Marcus Freeman says Stanford's record and scores 'do not reflect the team you see'

Marcus Freeman is going to get his first big taste of a Notre Dame rivalry as a head coach when Stanford comes to South Bend this week. The Cardinal have struggled this year and recently suffered a close loss to Oregon State in the final minutes last week to fall to 1-4.

But Freeman isn’t looking at that record. He thinks Stanford is better than people think.

During a Zoom call with reporters this week, Freeman spoke highly of what Stanford brings on both sides of the ball. He also pointed to the quarterback situation, led by Tanner McKee, as a reason the Cardinal can make some noise this year.

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“The record and the scores do not reflect the team you see,” Freeman said. “They’re a talented team. As you look at the Oregon State game, they were up in the fourth quarter and lose by that touchdown at the very end of the game. They’re a team that’s running the ball extremely hard. They’ve got big, long receivers offensively, the quarterback’s making good decisions. You see the freshman come in and do some different things with his feet. They’re going to be an offense that’s extremely hard to defend. They’re running the RPO really, really effectively right now. The defense will have their work cut out for them.

“Defensively, again, they are a physical football team. They’ve had some things kind of not go their way defensively, but they’re a team that plays physical, plays downhill that’s going to do some different things that present some issues for our offense. They’re a very talented team, well-coached. I’ve always respected the job Coach Shaw has done coaching his teams. This team is no different. Our guys know, we’ve got a huge challenge coming up on Saturday night, a rivalry game. They’ll be extremely motivated and our guys have been preparing for the challenge.”