Quick Hitters: What Notre Dame coach Marcus Freeman said about potentially facing LSU in a bowl game

Notre Dame football coach Marcus Freeman addressed the media for seemingly the final time until the early recruiting signing window, which takes place from Dec. 20-22. 

Freeman spoke to reporters for about 25 minutes in Monday’s Zoom news conference. He discussed the possibility of facing LSU in a bowl game, the university’s transfer policy, the program’s road game routine and injury updates. Here is the rundown in this edition of quick hitters.

On the possibility of Notre Dame facing LSU in a bowl game:

“The opportunity to play anybody, a great team like LSU, a great football program with the history that they have. Obviously the history that Brian Kelly has with Notre Dame would be — what a great opportunity. For anybody we play, LSU included, the chance to go out there and play a quality opponent — we would look forward to any opponent we play. 

“I know there will be some storylines with Coach Kelly and the history of Notre Dame. It will probably get a lot of views, but the bowl game is going to be about this football program preparing over the next few weeks to play a tremendous opponent. The chance to go out there and compete and win is something that all competitors, especially the ones we have in this program, would look forward to.”

On Notre Dame’s transfer portal policy:

“There definitely have been positive discussions with our administration, with the admissions in terms of making sure that we have a timely manner in terms of getting a response in terms of can we get people, students admitted into Notre Dame. And that’s the biggest thing we’re looking for is the urgency of an answer. 

“But I couldn’t speak any more positively about the relationship this football program and our athletics program have with our admissions in terms of, we all want the same thing. We all want to make sure that athletics has an opportunity to acquire the talent that we need to have success, but also uphold the standards that we have as a university in terms of the value of our education, in terms of understanding the type of students that will thrive here at Notre Dame. 

“And so, I am very pleased with our relationship and our working relationship as we continuously move forward with transfers and student-athletes coming into Notre Dame.”

On if Notre Dame needs to change its road game routine:

“Every game is different. I don’t think the result of the first-half performance was based off a mentality. I think our guys approached this game the right way. Our guys had the right mentality. We just turned over the ball. And we can’t do that. We can’t turn over the ball, no matter if it’s home, away, the start or the finish of the game. So, every game is different, right? Every single one is different. 

“We haven’t had a huge issue on turning the ball over this year. If I thought that was going to be an issue, obviously I would have structured things differently to make sure that we had even more of an emphasis on not turning the ball over. 

“I thought the two previous road games for some reason, no matter if it was the crowd, it was the night game at Louisville in terms of the distractions, or maybe we were not ready mentally for the challenge that we thought Clemson was going to present — I wanted to make sure we had the right mentality going to this game versus Stanford of attacking and being aggressive early in the game. That wasn’t what hurt us earlier in the game. It was taking care of the football. That is something that we have to be able to do. 

“To be able to score 21 points in the second quarter, to be able to really refocus and say, ‘Okay, hey, guys, take care of the ball and continue to execute the way we know how.’ I was proud of the way our guys overcame those early turnovers and really finished out that first half the way we needed to. 

“I’m always going to evaluate everything we do. I don’t want to be so reactive to make a change that negatively affects us. I want to make sure that we have the right preparation and mindset to give us the chance to be successful in every game we play, but I will evaluate everything we do, right? And that’s in terms of how we prepare for a game, what we’re doing on all three phases — that’s the job of the head coach and on everybody on his staff is evaluate everything we do and always find ways to enhance. So, that’s what we’ll do continuously as we move forward.” 

On the status of injured athletes playing in the bowl game:

“I expect everybody to be back by the bowl game. Other than those guys that have season-ending injuries, but guys with soft tissue injuries, I plan to get everybody back by the time we play in a bowl game.”