Everything Notre Dame coach Marcus Freeman said on SportsCenter with Scott Van Pelt

Notre Dame coach Marcus Freeman went on SportsCenter with late-night host Scott Van Pelt on Wednesday night to talk lessons from last season, conference realignment and more.

Here’s everything the second-year Irish coach said on Van Pelt’s show.

Scott Van Pelt: How much can the Navy game shape the season’s trajectory?

Marcus Freeman: “It’s the most important. I don’t wanna give coaches talk, but it is the most important game that we have. We get 12 guaranteed opportunities, and our attention is squarely on the Naval Academy. We know it’ll be a tough challenge, and our guys are excited for the opportunity to play Navy in Dublin, Ireland.”

SVP: Being a head coach might be like reading a book about skiing and watching a video where someone skis down a mountain. You can do all that, but then you’re the guy on top of the mountain and you gotta get to the bottom. What lessons from last year helped the most?

Freeman: “It’s funny you said skiing. My wife talked me into going skiing this past winter, and it’s exactly like you said. It was a bumpy road, as we call it. And at some point I needed to tell the instructor, ‘Let me figure this thing out.’ And that is a parallel to what it’s like in your first season of coaching. You can look at every blueprint, you can have every former coach try to give you an opinion. But until you actually go and do it, there’s challenges that you don’t know on the horizon.”

“I’ve been so fortunate that we got through that first year and we learned a lot. As you go into year two, now you have the experience. I don’t have every experience that maybe some of the people I’m going to face have gone through, but that one year has been so valuable for myself to lead this program.”

"As you go into year two, now you have the experience. I don’t have every experience that maybe some of the people I’m going to face have gone through, but that one year has been so valuable for myself to lead this program.”@Marcus_Freeman1 | @notthefakeSVP#GoIrish☘️ pic.twitter.com/3mhE2nqg3n

— Notre Dame Football (@NDFootball) August 17, 2023

SVP: How did you keep the outside noise quiet at a job like Notre Dame?

Freeman: “I think you have to truly try to block out the noise. And I tell my players and I tell myself that we, I, control the volume of the noise. You’re very cautious of what you read, you’re very cautious of what you listen to, and you spend so much time really diving into the issues you have to fix. I know there’s a lot of noise outside these walls, but everything in my power has to be to help this team really reach its full potential.

SVP: With a new quarterback in Sam Hartman who’s done it before, how do you create the bonds to be a true team come fall?

Freeman: “I think the first thing, Scott, is you have to investigate the type of person you’re bringing into your program. Every transfer that we brought in here, we did a deep dive and said, ‘Will this person fit in our locker room?’ And Sam’s a great example. He’s the ultimate teammate, and that’s what he wants to be first. He came in here and he tried to earn the trust of the players that are around him. And then you saw his natural leadership abilities take over. He was recently named a captain, only being here six or seven months, and he was voted a captain by his teammates. So that is a reflection of the trust and the leadership that he’s earned amongst his teammates.”

SVP: What has the chatter at Notre Dame and amongst the coaching fraternity been like with so much conference realignment uncertainty?

Freeman: “I’m in constant communication with our athletic director, Jack Swarbrick, who’s done an unbelievable job of positioning Notre Dame, our football program, in a place that is extremely well-positioned amongst college football. We love our independence, and we love our ability to make the playoffs, to make sure we maximize the financial gains you can have in college football, but also to remain independent. At some point, we may be forced to join a conference, but I think right now we are extremely happy with our position of independence and our relationship with the ACC. And so I think we’re in great hands, and we’ll continue to be in a great position.”

SVP: When you run out of the tunnel, what is that emotion of that moment like?

Freeman: “I think part of you is that competitive spirit. Those bubbles, man, no matter if you’re a player or you’re a coach before you get ready to take the field and take on the opponent. But the other half of me is realizing how fortunate and blessed I am to be in this position. I love these players dearly, but that competitive spirit, those competitive juices that start flowing inside of you as you get ready to take on an opponent, there’s nothing like that feeling.”