Five things Notre Dame coach Marcus Freeman said before the Central Michigan game
Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman spoke to the media for the final time before the Fighting Irish (3-0) take on the Central Michigan Chippewas (1-1) in South Bend on Saturday at 2:30 p.m. ET. Here are five things Freeman said Thursday afternoon.
On not looking ahead to Ohio State
“The challenges of staying in the moment and winning the moment can change based off your opponent. The challenge last week was stop worrying about winning or losing Saturday. Win the moment today. Maybe the challenge is this week the minute you start to drift to Ohio State you win the moment of today. And the same thing will be next week. Don’t worry about Saturday. Win today. That’s ultimately what matters.
“It’s human nature to drift. Your mind drifts. You naturally drift away from what’s important, and that’s right now. It usually tends to drift to things that don’t deserve your attention and shouldn’t deserve your attention. It can be social media, it can be wins, it can be losses, it can be past, it can be future.
“But if we can stay in the present and we can catch ourselves drifting away from the present, we will have more intentionality on our practices, on our meetings, on whatever we are doing at the moment. If we can do that, you’re going to build skill. You’re going to become a better football player as an individual. We’re going to become a better team if our reps are intentional.
“That is the challenge. That’s our opponent — fighting the drift. Fighting anything that distracts us from winning the moments of right now. And then we have to understand, how do we win these moments? What are the things I should be focusing on when I’m in this moment? Myself as a coach, there are certain things when I’m in practice I need to truly make sure my mind is on if I want to be an elite coach. I got to be a great observer. I got to make sure I’m an elite communicator. I got to have the right energy that is needed for that necessary moment.
“I tell the players the same thing. To be an elite coach, your mind has to be focused on the certain things in that moment that it needs to be focused on. And same thing for the players. What do you need to be focused on this play of practice? Where should your mind be in this point of the meeting? If we can stay in the present and win these moments then we’ll get to Saturday when Saturday comes because we will understand Saturday is about winning the interval. Every single rep, we win the interval. And that’s staying in the moment.”
On Notre Dame offensive coordinator Gerad Parker taking a collaborative approach to coaching offense
“Leadership, there are so many different ways to lead. I would say coach Parker is similar to me in terms of leading as a collaborative effort amongst the staff. I do it as a head coach, coach Parker does it as the offensive coordinator. I did it similarly as the defensive coordinator.
“You have to embrace the tremendous minds that are around you. We have great minds on our offensive staff. Great minds on our coaching staff. The ability to take some of those ideas and say, ‘OK, does this fit?’ Everybody has ideas. Everybody has great opinions. True leadership to me is being able to take some of those ideas and say, ‘Can I filter this so it fits what we want to be on offense or be as a football program?’ and the implement it. I love that coach Parker has been able to do that.”
On Notre Dame sports nutritionalist Alexa Appelman
“Alexa has been a tremendous hire for our program. She was at Ole Miss last year. She came here, and, one, the ability to gain the trust of our players. You can be the most intelligent nutritionalist in the world, but if you don’t have the trust of the players they’re not going to maximize the results of that. She has really gained the trust of the players and been able to take some of the feedback to see what each individual needs to really reach their full potential as a person.
“She has brought great ideas. Not just food but in terms of hydration and the entire package of nutrition. Her and her assistant have maximized the results you can have with a great nutrition program.”
On the importance of a strong scout team
“We made it a big deal in our meeting that Devan [Houstan] won scout team player of the week twice. I’ve had a couple guys walk in my office and say, ‘What do i have to do to win scout team player of the week?’ I said, ‘You got to impress the coaches that you’re going against. Those are the ones that vote and tell me who scout team player of the week is.’ So we try to create that competitive desire to want to be recognized but also it has to be important.
“If you don’t watch it as a coach with your players, if they’re not held accountable for their performance on scout team, then really you won’t maximize the results of what you can get. Those scout team guys have to understand how important it is that we get a great look.
“I love to use the story, they said Tom Brady one time was in practice and he stopped and said, ‘I’m not going to go against an unprepared scout team of players and coaches.’ That is the standard that our entire program has set. The scout team players and coaches have to take as much ownership as the guys that are traveling. We love that because it’s going to make the offense and defense better but also it gives us the chance to really develop the scout team.”
On Jason Onye being a part of the Notre Dame punt shield
“Two of those three players are defensive players with Onye and Junior [Tuihalamaka]. We were looking for bigger bodies that have some athleticism in this new system under coach [Marty] Biagi, and they’ve done a really good job of owning that and really at excelling at it in practice and the games.”
