WATCH: Is Notre Dame poised to make a run to the College Football Playoff?

In a weekly YouTube live show, Blue & Gold’s Tim Hyde and Mike Singer discuss and react to the latest news and notes in the world of Notre Dame football and recruiting.

The guys spent a bulk of the show reacting to a wild week in college football that was a net positive from a Notre Dame perspective. Are the Irish poised to make a run to the College Football Playoff? Could they even host a game? The guys discussed that, looked at play calling trends under Mike Denbrock and more.

The show aired live on the Blue & Gold YouTube page Monday at 8 p.m. ET. Watch a replay of this week’s show in the video player below.

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Everything Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman said in Week 7 (Stanford) press conference

Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman addressed local reporters Monday afternoon. The Irish are getting set to take on Stanford at 3:30 p.m. ET on Saturday in South Bend.

Here’s everything Freeman had to say.

Opening statement

“We last met after the Louisville game. So, since then, just recapping that game. It’s a big win for our program. Really proud of the way the coaches and the players handled the highs and lows of what a college football game tends to present. We’ve really looked at and evaluated and said, ‘How do we eliminate the lows?’ Like, that’s the challenge. When I think of lows, the turnovers, negative yardage plays on offense. 

“Defensively, continue to eliminate some of the big plays and stopping the run and we really attacked a lot of those issues during the bye week. And I always tell our coaches and our players we have to have a process to eliminating and fixing issues. And number one, we’ve got to own it. Then we have to come put together a plan to attack it and really attack it to fix it in practice. We have to continue to enhance the things we did well in that game and have done well in the season. We won the battle of field position by seven yards and won the turnover margin. And when you face a good opponent, those two factors are critical to having success. But it was a really good team win, and a lot of positives from all three phases. 

“Players of the game was Jeremiyah Love on offense and defensively, was Xavier Watts and on special teams, it was Max Hurleman and the scout players a week were Justin Fisher on offense, Isaiah Dunn on defense and Teddy Rezac on special teams. Our focus for the bye week was No. 1, we had to improve. We have to improve as a team, and that’s improving our fundamentals to improve at the tactical execution of what we’re doing and improve on some of the unforced errors that we’ve committed during the game. 

“The second thing I want to do is make sure we prepare for upcoming opponents. Offensively, we continued to prepare for Stanford. Defensively, we prepared for Stanford and also took a minute to work on some triple-option stuff, as we know we have Navy in a couple of weeks and Army following that, and we had to recover. Our guys were banged up, and we had to be smart in terms of how we prepared and improve, but also actually recover at the same time. 

“So, a couple injury updates. Boubacar Traore will be out for the year with a torn left ACL. Questionable for the upcoming game is Cooper Flanagan with a foot, Gabriel Rubio with his foot. He’s feeling good, but his role is still to be determined, so he’s questionable for this game. And then Billy Schrauth with his foot is still questionable for this game. Probable, expected to play would be Jordan Faison and his ankle, Josh Burnham and Christian Gray, A couple other updates: Sam Pendleton will be full go. He ended up having a concussion late in the game versus Louisville, but he’s back and expected to go. 

“Ashton Craig had surgery on Friday with Dr. [Brian] Ratigan to repair his ACL. Brauntae Johnson is in the return-to-participation phase but still a few weeks away to being able to help our team. Then CJ Carr, he was injured in practice a couple of weeks ago and has just some elbow soreness, so really just trying to focus on some other areas of improvement for him as he goes through rehab. Other than that, no other injuries.

“Just turning the page of Stanford, a rivalry game, playing for the Legends Trophy. It’s an important rivalry for our program. Obviously, two years ago, they came in here and they beat us, and last year, in the second quarter, we were down, I think, 14 to 13, at one point. So, we really have to prepare. It’s a team that has some injuries… That offensively is so multiple in what they’ve done, and what they’ve shown on film, and then defensively, really pride themselves on stopping the run, is going to force you to try to take some shots. So, another challenging opponent to prepare for and a rivalry game that we’re only looking forward to playing in Notre Dame Stadium. So with that, open up for questions.”

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