Marcus Freeman shares bad history with Navy to prepare Notre Dame team

When Marcus Freeman was the defensive coordinator at Cincinnati, he got an up-close look at Navy and its triple-option offense. It was quite the wake-up call, too.

“We gave up 569 yards rushing vs. Navy in 2017 when I was at Cincinnati,” Freeman recalled. “That will be a number that I’ll never forget. It was a long day.”

Now the head coach at Notre Dame, Freeman is gearing up to lead the Fighting Irish against the Midshipmen on Saturday — and he’s learned a few things since that 2017 game. He’s planning to use his experience against his former conference rival to help the Fighting Irish build off last week’s win over Clemson and, ideally, control the triple option.

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“What I didn’t have that day is answers, and that’s a helpless feeling,” Freeman said. “That’s something that, personally, I wanted to make sure that I continued to find different answers to, really, try to figure out how they think offensively — not just how they think, but also how the triple option really works and the different things we’re looking for.

“They’re not just running the triple option. They do a lot of different things. Their offense has expanded. But the ability to just understand a little bit more the offensive side of the ball in terms of what they’re looking for and, in turn, help us defensively to make sure we’re finding better ways to defend it. For me, the biggest thing was we needed answers. I needed answers to say, ‘OK, if this isn’t working, if they’re having success on this play, what are different ways that you can attack it and challenge it?’ That’s kind of how I’ve grown from 2017 to now.”

Marcus Freeman: ‘Growth and enhancement’ key to game-planning vs Navy

Freeman is also planning to lean on his staff, much like he did last year as Notre Dame’s defensive coordinator. Last season, Freeman pulled from former defensive line coach Mike Elston — now at Michigan — and he’s going to take what he learned from Elston and combine it with new defensive coordinator Al Golden’s plan.

It all comes back to growth, which has been a key word for Freeman in his first year as a head coach.

“The great thing for me was last year, to be able to come here and really collaborate with a group of guys with Mike Elston and those guys who were here that have played Navy for many years,” Freeman said. “We enhanced our package last year. Then, this year, to add Al Golden’s expertise and what he did at Temple and at Miami-Florida, to add that to what we did last year, again, hopefully that will enhance our package and, in turn, help us with our execution on Saturday. Continuing to grow. That’s something that you guys hear me say often is that it’s growth and it’s enhancement.

“If we do the same thing we did last year or I do the same thing I did in 2018 when we played Navy really well, at some point, it’ll pass you by because these coaches every year find ways to enhance their offenses. That’s what we have to do defensively.”