Marcus Freeman raves over Notre Dame's aggressiveness, not settling for 'surviving'

Marcus Freeman had a lot to like regarding Notre Dame’s win in the Quarterfinals of the College Football Playoff at the Sugar Bowl against Georgia, but one thing stood out to him about his team.

Evidently, Freeman couldn’t get enough of his team’s mindset against the Bulldogs. The Fighting Irish decided to be aggressive throughout the game, and it led to a myriad of game-changing plays. Afterwards, Freeman made sure to point out how that mindset changed everything, and brought the team to the Semifinals.

Get your team’s official College Football Playoff watch from AXIA by CLICKING HERE: “Watches that tell so much more than time”

“It was a heavyweight fight. The entire game was,” Freeman said, regarding the Sugar Bowl during his postgame press conference. “But that first half, it was 3-3. First of all, Mitch Jeter did an amazing job with field goals, his confidence. He had a great week of prep. And then it becomes 6-3 us. And the forced fumble right before the half. And then our offense being aggressive and opportunistic and capitalizing off of that as we go into half was huge.

“What we didn’t want to do — I think it was a ten-point lead at the half. I didn’t want to ‘survive.’ I think that’s the natural tendency in a big game. You’re up ten versus a really good team, to say, ‘Let’s survive.’ No, let’s be aggressive. I didn’t know we were going to come out of the locker room and score a kickoff return touchdown, but that helped.

“And again, it was – that middle eight is something we often talk about. And the ability to close the half in that way and to start the half – the second half with a kickoff return touchdown was huge for the outcome of the game.”

All told, Notre Dame will be hoping to keep that same level of intensity in Thursday’s showdown with Penn State. The Nittany Lions had a couple of extra days to prepare and rest for the Orange Bowl, as they played two days before the Fighting Irish did, but Freeman and company are allergic to excuses, and you can bet they won’t be making any.

Whichever team gets the win will be one step closer to a national title at the end of it all. Marcus Freeman and Notre Dame is hoping their aggressiveness is the difference, and it’s them heading to become immortal at the end of Thursday’s showdown.