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Marcus Freeman reveals Notre Dame's defensive keys in Fiesta Bowl

275133747_4796292347117549_592518599057046758_nby:Jonathan Wagner•01/01/22•

Jonathan Wagner

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Marcus Freeman has helped Notre Dame build a strong early 2023 recruiting class. (Michael Hickey via Getty Images)

The Fiesta Bowl between Notre Dame and Oklahoma State is set to get underway at 1 p.m. ET on Saturday afternoon. The Fiesta Bowl will mark Marcus Freeman’s first game as Notre Dame’s head coach. Ahead of the matchup, Freeman revealed the key to victory on Notre Dame’s defense, also explaining the difficulty of preparation with so much time off.

“Yeah, we gotta tackle,” Freeman said when asked about Notre Dame’s keys to stopping Oklahoma State in the Fiesta Bowl. “It’s hard when you have this break. You have this break from the last game of the season until January 1st. You have to be smart in how you practice. Because what we can’t do, is we can’t lose a guy because we’re in here scrimmaging. And these guys are too good. We, our players, our current players physically are too good to go out there and tackling each other every day. You can’t do that, you’ll hurt them. So you got to be very strategic in terms of how you prepare. But if we don’t tackle well, we’re gonna be in trouble.”

Notre Dame enters the game at 11-1, while Oklahoma State is 11-2. The Irish are scoring 35.3 points per game, and should be a nice test for Oklahoma State’s defense that allows 16.8 points per game. On the flip side, Oklahoma State is scoring 30.6 points per game while Notre Dame allows 18.3.

Oklahoma State quarterback Spencer Sanders has had a solid season, but he struggled in the Big 12 Championship against Baylor. In that loss, Sanders was held without a touchdown, also throwing four interceptions. If Notre Dame can contain Sanders in the Fiesta Bowl, Freeman could get his head coaching career started on the right foot.

Freeman is still adjusting to life as Notre Dame’s head coach

It has been a hectic month for Notre Dame. Brian Kelly departed for LSU, leaving the door open for Freeman to take control of the head coaching job. That is exactly what happened, and now Freeman is trying to lead Notre Dame into the Fiesta Bowl while also adjusting to life as a head coach.

For now, Freeman is trying to just focus on one thing at a time.

“You’ve got the portal, and now you have guys that you’re asking, ‘Hey, are you going to the NFL early?’ And you’re trying to get all this information to connect them with parents,” Freeman said. “There’s just a list of things that we could go over that I probably didn’t know included in being the head coach, but you know what? You just accomplish one thing at a time.”