as Notre Dame’s identity

“We have to have a mindset that we want to be able to establish the run offensively. Having a run game opens up so many different options in terms of pass game and other things offensively. We have to have the ability to establish a run game, take care of the football, be disciplined in what we’re doing defensively.

“It’s the same mindset when we’re attacking. We have to be in multiple different fronts, multiple different looks. But defensively, it’s stop the run. If you can’t stop the run defensively, you’re opening up so many different areas in terms of being vulnerable to the offense. And we have to be superior in our special teams play. That’s a challenge I’ve put on Coach [Brian] Mason, our special teams coordinator, and all our special teams units.”

On defending Ohio State

“If you don’t stop the run, they’ll run it all day long. The ability to stop the run is most important. We know they’re really talented when they throw the ball. But it’s the mindset. If you can’t stop the run, they’ll run it at you in whatever they want to do.

“Then you have to give them different looks defensively to keep them out of sync. I’m not trying to say we’re going to confuse them, but be able to give them different looks in terms of the pass game.”

On what he’s most confident in about his team after fall camp

“The leadership we have. We have some guys at different positions who have played in big games. I’m confident in all three phases with what we’ve been able to do in fall camp and what we’re going to do as we progress through this week. Continue to lead, continue to prepare the right way and we’ll see after the game where our strengths and weaknesses are.”

On his emotions as a head coach

“I’ve coached in a game as a head coach, so it’s not new. But your emotion, you spend time wondering what you have to do to make sure your team is prepared. That’s where my focus has been. It’s all in the preparation. What have we done and what haven’t we done to make sure this team is prepared? I spend countless hours and that’s all I worry about. Are we preparing the right way and is this team prepared for what we’ll encounter Saturday night? That’s what I’ll spend the rest of the week thinking about.”

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On Tyler Buchner’s progress since being named starting quarterback

“He has done a really good job since we named him the starter of continuing to be consistent. That’s what we’re looking for. There’s a little bit of that confidence in the offense knowing who’s the starting quarterback. That’s why we named a starting quarterback when we felt like he was ready. The earlier we could name it, the earlier we could build that confidence and consistency among that offensive unit.

“He has done a really good job these past couple weeks of making good decisions, taking care of the football and making plays. He has been in the red jersey, so he hasn’t been hit yet, but it has been good to see his growth. I look from last year in spring ball to now, his growth as a quarterback, as a leader and a decision-maker has been really good to see.”

On naming grad student wide receiver Avery Davis a captain despite his season-ending ACL injury

“It was something when I sat in his house the day he tore his ACL, I knew that’s what he wanted. He’s a leader and wants to have the ability to help this team whichever way he can. Him being a captain, him being a voice is a way he can help this team. His teammates obviously respect him. We as a coaching staff respect him. We’re grateful for him to step into this captain role again.”

On Notre Dame’s mock game during the final fall camp practice

“I had a pretty good idea of what I wanted to do in the mock game. What I really did was after the game was wrote some notes for next year when we do a mock game, is there a way we can make it better? I didn’t add anything. We had a list of things we wanted to hit, and we hit them.

One thing we hadn’t done in the past that [offensive coordinator] Tommy [Rees] and [defensive coordinator Al] Golden came to me about was doing a four-minute situation in a mock game. We ended up incorporate that, which I think was a great enhancement to it. Between Coach Rees, Coach Golden, Coach Mason and our whole coaching staff, there’s never a lack of ability to give me ideas. If I feel like it will enhance our program and something we should incorporate, I’ll do it.”