'A great challenge lies ahead': Everything Notre Dame coach Marcus Freeman said in USC week news conference

Notre Dame football coach Marcus Freeman addressed the media for about 30 minutes on Monday in his USC week news conference. Here’s everything he told reporters.

Opening Statement

“Obviously, a great win on Saturday. We achieved the outcome that we worked hard to obtain. Lot of good in the game, as I always say, a lot of areas to improve. All correctible things. All correctible things.

“I think our offense continues to play well. Wasn’t perfect; we had some good explosive plays in the pass game. NC State did a good job of not allowing us to get those explosive runs that we’ve got the past couple of weeks. Did some good things up front; I think we ran for 140-something yards, but we didn’t have that explosive one. It was a good overall performance.

“We’ve got to be better in short-yardage and goal-line situation. Those are things we’ve been discussing. How do we find a way to truly improve in that area, schematically and execution?

“Defense probably played its best game all year. It’s no secret formula. As we continue to say, the answer lies in the work. The game plan, the teaching, the practice, the study that our players put into it. Execution on gamedays. That’s the formula. We have to continue to do that.

“Special teams continues to make an impact on the game. They’re doing a great job. They plan to impact the game. The buy-in from the players and coaches, the way we practice. It’s good to see. We’ve got to continue to do that.

“Great to have (fifth-year kicker) Noah [Burnette] back. Good to see him make those two field goals, gain some confidence. He’s continuing to feel more and more healthy. We need him; we need him to be healthy for us.

“Unfortunately, yesterday we found out that (redshirt junior offensive lineman) Ashton Craig will be out for the remainder of the season. He had a right knee injury. Your thoughts go to the young man who worked so hard last year after three games to get himself back to the position he was in this year. He was playing extremely well for us. Just unfortunate for him. He’s in great spirits, get healed up and look forward to the return next year. He’ll be ready to go, has the right mindset. Just feel bad for the kid. We’ll be good. We’re going to continue to move forward.

“Obviously, we have a great challenge that lies ahead Saturday in USC. Five-and-1 team, talented, well-coached; they’re playing well.

“Their offense is ranked No. 1 in the country in yards per game. It’s a balanced attack. It isn’t just one side. They’re not just throwing it or just running it. It’s a true balanced attack. They’re doing a good job in both phases there. Starts with the quarterback playing well, not taking many sacks. Credit to their O-line, they’re playing well. He’s making good decisions, not turning the ball over.

“No. 6 (wide receiver Makai Lemon), respect him from last year. He’s a dude. He is a good football player, tough, plays the game the right way. And their wideout No. 8 (Ja’Kobi Lane) is a great player. They’ve got weapons all over the place. I know they lost a couple of running backs. The guy, No. 30 (King Miller), came in and he had some explosive gains. No offense is running for that type of yards without having a really good offensive line.

“Their defense is an aggressive, attacking unit. They’re getting pressure with four guys. I think they’re fifth in the country in sacks. I think they’ve forced 11 turnovers, which is top 15, top 20 in the country.

“They’re playing well on both sides of the ball. They’re a confident team, just had a big win over Michigan. We’ve got to continue to focus on what’s important, and that’s the preparation.”

On whether former Notre Dame quarterback Riley Leonard and CJ Carr are similar or different in their competitiveness, and how that fuels Carr’s growth

“There’s some similarities. But they’re also different people. Both have a burning desire to win. They both hate losing. Both have a unique ability to make those around them better. Skill-sets might be a little bit different, but their makeup, they have similar traits. That’s why they’re both really successful.”

On his thoughts on where the Notre Dame vs. USC series is right now

“Yeah, I know our leadership, administration and their leadership, administration are talking to try to find a way to extend this rivalry. I’m confident it will be extended, but I don’t have any proof it’s being extended right now. But I know there’s discussions. Hopefully, we can continue this great rivalry. My focus right now for me obviously is this one. It’s the only one that’s guaranteed. Put everything you’ve got into this one.”

On how involved he is in the discussions to keep the USC vs. Notre Dame rivalry going

“They ask my opinion. It’s very clear: Let’s continue this thing. They know the rest of it. When (director of athletics) Pete [Bevacqua], (deputy athletics director) Ron Powlus, our leadership, they’ll handle the discussions. They know the head coach of this football program desires to continue this rivalry, and it’s not just because I’m at Notre Dame. It’s because I think it’s great for college football. I think the rivalry between Notre Dame and USC is a great rivalry; one of the best. I think it’s great for college football and two institutions to continue this rivalry.

On the confidence in redshirt sophomore Joe Otting at center, freshman Cam Herron as the backup and the overall situation at center

“Otting’s been practicing well. In his opportunities up to this game has done a really good job, and his plays that he had in this game, he really played well. I probably had more confidence watching and evaluating this last game, when he had to step up and go in there and get the job done. He did a really good job. There’s a lot of confidence in Joe Otting.

“Cam Herron’s done a really good job developing as a young player. That whole O-line, really. There’s a lot of confidence.”

On when they emphasized ‘tackling Tuesday’ and the impact it has had on the defense

“It’s something that (defensive coordinator) Coach [Chris] Ash kind of maybe termed, ‘Tackling Tuesday.’ It was just an emphasis at some point during practice on Tuesdays, during individual periods. Each group has to get a version of live tackling. We have to be very intentional about this period; we have to get live tackling. You only have a certain amount of individual time that you can work in practice. The emphasis can only be on a couple of things; you can’t emphasize everything.

“That was something earlier on this season that Coach Ash said we need to emphasize more. We’re not tackling well enough in the games, and the only way to really work on that is in practice. That’s just a great reflection of the things you emphasize in practice, which usually show up in the game. I know some will say, ‘Well, why don’t you emphasize everything?’

“What we’ve got to continue to do is carry over maybe things we aren’t emphasizing every single day into the game. If you’re going to put an emphasis on something, there can only be a couple of things. We know we’ve got to emphasize those things for this next opponent. But even the things we’re maybe not only emphasizing for the week, we’ve got to make sure we’re emphasizing that on Saturdays, too.”

On whether they emphasized cutback lanes to defend the NC State QB CJ Bailey and RB Hollywood Smothers last week

“That was a huge key to victory. Each week, each side, each phase comes up with three, four things that we believe are keys to achieving victory. We knew we had to affect the quarterback not only in passing but in the run and scramble game. We had to make sure that we kept our lanes, when he was reading the end on a zone-read play, we had to have our guy in a good position.

“Smothers is as good as anybody we’ll see. He’s going to make some people miss. We had to gang-tackle, pursue, so that if he made one miss, two guys miss, there was a whole pursuit of defenders going after him, and we did a really good job with that.”

On the challenge of defending a prolific slot receiver like Lemon

“A lot of challenges. You want to play zone, he’ll find a way to find open space. They’ll attack you. If you want to get on-body, what we call it, he can run by you, he can make you miss, he’s quick, he’s fast; he’s got great ball skills. There’s not a simple answer or solution to defending him. What you can’t do is let him beat you. You know he is one of the most talented players you’ll see; you know he is a huge part of their offense. You’ve got to make sure you have a plan to try to not let that one person beat you.

“But when you do that, you’re going to open up some deficiencies in some other areas. So, we’ve just got to do a good job of mixing it up, making sure pre-snap that can’t just identify we’re in zone or man just by pre-snap alone.”

On how the previous success or lack of success influences Notre Dame’s decision-making on fourth down

“Going for it on fourth down is something that you know I have conviction of doing in certain situations. Some we’ll determine maybe based off our kicker, some is based off analytics. We’ve got to continue to gain conviction, me, in our offense. And that’s why we spend some time talking about our short-yardage plan and goal-line situations, because we have to improve. I don’t want to lose confidence in going for it on fourth down. It’s something I believe in in the right situation. I don’t want to pull back there. I want to say, ‘Let’s enhance our plan so that we have a better percentage of converting.'”

On his confidence level in freshman Dallas Golden, if he has to play a lot at nickel, and confidence in moving sophomore cornerback Leonard Moore around to defend Lemon

“I’ve got a lot of confidence in Dallas. He played really well. When you look at the entirety of the game, obviously, the explosive for the touchdown can’t happen, and he knows it. We’ve got to keep playing with the proper technique, but he’s getting better.

“He’s getting better. We have a lot of confidence in him if he has to be out there, and obviously have confidence in Smitty (fifth-year cornerback DeVonta Smith). We just have to make sure we have a good plan. If that means moving Leonard Moore there, we’ll move Leonard Moore there. But you also know you also have a lot of confidence in Leonard Moore at corner. And that side of the field is taken care of.

“We have to make sure we have a great plan. We can’t be insane, either. We can’t let the same thing happen. We have to have a really good plan and kind of know how they’re going to attack us, too.”

On the recruiting rivalry with former Notre Dame general manager Chad Bowden at USC, and how important California is to recruiting

“We spend a lot of time. Our focus has to be on selling Notre Dame. I don’t know what people would say against us. Maybe they do say that. If snow is going to prevent you from coming to Notre Dame, you’re probably not the competitor that we desire to have here. It’s a fact, sometimes it gets cold. It’s pretty nice right now. You know? That’s the only thing I’ll say about the weather.

“California is obviously an important state to us. We’ve had a lot of success there. We have to continue to have success there and all over America. We’ve got to find the best players in the country that fit this place. I’ll always say that. There have been a lot of players from California that have fit this place and done a really good job at Notre Dame. We have to continue to find those guys and convince them why this is the right place for them. Why this is the right place for them. There’s a lot of guys that have been in their positions that chose Notre Dame, and you look at their success they’ve had. But you understand why this is a special place to attend.”

On the process of sending clips to the ACC for feedback on officiating from the previous game, when they get the feedback, how detailed it is, and how often he hears whether they missed a call

“You do. I mean, we usually get the response back by Wednesdays. But it can be as black and white as saying, ‘We agree with why we called it. And here’s what we saw.’ Or, ‘No, you’re right, we missed it.’  They own it; if they missed a call, they’ll say they missed a call. And in some is, ‘Here’s why we called it — we can understand where you’re coming from — but here’s why we called it.’

“And there’s got to be some human element to it, too. It’s not perfect, right? We want our officials to be perfect, they’re not perfect. We want our players to be perfect, (they’re) not perfect. But it’s the dialogue and the clarification, I think, that’s more important than anything. Is the ability to say, ‘Hey, we got it right, and this is why we got it right, or we got it wrong. And we own it, and we’re apologetic about it, and we’ll try to be better.’

So that’s kind of how that dialogue goes.”

On whether they anticipate redshirt sophomore OL Charles Jagusah getting back and what his impact could be

“Yeah, he had a follow-up surgery — I can’t remember — a couple weeks ago, just to clean up some things in his arm. And it’s going to be a process to get him back, but he is making positive strides. He will return at some point, I just don’t know when it’s going to be right now.

“He’s just, every day in that training room, in the weight room, trying to get stronger and healed up. So when we find out that he’s ready to go and can help us, we’ll obviously utilize that information and make some decisions from there. But right now, he’s just in the process of rehabbing and healing up.”

On why the offense has been incredibly efficient in the second halves of games, and if conditioning might play into that

“Maybe that’s a positive thing. Maybe we are well conditioned that we’re playing better in the second half. Give [Loren] Landow a shout-out for that.

“But I think more than anything, I think when you look at the outcome, after the game, you look back and say, ‘OK, we’re playing better in the second half, but why, right? What is going on in the first half that we’re not having success?’ And I think each drive, each play tells you something. 

“I think, as I look at the first half of this past game, three of those drives had penalties that we had to punt, or we didn’t score. Couple false start penalties. We had a holding penalty on (redshirt junior running back) JD Price. Those penalties put you behind the sticks. And now it’s hard when you’re playing good college football defenses to be behind the chains, first-and-15 or second-and-20 and expect to get a first down. 

“So we have to clean up those penalties that beat Notre Dame and stay ahead of the chains. And then we got to convert when it’s a fourth-and-one, fourth-and-two situation. And we want to extend this drive in the red zone, we gotta convert. 

“So it’s more plays. It’s like, why didn’t this play work? Why didn’t we execute here? Then I think it is a half problem.”

On whether he recognizes the opportunity to play USC is heightened because of the way it has been playing lately 

“Yeah, we understand the challenge. I think any natural competitor understands, like, when you got a team that’s playing as well as USC, they’re 5-1, as talented as they are, like, man, it’s a great challenge ahead of us.

“And we got to be — hopefully people that understand every opponent should make us feel that way. But you don’t have to tell yourself that when you’re playing this opponent. You know the challenge you have, and you don’t lack motivation, right? The competitive juices get going, and my message to the team is going to be like, ‘Use that competitive juice. As you think about Saturday, use that to continue to remind you to prepare in a way that gives you an opportunity to have success.’

“That’s got to be the thought after the thought. Anytime we think about this opportunity we have on Saturday, the second thought has to be, ‘OK, let’s use that to prepare now. What can I do to give us a better chance to be successful on Saturday?’

“So, yeah, I mean, competitors want to play the best, and we got one of the best coming in.”

On where he felt the defense made progress from last week to this week

“I thought, what I really was pleased about was after the touchdown drive. It could have been, ‘Here we go again.’ It was the — there were some adjustments, right? How we called the game, but it was like, ‘Hey, we’re good. Here was the issues. We know what happened. Let’s get them corrected and let’s go out there and play with confidence.’ 

“And the second half, the ability to take the ball away. I think we gave the ball to the offense twice inside the 20-yard line. And then you get a safety. Like, now those are explosives for defense, right? Just like on offense, you’re efficient, you’re efficient and you create an explosive play. When you’re starting to take the ball away, you’re starting to get a safety, you’re winning on third down, that’s when it becomes a dominant performance. 

“So I wasn’t talking as much about the yardage, but really the ability to dominate that second half was really pleasing.”

On redshirt junior wide receiver KK Smith rising to the occasion and what he can bring to the offense moving forward

“Yeah, you know what my answer is going to be. It’s called delay gratification, and you work while you wait. And so if you just wait, you ain’t going to get an opportunity, right? If he was just waiting, that opportunity would have came and gone, right? He was ready for his opportunity cause he works while he waits. 

“He didn’t play as much as he wanted. Nobody plays as much as they want, unless you play every single snap. But you got to continue to work while you wait. You embrace your role, whatever that role is on Saturday. You say, ‘This is my role. I’m going to give everything I got to accomplish this role.’ That means KK might have played two plays, or he played 20 plays. I don’t know how many exactly he played on Saturday. ‘This is my role, and I’m going to get it done. 

“And if you have that buy-in week one through five, OK, week six, all of a sudden, an injury, you’ve got a greater role. Now you’re ready to maximize that opportunity that’s presented to you. But if you just wait on it, it’s never ever going to come. And if it does come, you’re not gonna take advantage of it. 

“We said the same thing about (sophomore cornerback) Karson Hobbs last week. It’s like, you have to work while you wait. If you understand what delayed gratification is all about.”

On what’s going to be the number one thing to focus on in practice this week to come out strong and execute right away, and avoid a slow start

“We got to have a great plan on both sides of the ball. Our openers on offense got to be good and efficient, right? We got to execute on our openers.

“Defensively, we got to be able to have a great plan, but be able to adjust with urgency to whatever they’re doing. And then we got to play with clarity, and we got to go play hard. 

“This game’s going to be about velocity. I often say, ‘We got to get bloody.’ It’s got to be that type of mindset. This (has) got to be a physical, bloody game that isn’t about, ‘How can we outsmart them?’ This is going to be how do we outphysical this group, and how do we play with a mindset that to win this game?”

“So starting fast, it’s an outcome. It’s a reflection of getting your job done on the first play. And doing it with relentless effort and attitude. That’s what starting fast (means). You just do that consistently, and then all of a sudden, after the game, we’ll say, ‘We started fast.’

On how does the mindset change to get it done on the first play

“You focus, in the week, you focus on the moment, right? In the game, you focus on the moment. That’s the mindset you got to have. Like, is my mindset right now in practice on how important this play is, or this period is, or this drill is? 

“And then you take that mindset as you go into Saturday and say, ‘OK, on this first play, am I thinking about the outcome of the game? Or I’m thinking about the only thing that matters is getting my job done on this play.’

“That’s the mindset, and that’s the work you got to do. It’s a lot easier said than done. Everybody can sit here and say, ‘Oh yeah, it’s easy, just stay in the moment.’ We’re all human; our minds drift. We think about things that aren’t really important right now in the moment. So you got to train your mind to do that. 

“I always say, ‘It’s human nature to drift.’ But if you can catch yourself drifting and get your mind back into where it’s supposed to be right here, right now, that’s how you train yourself on Saturday, on that first play to start fast, that you’re focused on what your job is in that moment.”

On what are the challenges of getting Carr and a young quarterback under center in short-yardage situations, and whether going under center is an option in very short-yardage situations

“Yeah, if we thought going under center in short yardage situations was the answer, we would do it, right? If we said that’s the reason why we’re not converting, then you’re insane not to work on it and practice it. We don’t believe that’s the reason why we’re not having success as much as we want in those short-yardage situations.

“But it’s a lot easier said than done to say, ‘Hey, go under center, take a snap,’ if you don’t practice it, right? You have to practice that QB center exchange. We practice snaps, obviously, during practice, but pre-practice every day. And you would think it’s so routine just to snap the ball to a quarterback. Every day we do QB center exchange. And so if you want to go under center, then you better practice it every day.”

On whether they’ve been heavily looking at using running backs Gi’Bran Payne and Aneyas Williams being the short-yardage back since they’ve done it before 

“It’s not a shot against Gi’Bran or Aneyas. Those guys are fully capable of going in there in short-yardage situations and executing what they’re coached to do. But (junior) Jeremiyah Love and JD Price are fully capable of executing what their coach has asked them to do. It’s not that. It’s, ‘OK, we got to have a better plan. We got to have a better plan offensively in those short yardage situations.’ And we will, right? 

“And then I look at both fourth down plays that we had in the game. They probably had a better call defensively than we had offensively, right? We ran a sprint out; they had a good defense for that. We got to make them work. That’s the other side of things. 

“We tried to run (fifth-year wide receiver) Malachi [Fields] on a crack and go, and they had him covered. We thought they were going to be coming up for the run and try to get Malachi behind him, they covered him. We got to make it work, right?

“That’s the next challenge. We’re going to do everything in our power to scheme things that can help us have success, but at some point, you got to make the plays work. That’s what we gotta continue to focus on.”

On his reaction to James Franklin’s firing, whether the churn at the head coaching level is tied to the increased stakes with revenue sharing and the win-now mentality, and how he processes it as a head coach in this era

“It’s a lot of questions in one, but let’s start with James Franklin. Again, I have a lot of respect for any coach, but what he’s done for college football has been tremendous. And you never want to see somebody fired. 

“As a head coach, right — I’m a head coach — you’re going to be OK, right? You’re gonna be OK. You feel awful for the people that come and join you that are going to be out of a job too. There’s a lot of people affected, a lot of families affected. 

“Like if Pete [Bevacqua] said, ‘Marcus, you’re gone’ tomorrow, it stinks cause I love what I do, and I love coaching these young people, but I’m going to be OK. Like, but you feel awful for the people that have joined your program, and their families that don’t have a job at the end of the year. That’s what’s challenging about that. 

“And it’s a reminder to — listen, don’t ever get too comfortable. I mean, you’re just in the college football semi-finals last year, and had a heck of a team. I don’t know what’s going on with Penn State. I haven’t watched any of their games, and you lose three, and that’s it. 


“So it’s a challenging profession. It’s a reminder to be grateful for the opportunities you have. But again, each administration will make their own — I don’t — Penn State made their own decision and every administration makes decisions based off what they think’s important.”

On whether they address the JD Price fumbles by just sitting down with him and making sure his head is in the right place

“Absolutely not. No.
We don’t sit and say, ‘Hey, don’t fumble.’ Like, that doesn’t work. You identify what happened. You fumbled. Why did it happen? There’s a reason why it happened, and then you attack it. That’s how you fix the issue. 

“You don’t say, ‘don’t do it anymore,’ like you do with your kids. ‘Don’t do it.’ 
No, you (identify) why’d it happen? JD, we’re going to watch to see why did this happen? It’s cause and effect. And then we’re going to attack it in practice. We’re going to drill it, and we’re going to do it so much that, hopefully, you don’t do it again. But if you do, then we got continue to drill it, right? And to practice it so much that it doesn’t happen. 


“So, things don’t happen by chance. Maybe, we got to continue to work that, and make sure that we’re intentional about stripping the ball out in practice, and making sure our ball security is at a premium, because we can’t turn the ball over in crucial situations like that.”