Everything Notre Dame coach Marcus Freeman said on College Football Live

Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman sat down with Sam Acho and Kelsey Riggs of ESPN’s College Football Live on Thursday. Here’s everything Freeman said.

On preparing to play Navy in Ireland on Aug. 26

“The fortunate thing is you’ve had a lot of NFL teams, a lot of other teams that have done it. You can make some phone calls and say, ‘What did you change in terms of when you leave, how you started camp?'”

“We came up with a great plan, and I feel really good about it. Then, something funny happened. I went to Hawaii for about eight nights about two weeks ago with my family, and we took the redeye back. What it did was give me a real-life experience of what our players would feel like when we leave on a Wednesday night and land there on a Thursday morning. So I kind of tweaked the plan a little bit just through my own experience.

“I’m looking forward to it. We’re looking forward to a challenge and playing Navy in Week 0. But there are some logistical challenges that we have to prepare for.”

On what makes Notre Dame special

“The pride. The history. The tradition. Sometimes you think about that and you think, ‘Boring.’ But it’s so special. I didn’t know that until I got here. I had the same perception as other people. ‘Oh, it’s a great football school. Tradition, Catholic.’ Then you get here and you see the pride that the Notre Dame network has. The people who have come through this place. That’s what makes it special. There is a lot of pride in the football program but also in the university itself.”

On what he learned from an 0-2 start in 2022

“I think most importantly you learn that it’s not as easy as you think it might be. To start out the season 0-2, you lose a tough one to Ohio State but then you lose one to Marshall. It makes you kind of question everything you’re doing. I’ve said this before, but everybody says trust the process. At that point, you have to fix the process.

“As I look back on that time now, you go 9-4, you look back to that Marshall game and especially that Stanford game and you’re really grateful that it happened. Nobody wants to lose, but the most growth we had came after those losses. You don’t want to have to go through those as I said earlier, but I’m grateful we did. I think we’re all better.

“There are going to be other tough trials and tribulations in the future, but it takes some of those difficult moments to truly grow. I look forward to hopefully trying to grow from wins and close wins than a tough loss.”

On what keeps him up at night ahead of the 2023 Notre Dame season

“Well sometimes I’ve got a four-year-old that comes and hops in the bed and doesn’t want me and my wife to get much rest. Obviously you want to take care of your family at home. But, for me, it’s giving our program and and our players the best chance to have success. That’s what keeps you up at night. Did me specifically, did I do everything in my power to make sure this team is prepared for the 12 guaranteed opportunities that we get. Because that’s what it’s all about. We train all these days a year. We practice so many times for 12 guaranteed opportunities. I want to make sure I give this group of men the best opportunity to have success.”

On fishing with Irish QB Sam Hartman

“He’s a good fisherman. Now, when we were together he didn’t catch a fish. The minute we leave, I get a picture from him saying, ‘Hey coach, look at this big fish I caught.’ I said, ‘Listen man, if you can’t do it under pressure then I don’t know if you’re going to be the right guy.’ But he loves to fish. He comes over to our house a lot in South Bend and fishes. The guy loves to fish.

“As the head coach you’re asked to do a lot of speaking requirements. I go and speak at a lot of Notre Dame networks and Notre Dame clubs. The only thing I want to tell our university is, ‘Hey, I want to coincide speaking engagements with professional development.’ Even with a chance to speak in Charleston, South Carolina, I get a chance to go spend a few hours with Sam Hartman and his family at his home. I spoke in Denver and got a chance to meet with the Broncos coaches. I was in Minneapolis and spoke with the Vikings program.

“It’s not always NFL teams, but I want to make sure I’m constantly growing as a leader. There are many different ways to do that. You look at the Kentucky Derby and say, ‘I don’t know how much growth you were doing there.’ I was actually able to sit down with Pete Bevacqua who is going to be our future athletics director at Notre Dame. So we spent some time together there at the Kentucky Derby.”