Three things Notre Dame football coach Marcus Freeman said before Pitt
Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman spoke to the media for the final time before his No. 14 Fighting Irish (6-2) get back on the field Saturday following their bye week. Notre Dame hosts Pitt (2-5) at 3:30 p.m. ET Saturday.
Here are three things Freeman said in his Thursday press conference.
On the Notre Dame running back room working together
“It always starts with trust. The connection that Coach [Deland] McCullough must have with the guys in the room, they trust the decisions we make as a coaching staff and that he makes as running backs coach are in the best interest of Notre Dame but also with his players. So it starts with that. I always believe the foundation of any strong room starts with trust.
“But two, it’s a credit to the unselfishness of those guys. You have a lot of talented running backs that have continued to develop. The skill set has continued to develop. But they’re unselfish. And they’re willing to, whoever’s in the game, that’s what’s best for our team. They take advantage of their opportunities and maybe don’t count every rep. Make your reps count but don’t count every rep. I’m really pleased with that room.”
On Notre Dame men’s soccer goalie Bryan Dowd using Freeman’s ‘one play, one life’ slogan on his gloves
“It’s reaffirming as a head coach and a leader that the culture you’re trying to permeate through your team is continuing to work. We always say it goes from paper, to head to heart. What we say on the walls, ‘One play, one life,’ it goes from the walls to your head to your heart. For Bryan to use that in the sport of soccer, it truly tells me that he believes in that culture. He believes in that saying of ‘one play, one life.’ So it’s really pleasing to hear.”
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On what he was looking for from his team the last two weeks after a big win and a bye week
“As you look back to last week, we wanted to get better but also wanted to make sure our guys are fresh and coming back from this bye week mentally and physically ready to roll. The challenge for me was to create some friction. We had to make it difficult. We practiced Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday which isn’t typical. We usually do a walk-through on Monday. But we practiced on Monday. And we got after them on Tuesday and Wednesday. We had some really good practices.
“We weren’t perfect. We wanted to create that friction that it takes to grow. We had to grow as a team this week. I challenged our coaches, I challenged myself that we have to do good on good. We have to get in some challenging situations. So I was really pleased, I just told the staff, of how these three practices went and where we’re at right now as we head into Thursday, Friday and Saturday. We got to continue to smooth out the details to get ready to go on Saturday.”
