Five things Notre Dame HC Marcus Freeman said on The Hard Count with J.D. PicKell

Notre Dame head football coach Marcus Freeman joined On3’s JD PicKell on Tuesday morning on PicKell’s YouTube show, “The Hard Count.” Freeman discussed new offensive coordinator Mike Denbrock, the new-look College Football Playoff, revamping the Notre Dame brand and more.

Here’s what Freeman had to say, and here’s the full interview on On3’s YouTube channel.

On new offensive coordinator Mike Denbrock

Part 1 — Denbrock’s trash talk during practice: “No, no [I don’t chirp back], I love it, man. I’m the head coach now, so I get to support him. I was back there, he’s talking a little trash and I started laughing, like, ‘That’s the Denbrock I remember.’ The problem is I used to be on the other side of the field, so he would talk a little trash, I would scream a little bit back to him. But now, man, when the offense has success, I’m the first one rooting for him, so I love it.”

Part 2 — Expectation for Denbrock’s offense: “It was a lot of balls being thrown down the field in our last practice. Denbrock’s not a guy to shy away from taking bombs, taking shots. But also, our core is still going to be able to run the ball. We can’t be a finesse offense. We gotta be able to run the ball and pound it, which is gonna open up some things down the field. But Denbrock’s not shying away from trying to throw the ball over the defenders’ heads, and I’m enjoying seeing that.”

On his biggest learning point from Year 1 to Year 3 at Notre Dame

“I think every year, you learn something different. Year 1, you’re just trying to figure it out. You’re trying to figure out who you are as a head coach. ‘Okay, these are the templates that other people utilize. What do you want to use?’ Year 2 was a big growth on practice structure. ‘Okay, this was good and this was bad in Year 1 and Year 2.’ The details, man. We had a play that we had 10 guys on the field. How do we go back and make sure things don’t ever happen again?

“Year 3, I’m really taking the mindset of being the best version of me. How can I be a better head coach? Not just go through the routine of, ‘Okay, here’s spring practice. Here’s what we get ready to do,” but challenging myself to grow as an individual. What I think will help our entire team be led better, me being a better head coach, but I’ve challenged myself and everybody to really, ‘Let’s be the best version of ourselves,’ which, in turn, will help us be a better team.”

On the defense’s leadership approach with several key players returning

“Yeah, you lose a captain in JD Bertrand who’s gonna go to the NFL, and Cam Hart, who was a captain for us. But you got some returning starters that are productive, that are All-Americans. They bring a leadership quality, just because of what they’ve done on the field. My challenge to them is, ‘You gotta be outspoken leaders now. You gotta lead this team.’ They’re competitive dudes. There are some great battles, as you just said, in the one-on-one competitions, those types of things. But ultimately, at the end of the day, the ability to hold others accountable, the ability to make our defense better and our team better is the challenge I have for them all.”

On Notre Dame’s place in the new College Football Playoff format

“Listen, the mindset I have is, we have a bye Week 13. We’re playing 12 games straight, and we get a bye Week 13. There’s two teams in the country that are probably gonna get a bye Week 14 — actually, I know there’s four teams. But the reality is, there’s still going to be plenty of teams that don’t have a bye. There are going to be some teams that play in championship games that are gonna make the playoffs that don’t get a bye. We are guaranteed a bye Week 13. Control the things we can control, and let’s go and take care of the business we can take care of.”

On revamping the Notre Dame brand to ‘make Notre Dame cool again’

“It wasn’t to ‘make Notre Dame cool again.’ I’ve heard a couple people say that, but be authentically you. That’s who I’ve always been, and that’s what I want this program to be. We can have high standards, high expectations, treat people with respect and still be ourselves. If the result of that is, ‘You know what, we made Notre Dame cool again,’ I love it. That’s not what I wake up every day and hope for, but I think the result of being a better version of ourselves, being who we are, celebrating these distinctions that we have at Notre Dame, at the end of the day it will make us cool again. And it’s helping us in recruiting.”