Marcus Freeman details challenges of defending triple option

Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman explained what makes defending the triple option such a challenge, even with a talent advantage.

This comes as the Irish get ready to take on one of their traditional rivals, Navy, in Week 0. That game will be played in Ireland and could become a slugfest if the defense isn’t sharp to start the season.

“You don’t see it often, right,” Marcus Freeman said. “You don’t see triple option offenses often in college football and you have to be so disciplined.”

At its core, the triple option is exactly what it sounds like. It’s a running game where on every play there are three choices. The quarterback will either give it to the fullback, keep it, or pitch it outside. They make that choice based on what the defense does, so the defense is always out of position. There are numerous variations of it, but Navy runs it to try and make up for its talent deficit.

“Our guys defensively are used to being able to do your job, but finding a way to get to the ball. Finding a way to make a play happen at times. And when you play triple option, you might not ever make a tackle with a guy on the ball but you have to do your job and it’s something that is extremely difficult.”

Notably, Navy is going through major changes to its coaching staff. Longtime head coach and triple option guru Ken Niumatalolo was fired following the 2022 season. Grant Chestnut is running the offense now, coming over from Kennesaw State where he ran his own variation on the triple.

“Now, you’re going against a coordinator, like we got to watch Kennesaw State, that’s not what Navy did last year. And so, we have to prepare for a lot of different things that we might see, and so it will be a challenge,” Freeman said.

“We have a great plan. I love the plan that Coach [Al] Golden has come up with and we’re doing defensively, but it’s the ability to recognize what is this offense trying to do and then jump into that gameplan.”

Last season, in Marcus Freeman’s first as the head coach at Notre Dame, the Irish beat Navy 35-32, after giving up 19 unanswered second-half points. This season, the Irish will try to improve on that performance.

Marcus Freeman on Notre Dame’s schedule ahead of the Dublin trip

This week, Notre Dame isn’t playing a typical game with the need to travel internationally for the game. Because of that, Marcus Freeman knows the schedule is going to get complicated.

“The schedule for this week is we’ll go today. Usually Mondays, we [do] more of a walkthrough practice. But with being the first week, we will go today as like a Tuesday practice. Tomorrow will really be a Thursday practice in our minds in terms of how long we’ll be out there and then Wednesday will be a normal Wednesday practice. The thought is to truly get after them Wednesday. I want them pretty tired as we get on this flight Wednesday night to fly over to Dublin,” Freeman said.

“We’ll land in Dublin Thursday morning, go to the hotel, get unpacked and keep our guys up. We’re gonna keep them up. Do some walkthroughs and stuff at the hotel. Then, we’ll go and we’ll practice Thursday. And then Friday will be a little bit more intense than Thursday. Thursday, they’ll be pretty jet-lagged.

“We have to be smart in terms of our structure once we get there. But I feel really good about the plan. We talked to a lot of different organizations that have kind of done similar trips, and we felt like this was the best one.”