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What Notre Dame coach Marcus Freeman said after the Stanford game

Kyle Kellyby: Kyle Kelly23 hours agoByKyleKelly

After No. 9 Notre Dame football’s 49-20 win over Stanford on Saturday night on the West Coast, Fighting Irish coach Marcus Freeman spoke to the media for about seven minutes, answering eight questions. Here is everything he said in his postgame news conference.

Opening statement

“Man, great win. Again, the chance to, as I told them, earn this year’s Legends Trophy. Last year’s trophy was earned by last year’s team, and we had an opportunity to go out there and earn this year’s trophy. And so I’m proud of the way they did that.

“And we try to get them to focus on the opportunity we have right now, right? And I know there’s a lot of talk on what happens after this, but we couldn’t focus on that. We got to focus on this opportunity we have right now, and they did.

“They came out and played really, really well. They obviously didn’t finish the game the way you want it, but it got to a point where they have to continue to tell themselves it doesn’t matter what the score is. We got to continue to go out there and play.

“But I’m so proud of them and how much they’ve improved from really Week 1 to now and how consistent they’re playing. And so we’re going to enjoy this and fly home, and we’ll figure out what’s next for this football team.”

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Q. Hey, Marcus, take us in that fourth down, deep in your own zone, the fake punt. What was the play call, and walk us through the process of the play call and why the decision?

FREEMAN: “It was something we’ve been working on for a couple weeks.  We knew if we got a certain look, we would check to it, and we got the look that we wanted, and we checked to it, and we executed.

“Credit to Coach [Marty] Biagi and the special teams unit and the punt unit for their practice. They’ve been practicing that for quite a while, and they executed just like they practiced — really flawlessly. And so proud of the way they executed, and it really helped.

“That game kind of, I think it was, it got to 21-0 out there, right? And so it really kind of put this game into a position that I think we knew we were pretty much in the driver’s seat.”

Q. I know all along it’s been focused on the here and now, and then we’ll worry about the rankings when they come up. And today, a lot of the teams in the top 10 won. What would your message be to the board now, and what statement would you make?

FREEMAN: “Yeah, I mean, I just was on an interview with ESPN and said the same thing. You talk about a team that is probably playing as well as anyone right now, have won 10 straight games in a row, I think all of them by double-digit points, maybe. And you want the 12 best teams now. I mean, I know you have the conference champions and the Group of Five highest-ranked team, but you talk about who are the best teams now, not Week 1, now, and it’s hard to argue we aren’t one of those teams.”

Q. The conversation at halftime with Jeremiyah [Love] that you said you were going to have, how did that go? What went into letting him go back in the game, and what is it like for you to watch that unfold, knowing that he had been banged up?

FREEMAN: “Yeah, I told him, ‘You know how you feel. I know you’re hurting, but you know how you feel. And you have to make a decision about what’s best for the team. If you feel like you can go, that’s what’s best for the team.’

“I know he wanted to go out there and put on a Heisman Trophy-worthy performance, and we owed it to him to say, ‘If you feel like you can go, go.’ And that tells you the type of competitor he is. I know he’s hurting, but he wanted to go.

“And it was safe for him. We wouldn’t put him in harm’s way, right? And the doc said, ‘If he wants to go, he can go.’ And I left that up to him because he’s earned that right.”

Q. Then, all around the game, 24 points is supposed to be the most the computers acknowledge for a win to matter, but that eye test keeps coming up. So, as a coach and a competitor, what’s it like to have these fourth quarters and reserves, what they do, mattering to the committee, it seems. How do you navigate that?

FREEMAN: “Well, I think we were at a point where we felt like we had the game in hand. And so, you have to make decisions at the end of the game that you believe are best for your team, right? And what’s best for our team in that moment is you get a chance to get some backups in, that’s gonna help them improve. You might need those guys this season. 

“And so, when I know we have a game won, it’s more important for me to make decisions that are best for our team, which is gonna be getting some younger guys or maybe some backups in because they’ll get valuable reps in that game. The same thing happened in Pitt, same thing happened versus Syracuse. 

“Like, we’re gonna put those guys in because they’ve earned it, but it’s gonna help our team. It’s gonna help our team improve when the backups and the third strings can get some real game reps.”

Q. Can you kind of take us through the whole process with Jeremiyah, from going out there to see if he’s OK on the field, and then when he does go back to the locker room, how much are you aware of what’s happening there while you’re still trying to push the game?

FREEMAN: “It was, I went out there, and they said —you could tell he was hurting — ‘Hey, I think it’s a rib injury, and so we’re gonna get it checked out, we’re gonna X-ray it.’ They went and did that, and they came back and said, ‘Hey, he’s gonna try to give it a go.’

“And he gave it a go, and you could tell he was hurting, and that was probably close to the end of the half. And then, again, I just had that conversation with him, and I just explained to him, ‘Hey, if you can help us and it’s what’s best for the team, you make that decision.’”

Q. How hard was it this year to focus on what you guys had to do in winning these 10 games in a row, but also knowing, ‘Yeah, there’s a lot out there College Football Playoff-wise that’s beyond our control, but maybe there are some things we want to root for and that nature.

FREEMAN: “Yeah, I don’t, personally, I don’t do those things, but maybe some other people in our program might, but it doesn’t help us take advantage of the opportunity we have at hand. 

“And that’s what I kept trying to tell those guys. You have to value what you have. We don’t — we have this opportunity right now. And it was like this every week. If you don’t value what you have, you’ll lose it. You’ll lose that opportunity. You won’t maximize it. 

“And so if you’re not thinking about this opportunity you have, which we just had, then you’re wasting this opportunity you have on things that don’t matter — I mean that you don’t control. I’m not saying it don’t matter, but you don’t control it.

“I mean, that’s — it’s so true to life. Like, if you don’t focus on what you have and what you can control, you’re not going to maximize that opportunity.”

Q. Coach, you always mention delayed gratification. Aneyas Williams, this was bigger than a lot of other times he’s been in because he provided a pretty important spark in the second and really in the fourth, you guys still probably needed that last score. … 

FREEMAN: “Yeah, I mean, it’s like every time he goes in the game, he’s scoring touchdowns, man. And it is. 

“He’s a guy that’s an example of working with what he has, right? Like you hear me often say, ‘You work while you wait.’ Like he had a small role, right? Maybe it was a kick returner, and ‘Hey, you’re the third back, if we get to that point.’ But he practices, and works, and embraces his role. Then all of a sudden, when he gets a bigger one, he maximizes it. 

“And so that doesn’t happen by chance. It’s because he works his tail off and is preparing for that opportunity, even though he don’t know when it’s going to present itself.”

Q. With so many teams on the bubble in the College Football Playoffs, just what about Notre Dame’s résumé kind of sticks out compared to others?

FREEMAN: “I just answered that question. I just said that. I’ll repeat it for the third time. I told SportsCenter, and I just answered it. 

“We are improving as much as any team in the country, right? And we have improved as much as anybody in the country. We’re playing as well as any team in the country. Ten straight wins by double-digit points. We have, to me, in my opinion, the best player in the country.

“That’s what you want. You want the best teams in the country now, right? Like, who’s the best teams for the playoffs right now? And I truly believe we’re one of them.”

BOX SCORE: No. 9 NOTRE DAME 49, Stanford 10