Quick hitters: Four key things Notre Dame coach Marcus Freeman said after beating USC

On Saturday night, No. 21 Notre Dame put the winning train back on the tracks by defeating No. 10 Southern California, 48-20. Afterward, coach Marcus Freeman spoke to the media.

Here are four key things he said: From the play of the Notre Dame secondary to the defensive line slowing down USC quarterback Caleb Williams.

On the play of the Notre Dame secondary:

“They battled their tails off, man. I know Xavier Watts had some crazy stats, and you know, I think about — I don’t know if it was the last takeaway that Cam Hart had. I kind of saw it on the video board, and it’s something that we practice, the ability to stab the ball out.  We talked about if we have awareness, you can stab the ball out, stab it out, and it was a teach tape, and Xavier returned it, which is another coaching point. You sprint through the end zone. Don’t start jogging, celebrating. That could have been a play that’s on Sports Center in a bad way. 

“We always got to learn. I kind of think about the teaching plays and Jaylen Sneed; we can’t rough a punter. We know that. He played great. He played phenomenal. We can’t rough the punter in the first half, and we can’t celebrate as they’re getting ready to snap the ball. Same thing with Xavier, make sure you finish the ball through the end.”

On the Notre Dame defensive line slowing down Caleb Williams:

“Be aggressive. Be aggressive. Roll guys. We want to roll guys. I told Coach (Al) Washington, when you see them sub, we need to roll our guys, get some fresh guys in there, roll them. We have to have relentless rushers against Caleb Williams, and we were able to do that and it was a whole group of guys that were able to really get pressure on him.”

On the Notre Dame offensive line’s rebound performance:

“They take a lot of pride. They take a lot of pride in what they do. You know, they want the challenge. They embrace the challenge. As I told them, I said, ‘perception is we can’t run the ball because of our offensive line. That doesn’t mean it’s reality, but take that as a challenge.’ I love the way they attacked in practice and performed today.”

On if he called a timeout because the defense was celebrating after Boubacar Traore’s sack:

“Yeah, because we were going to get a penalty. I stood there by the ref, and we were either going to get 12 men on the field and still have a free play, or call timeout, and really didn’t matter.”