Marcus Freeman reveals identity of Notre Dame
It’s been a sharp turn for Notre Dame since losing to Ohio State and Marshall to start the season, with the Irish reeling off three-straight wins to sit at 3-2. First-year head coach Marcus Freeman shared on Thursday what he sees as the identity for this team and program going forward.
Unsurprisingly, it’ll start and stop with winning at the line of scrimmage for Notre Dame. Freeman wants the Irish to be a team that runs the ball to set up the pass, offensively, and stops the run to force the pass, defensively.
“Again, hopefully we’re O-line, D-line driven,” Freeman said. “And what does that mean? That you’re a team that can run the ball with some consistency which hopefully entails the ability to throw it. And the ability to make the defense be aggressive in terms of stopping the run and open up some zones in the pass game. And defensively, it still starts with stopping the run. And it’s not — it’s not a yardage, it’s not ‘How many yards did the offense gain running the ball.’ It’s a mentality of, ‘Hey, we cannot let a team just run the ball down our throats.’ We have to be able to stop the run and then try to make them throw the ball to have success against us.”
As it stands right now, the Irish have a little ways to go.
Notre Dame is 51st nationally in rushing offense, not a bad mark but not blistering, either. The Irish are one spot ahead of Wisconsin and one spot behind UMass, averaging 174.8 yards on the ground per game this season.
Saturday’s rushing performance against BYU — a 28-20 Notre Dame win — was a promising sign. The Irish rushed for 234 yards as a team. Running back Audric Estime took 14 carries for 97 yards, a 6.9 yards per carry clip.
Defensively, things fall off a tad with Notre Dame ranking 74th nationally in rushing defense. The Irish have only surrendered four touchdowns on the ground in five games, but are giving up more than four yards a carry and nearly 150 yards a game.
While they might not be all the way there, some of Notre Dame’s recent success under Freeman is a promising sign that the Irish are getting on the right track.