Everything Notre Dame coach Marcus Freeman said in Week 13 (Army) press conference

Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman spoke to the media Monday to wrap up the Fighting Irish’s 35-14 win over Virginia and look ahead to the Shamrock Series game against Army this Saturday. Here is everything Freeman said.

Opening statement

“Just recapping Saturday’s game, I thought it was a great way to end our season, and our home regular season and senior day. A lot of good as you watch the film from all three phases. Offensively, 448 was tremendous and I think 230 yards rushing. I mean, that’s a lot of positive. There’s a lot of positives as you watch the film.

“The only thing we have to do better is at hurting ourselves. I think we had five drives in the first half that did not end in touchdowns. Three of those five had some type of penalty; holding penalty, hands in the face penalty, which put us in third and extra long situations. One of those, I think we had a minus ten yard run on second down. We know our offense, Notre Dame’s offense, isn’t going to be great when you put yourselves behind the sticks so we got to eliminate those mistakes that are really slowing us down at moving the chains.

“Defensively, playing lights out pretty much all night. There was one drive that they scored on in the second half where as you looked at that drive defensively, we had a defensive holding penalty. They had a long pass which may or may have not been complete. We actually had an MA on the touchdown. We had one of our guys who should’ve been in a different position, so those are the areas we got to improve. We chase perfection and we got to improve there.

“Special teams, I thought it was the best day we had punting to date. I think our guys did a great job covering those punts that James punted. We got to do a better job at our field unit. I know the one before half we knew was a little bit of a stretch, but we gotta make the makable field goals. Missing one from 42 yards is unacceptable, so we have to address that and have to get it fixed immediately.

“Players of the game, on offense was Jeremiyah Love, on defense Xavier Watts, and special teams James Rendell. Scout players of the week on offense were Anthony Rezac, defense Devan Houstan, and special teams Mick Brown.

“Couple of injury updates, Howard Cross will still be questionable for this game. We will see how he progresses as we move forward this week and Devyn Ford is trending in the right direction, but I think he’s still questionable for this game.

“Turning the page, obviously to Army. I told the coaching staff, I think it’s our toughest challenge to date. They’re a really good football program, 9-0 and on a 13 game winning streak which is number one in FBS. All 9 of their wins this season came by double digits. One of three undefeated teams in FBS. We want to understand the challenges they present.

“It’s year 11 for Coach [Jeff] Monken, so what you’ll see is a lot of consistency in their program. They play clean. They don’t hurt themselves. They’re a physical, tough bunch. I think they’re averaging about 35 points on offense and only giving up 10 on defense. They do a great job in time of possession. I think top two in the country in turnover margin. Our guys will understand the challenge. Looking forward to the opportunity to play in Yankee Stadium in our Shamrock Series game versus a very good opponent. With that I’ll open up the questions. 

On Jayden Harrison and Rod Heard II

“Those two guys have been great additions to our program. I think as you saw with Jaden Greathouse going down in the second quarter, it gave Jayden Harrison a chance to stay on the field more. I know those guys rotate a lot. He made some big plays. Obviously the touchdown, then he had a touchdown called back, then the long third down conversion. He’s really playing at a high level. He did some really good things on the punt. He stepped in for Devyn Ford. Really stood out on his punt coverage. He’s brought a lot of production in terms of what happened last game. He’s an energy provider, I’m glad to have him.

“Rod Heard has been terrific. We’ve been playing him a couple different positions. Played him at safety, at nickel, and when Leonard [Moore] went down for a series we moved Jordan [Clark] out to corner and moved Rod into nickel. He’s a multiple position guy that has brought maturity but also a skillset that we need to our defensive back room.”

On Notre Dame kicker Mitch Jeter

“After warmups, we thought his line was around 42. Meaning a 42 yarder was probably the line for this game. We had him kick the extra points then we didn’t want to kick the 54 yarder with him because we thought that’s a little out of his range right now.

“At halftime we just made the decision up 28-0, let’s rest him for the second half and get him ready hopefully for this week, and extend that line a little bit farther to where he was earlier in the year. He’s not full-go as he was to start the season, but he’s going to be available to kick. We just got to continue to see where that line is for Mitch Jeter.”

On the differences between Army and Navy

“I met with the defensive staff and the first thing we said is that the biggest mistake we can make is to think that this is Navy 2.0. It’s not. It’s a different offense. They do some different things. They got a different identity, and present a different challenge.

“Yes, it’s still a version of the triple option, which you see with some of the military schools, but they run it with different personnel. They’re led to me by their o-line. They come off the ball physical, they’re big – bigger than what you usually see when you play academy schools.

“But it’s going to be a great challenge on all three phases they’re aggressive. I think since 2020 they’ve blocked more kicks than anybody else in the FBS. All three phases present some issues that we have to be prepared for.”

On not calling timeout after it appeared Virginia did not make a catch the officials said it did

“I asked the line judge on all three sides and said, ‘Hey, I know what they called. Is replay looking at it?’ I was told they were looking at it. I don’t know, maybe they didn’t get time to buzz down before the ball was snapped seeing as Virginia was going up-tempo, but they do a really good job of trying to help you not waste timeouts. Officials don’t want us to waste timeouts, so when I’m told they’re looking at replay, I don’t want to waste a timeout if I think that it’s going to be confirmed.”

On the official ruling of the Notre Dame fake punt touchdown that was called back

“The ruling was it was not a kicking formation. So if it’s not a kicking formation, you have to have five guys on the line between the numbers 50-99. Going into the game, we believed it was a kicking formation. Haven’t heard back from the league yet so we’ll see what they say, but you know, it is what it is.”

On Army quarterback Bryson Daily

“I think he is a guy that has experience. I know he missed two games ago. I think two weeks ago. But he’s back from injury. He makes really good decisions, can run the ball if he needs to and can also throw it if he needs to do. What he does is run the offense efficiently; doesn’t put them in bad positions. He does a great job at taking care of the football.”

On coaching points for Notre Dame offensive line penalties

“You watch the film, you address it, you go to practice and work on those specific issues to make sure they don’t show up in the game. Hopefully don’t repeat it.”

On Army’s highly rated rush defene

“One is personnel. They got some good D-Linemen. They do a good job. They do a good job of simulating some pressures where, you might be thinking, a five-man pressures come in, a six-man pressure is coming and it ends up being four guys. 

“So, they just do a good job of saying, ‘We’re not going to let you run the ball.’ And we got a mindset that, hey, we still want to run the ball. We’ve got to find ways to get hats on hats. But the other thing I think they do is they move. They’re not stagnant. 

“They’re not your typical just three down and they don’t move. They’re able to move the front and be aggressive, change the leverage on you, which is a challenge. When you change the leverage on an offensive lineman post-snap, it creates some difficulties.”

On if Notre Dame players like Gi’Bran Payne could come back this season

“No, those guys will be out for the year.”

On Notre Dame freshman quarterback CJ Carr’s recovery from an elbow injury

“CJ is beginning his throwing progression and rehab. That’s about it”

On Notre Dame not trailing in the second half eight games in a row

“No, I don’t know if I knew that stat. I think, more than anything, starting the Purdue, was that emphasis of how do we handle success, right? And it happened to present itself during the Purdue week when we were up going in the half. I think our guys are believing in that, committing to it. 

“When you say, how do you handle success? It isn’t like, okay. Sometimes you say, you got to start fast, you got to finish fast, you’ve got to come out of locker room fast. But it’s like, is this play the most important play the game? And that’s a mindset. Don’t worry about the score. 

“Don’t care what the score is. You could be up. You could be down. It doesn’t matter. This play is the most important play of the game, and that takes effort and focus to do, right? It’s not natural. It’s natural to let up. It’s natural to say, ‘Okay, here’s a score. It’s not that serious. 

“This play doesn’t matter.’ But the guys on the field have to have a conviction that this play is so important to get the outcome that we want in the game, and if we can continue to have that mindset, we’re going to be really successful. But that hopefully is a reflection of no matter who’s in the game at what point in the game, they have a conviction that this plays the most important play in the game.”

On how to simulate a trailing situation in practices

“I think if you have to coach in a way that is not outcome-driven, right? The result of the play, the result of the period, has nothing to do with did you get your job done on this play? And that’s how to me, you simulate that. I don’t care if we completed a 40-yard pass. 

“Did you, as the right guard, get your job done with the perfect technique? If you didn’t, there’s going to be pressure put on you to make sure we get it corrected. That’s how you simulate that. You don’t look at the outcome of practice, don’t look at the outcome of a drill or the outcome of a play, but you evaluate every single play to the standard that we’ve set. 

“I think if we can continue to do that, you’ll see like it isn’t chasing an outcome. It isn’t chasing a score. It’s chasing perfection on this play. This play is all that matters, and so that’s to me, how you simulate that in practice, right? You simulate that by coaching every single play like it’s the most important play because it is. If you do that as a coach, your players will feel how important it is.”

On Notre Dame winning the ‘middle eight’

“I think we emphasize the two-minute offense and defense every week. We go good on good with different situations. Every single week, it could be the end of half, end of a game situation, but every week, our guys know we’re going to get a good-on-good period that we have to execute. 

“It goes back and forth as the offense win this week or the defense wins. But it’s understanding how important that is as you’re going into the half, and then coming out of the half, it’s a mindset coming out, no matter if you’re on offense, defense, kickoff or kickoff return of attack mindset, right? We’ve got to continue to have that attack mindset, and then you’ve got to win that play, right? But we do emphasize those things. 

“We do emphasize how we finish a half by doing two two-minute offense versus two-minute defense, and then we emphasize starting fast. We have a break every day in practice where you can go and take a second, spend a minute or so with your coaches, and then you’ve got to reload. I give them a break. 

“Try to I try to make it halfway through practice. We started that when it was really hot, right? And where our trainer Rob Hunt would mandate, ‘Hey, we have to have a break or two breaks here.’ But I’ve continued that throughout the year because I think it’s a great way to simulate a game. Hey, take a quick break. It could simulate the end of a series or end of the half, that horn blows, reload, refocus and let’s go.”

On if the Notre Dame fake punt was brought up to officials in preseason

“Coach [Marty] Biagi addressed that play with some officials, yeah, in pre-season.”

On if the fake punt was brought up before the UVA game itself

“Again, we’ve had this ready to go for about four weeks. You tend not to show clips to officials in a locker room. That’s not something that is highly encouraged. So, more than anything, you got to explain it, which I explained it to them. ‘Hey, we have a fake point that we’re going to come out of the huddle quickly and snap it. I just want you to know that our guys have to be set. We know all the rules, and we run it.’ 

“And so I don’t want to make a bigger deal than what it is. I’m dang proud of the way our guys executed. I know it didn’t count for seven points, but we’re going to celebrate that fake punt. I can’t wait to show them because there’s been a lot of work put into that. We obviously had it ready. You guys might not know this, but we had it ready for the bowl game. 

“We didn’t get a chance to run it, and we brought it back out after Georgia Tech, and when you practice something for weeks, the players are dying to run it. Just the opportunity didn’t happen. It did this game, and they executed it flawlessly.”

On having conversations about the futures of Notre Dame seniors with remaining eligibility

“We’ve had it with a couple of them. There’s certain guys that will have decisions to make after the season, and then, as I’ve told them, make your decision after the season.”

On the etiquette of Notre Dame playing with a big lead late and Virginia calling a timeout in the final minute to put points on the board in a 35-7 game

“I never want to embarrass anybody if you’re an opportunity to, what you feel… If I feel like we’re an opportunity to embarrass somebody, I never want to do that. I’ve got a lot of respect for the other coaches in this game. 

“I want to get work for whoever’s in the game, right? And if these guys are in the game, I want to get work for them. If a guy that doesn’t play a lot isn’t in the game is in the game, let’s give them the opportunity to have success. We don’t have to run the ball every play. If we need to throw the ball, throw the ball. It’s the same thing with our defense. 

“I’m not mad at coach for calling a timeout. Don’t disrespect our guys by taking it easy on them, right? The greatest respect you can do is give it everything you’ve got as an opponent, right? It’s okay. It’s great teaching. I can’t wait to watch those 10 plays with the guys that don’t get a lot of opportunities to play meaningful game-like plays, and so no problem with them calling a timeout, and it’s a great opportunity for us to teach from those plays that happened during that series.”

On the talent level of Army’s team and if he has recruited any of their players 

“On Army’s team? I have no clue. No. Not that I know of. You get so bogged down with numbers. I very rarely look at names. There might be somebody I recruited. I don’t know. I haven’t looked at the roster in terms of— but, yeah, I see it from a different lens right now obviously as a head coach than I did as a defensive coordinator. 

“But I believe this team is better, much better, than the team we faced in 2020. This Army team, this is a good, really good, football team that every statistic shows you why. If we had a combine, would they be as fast or as tall or athletic and run the drills as some of the other teams you face? Maybe not. But that has nothing to do with how good of a football team this team is. They are a dang good football team. The play hard, they take care of the football. They keep the ball away from you, they take the ball from you. It’s a challenge, man. It’s a really big challenge for us.” 

On how Notre Dame approaches its deep trove of special teams fakes 

“Marty is a creative mind. Sometimes I got to reel him back and say, ‘Hold on, Marty. We can’t do that.’ But when Marty has conviction on something and he’s able to make me have conviction, OK, let’s do it. like he has been with these last couple fakes. 

“I don’t ever want to be a program that holds back. All in. Every play, every game. And that’s a great challenge because guess what? Now we got to come up with another one. We got to come up with another fake. 

“But I want our players to have that mindset. If I told our players, ‘Hey, this is a great fake. We’re going to hold it for the last game of the year. We’re going to hold it for if we make the playoff’ — What I expect them to do as we get ready to play this next game, like, this is the Super Bowl. This is the Super Bowl. This week vs. Army, Yankee Stadium, is the Super Bowl. And so, if that means we got to come up with a new fake then we will come up with a new fake. But I don’t ever, ever want to hold something back. It’s a great challenge that, guess what, we got to some up with something better. And we got the coaches and the players to do that.” 

On Riley Leonard not running the ball as much vs. Virginia 

“It’s all decision-making. Again, Riley wasn’t put in great situations in some of those third downs to have success. I love that he did keep his eyes downfield. That’s been something we’ve been talking about. Riley always knows he can escape and run. I’m really proud of the way he kept his eyes downfield as he escaped the pocket to throw the ball. Made some really good decisions that way. 

“We know that he can run. We’re going to continue to encourage him to keep his eyes downfield because when defenses know you can run, guess what, the minute you start scrambling those guys usually tend to come up and then there is somebody open down the field. If we can utilize him both we will.” 

On addressing missed assignments in the moment vs. watching back on film 

“If I can give you immediate feedback, I will give you immediate feedback. I will also tell the coaches and the players, it’s just like driving a car. When you’re driving you see a radar or a speedometer, those police radars that show you how fast you’re going, and the minute you see you’re going way above the speed limit, the natural reaction is slow down. That’s what I tell coaches. That’s immediate feedback. That’s what we got to do. If you see something, say something. Don’t wait. 

“Now, there are things you got to see on film that you got to see right there in the moment. Those are things you’ll correct when you gave meetings. But I believe in immediate feedback. And guess what? We’ll double down on that when we go watch it on film. But if I can correct you in the moment, that’s something we’re definitely going to do.

“That’s why I often talk to linebackers that we recruit and say, ‘Man, you got two, maybe three sets of eyes on you.’ I naturally end to go to the linebackers during individual drills. I naturally tend to watch them during defensive drills because that’s what I coach and that’s what I play. I tell recruits, you’re getting immediate feedback. You got two, maybe three sets of eyes on you at all times. I can’t say that about every position. That’s all about how important I think it is to correct them in the moment when you can. And not mess up the flow of practice. I know Golden sometimes or Denbrock will say, ‘Cmon, coach, we got to keep going. Get these reps in.’ I understand that and I’m very aware of that but when you can get a player immediate feedback I think it helps them improve tremendously.” 

On playing in a historical game like Notre Dame vs. Army 

“Oh, it’s an honor. I remember when Jack Swarbrick told me that this was going to be our Shamrock Series game for this year. The first thought was, ‘Navy and Army in the same year? Cmon Jack.’ Then he told me the why. And Jack was such an innovative mind. He never wanted to have a Shamrock Series game just to have it. He said what better opportunity than to have a Shamrock Series game in New York City vs. Army 100 years later after the Four Horsemen were named. I think it’s a great opportunity. 

“Just doing my history, my research on who the Four Horsemen were. I know one of them was from Massillon, which is a shoutout to my wife, she is a Massillon Tiger. Two of them from Ohio. There is a little bit of a connection there with the Four Horsemen. 

“But is an amazing opportunity to play a great program that has a lot of history. It’s a top 25 program. It’s going to be a great challenge on Saturday night.” 

On the cross-country travel the next two weeks

“We’ve known this timeline for quite a while. You got to make certain accommodations when you get back at 3 or 4 in the morning. So, made some changes to the schedule for Sunday as their day off and what we’re going to do on Monday post-Army. And then it’s a unique week, USC week, because it’s Thanksgiving break. Tuesday will be a Tuesday but we kind of made some modifications and things like that for Wednesday through Saturday. It’s been in the plans for a while. We got a great sports performance team. We meet every week. But we’ve thought about this for quite a while.”