Marcus Freeman revealed reason to using local high school for practice

Marcus Freeman is bringing an all-new energy to the Fighting Irish football program. One of his latest changes included a trip to Saint Joe’s High School for No. 5 Notre Dame to hold practice. While it may be strange to consider a big brand college team working out at a high school when they have fields of their own, Freeman says everything about the trip was intentional.

Freeman discussed the specific practice during media over the weekend. He says that he hopes it will prepare his team for road and night games because, no matter where they are, the field will always be the same.

“We all know we have some big road games. The other part of that is practicing at night. We got some big night games, home and away. The philosophy behind that was I don’t care where we go and where we play,” said Freeman. “We can be at Notre Dame Stadium or we can be at Saint Joe’s High School. The field dimensions are 53 and a third by 120 and what we do within those white lines is all that matters.”

The Irish have some tall tasks on their schedule for Freeman’s first season. They open the year in Columbus against No. 2 Ohio State. They’ll also travel to Chapel Hill to play North Carolina as well as Los Angeles to face No. 14 USC. As far as night games, the matchup versus the Buckeyes will be in prime time. They will also have night kickoffs versus No. 4 Clemson, No. 25 BYU and Stanford as of now.

While it’s neat to see a program of Notre Dame’s stature come play at a high school, it was for a reason in Marcus Freeman’s mind. All that should matter to his team is how they play within the lines of any field they’re on this season.

“I don’t care about what’s outside those white lines. I don’t care if it’s a high school stadium and there’s nobody there or if there’s 110,000 people there. All that matters is what’s between 53 and a third and 120. That’s the point of that,” Freeman said. “It wasn’t about Ohio State or about Clemson at night. It wasn’t about anything other than, no matter where we play, it’s 53 and a third by 120. Let’s go and execute.”

That is the kind of attitude that Marcus Freeman has brought to South Bend that should have Notre Dame excited to get things kicked off on September 3rd. For Freeman, it’s all about the how rather than the when, where or who. With their demanding schedule in his debut season, that’s the kind of belief that will set his team and program up for success.